By Gail Greet Hannah
On June 26, 2026 jazz pianist Jason Teborek performed at the Chapel Restoration with The Rob Scheps Core-tet in a masterful concert featuring the music of the legendary saxophonist and composer John Coltrane. While Scheps, an internationally known saxophonist and former Cold Spring resident, has appeared multiple times at the Chapel, Teborek sat down at the Steinway grand for the first time. We caught up with him to find out what brought him to jazz. A child prodigy, he started piano lessons at age six and at 13 won a Yamaha-sponsored young composer competition that earned him two trips to Japan to perform his work. But back in Oregon in middle school band he discovered jazz and fell in love with the music that would become the focus of his career. “I found the improvisational aspect of jazz fascinating,” he says. “Classical music can sound different depending on the interpretation of the performer, but with jazz there’s a completely different structure. In traditional jazz you have a song with chord changes or a harmonic progression. You have the freedom to change some of the chords but you’re always referring to the same song form – to the melody as a source of inspiration and a unifying force.”
Teborek focuses on jazz but happily plays all kinds of music. ”It’s good to be able to play in a lot of styles. I was more of a purist when I was younger but playing different styles of music has made me stronger all around. Whether it’s Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind and Fire, or R&B – you learn to communicate in a different idiom. And I still sit down with The Well-Tempered Clavier to explore the musical genius of Bach for my own enrichment.” He plays jazz in NYC and throughout the tri-state area, subs on Broadway, writes arrangements for singers, has taught at New Jersey City University, where he earned a Master’s in Jazz Performance, recorded with Jazz Master Sheila Jordan, who performed at the Chapel on multiple occasions, and done session work with Scheps among many other jazz artists. The Chapel gig was the first in which they performed together and he hopes it won’t be the last. Of that experience he says, ”That’s a really nice program you have there.”