An innovative, unusually expressive pianist and eloquent composer, Fred Hersch
has also made a considerable mark as an educator and as jazz's first openly gay,
HIV positive artist, unafraid to voice his opinions, campaigning passionately
and fund-raising for AIDS charities. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio on October 21,
1955, his dramatic life was portrayed in his 2017 autobiography Good Things
Happen Slowly: A Life in and Out of Jazz and the 2016 feature film The Ballad of
Fred Hersch. A child prodigy, he was playing piano by the age of four and
composing his own tunes by the time he w...