![Sullivan Fortner sitting in front of a brown upright piano, wearing a grey vest and pants, white shirt, and red tie](https://humanities-web.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/chicagopresents/prod/styles/image_event_image_large/s3/2021-02/Sullivan_Fortner_Piano_0.jpg?itok=OXk451D0)
$15 | Free for UChicago Students
This concert premieres at 7 pm CDT on Friday, April 30 and will be available until 11:59 pm CDT on Sunday, May 2.
A longtime collaborator of the late Roy Hargrove, pianist and New Orleans native Sullivan Fortner is one of those rare musicians who simultaneously preserves tradition and evolves the sound. Whether a bandleader or sideman, in small combos or with a whole orchestra, Fortner engages harmony and rhythmic ideas through curiosity and clarity, bringing a freshness to standards and ingenuity to his original compositions.
In a special streaming performance recorded during the 2020 COVID pandemic, Fortner matches nostalgia with a hunger for progress, pairing his own original works with classic selections from the Great American Songbook.