The DeChamplain/Anick Quartet

Hartford Public Library’s highly-popular Baby Grand Jazz Series returns for its 19th season in 2022 with a spectacular line-up of the best jazz musicians in the region. If you can’t make it in person, tune in virtually on Hartford Public Library’s Facebook Page or YouTube channel.

The collaboration of Hartford-based pianist Matt DeChamplain and Boston-based violinist Jason Anick started as a tribute to the great Stephane Grappelli and Oscar Peterson. It soon blossomed into a quartet that plays works by various composers such as Horace Silver, Hank Mobley and John Coltrane and original compositions that explore the sonic depths of this unique instrumentation. At 16 years old, Matt was a featured guest in two concerts with jazz legend Dave Brubeck at the same piano. He has performed at venues across the United States such as the Monterey Jazz Festival, Greater Hartford Festival of Jazz, Birks Jazz Festival, New York’s JVC Jazz Festival, the Berklee Jazz Festival, The Kennedy Center and Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has played at renowned jazz clubs such as The Regatta Bar, Smalls, Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, The Met Room and Yoshi’s and has played in Europe and the Caribbean. He has been both a sideman and a leader in ensembles that opened for Wynton Marsalis, Hank Jones, Dave Brubeck and The Duke Ellington Orchestra. In 2008, Matt was selected for the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Program at The Kennedy Center under the direction of Dr. Billy Taylor which allowed him to study with Taylor, Curtis Fuller and Winard Harper for two weeks. In 2010, he competed in the Martial Solal Jazz Piano Competition in Paris and in 2018, he was selected as a runner-up in the Great American Jazz Piano Competition in Jacksonville, Florida.