Vijay Iyer is a pioneering jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader who has been at the cutting edge of music for the better part of two decades. His music draws deeply from his Indian heritage and extensive classical training, but he has displayed great range and risk-taking in his output, including a range of musical collaborations and genre-defying albums. He has won numerous Grammy nominations, a Guggenheim fellowship, a MacArthur Fellowship, and the artist residency at Harvard Radcliffe Institute. Iyer is also renowned as an educator, administrator, and cultural theorist, involved in a range of projects from Harvard to the Rutgers University Institute of Jazz Studies. He is currently a professor of music at Harvard.