Since their debut at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in 1996, the duo of Darrell Grant and Dmitri Matheny have been taking listeners on an inspired musical journey exploring the lyricism, swing, & the soul of songs from the jazz tradition and recasting music from the classical tradition. They have appeared together on major concert stages across the United States, have been featured at the Monterey, Telluride, and San Francisco jazz festivals, and performed to sold out houses at New York's Saint Peter's Church and San Francisco’s Palace of the Legion of Honor.

Blending the intimacy of chamber music with the playful, spontaneous spirit of American jazz, the classically-trained duo explores a broad repertoire that includes arrangements of Negro spirituals; classical repertoire by Samuel Barber and Bach; lesser known tunes from Ellington and Monk; pieces by contemporary composers like Keith Jarrett and Sting, as well as their own original compositions. Their summer "Salon Concert' tours have taken them throughout Oregon, Washington, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and California, and included performances at concert venues such as The Athenaeum in La Jolla, Redland’s Bowl, Lake Tahoe’s Brewery Arts Center and Birmingham Alabama’s Workplay. Grant and Matheny’s explorations of “chamber jazz” have also led to collaborations with classical chamber ensembles including standing-room only performances with the Del Sol Quartet at the prestigious Yoshi’s Jazz club and San Francisco’s Palace of the Legion of Honor; concerts with Bella Musica, a Bay-area chamber quartet featuring flute, violin, viola and cello, and performances with Portland’s Magnolia Chamber Ensemble.

In addition to responding to the duo’s music, audiences enjoy Grant and Matheny’s personable and entertaining style of presentation. In spicing their performances with personal stories, impromptu vocal riffs, and playful camaraderie, Grant and Matheny feel themselves inheritors of a legacy that reaches back to the days of vaudeville, following in the footsteps of performers like Williams and Walker, and Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake, as well as the famous jazz duos of Louis Armstrong/Earl Hines, and Mitchell and Ruff. The latter duo Grant and Matheny cite as a particular inspiration because of their groundbreaking explorations of classical as well as jazz repertoire.

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Grant & Matheny Duo Photo Gallery