Bob Hallahan

Since beginning his career as a jazz pianist in 1975, Bob Hallahan has been heard across the country and around the world, in concerts, nightclubs and jazz festivals from East Coast to West and as far as Beijing, China, where he toured as part of a cultural exchange sponsored by United Airlines.

Bob has appeared as a featured solo pianist at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and as a sideman in groups led by jazz luminaries such as saxophonists Joe Henderson, James Moody, Lou Donaldson, Arthur Blythe, Clifford Jordan and Bud Shank, trumpeters Clark Terry and Freddie Hubbard, trombonist Conrad Herwig, guitarist Pat Metheny and singers Anita O'Day, Sheila Jordan, and Rene Marie. His performance with Sheila Jordan at Burlington, Vermont's Discover Jazz Festival has been broadcast several times on National Public Radio's Jazz Set, hosted by Branford Marsalis. Other festival and club appearances include the East Coast Jazz Festival, Clifford Brown Jazz Festival, Blues Alley and The One Step Down in Washington, D.C., Zinno and the Jazz Standard in New York, The Deer's Head Inn in Pennsylvania, and Le Club in Moscow, Russia, where Bob appeared as part of a ten-day tour with Rene Marie. Since 1997 he has been the pianist with Robert Jospe and Inner Rhythm, and can be heard on the band's recordings Blue Blaze, Time to Play, Hands On, and Heartbeat.

Jazz writer Joel Siegel of Washington D.C.'s City Paper and Jazz Times magazine describes Bob as a "...thoughtful, lyrical pianist (who) can swing hard when required..." and Owen Cordle of The Raleigh News and Observer found his playing with guitarist Randy Johnston "...reminiscent of Oscar Peterson at his most swinging..." In addition to "Spanning Time" with UVA's Freebridge Quintet, recordings include "I Thought about You" with New England saxophonist Fred Haas (Jazztoons, JT 1002, www.interplayjazz.com), "Invitation to an Escapade" with vocalist Stephanie Nakasian (Chase Music Group, CMD-8060) and "Hands On" with percussionist Robert Jospe, (Random Chance, www.robertjospe.com).

Holding a Bachelor of Music degree from East Carolina University, Bob has taught jazz piano at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville since 1988, where he is a member of the highly acclaimed faculty ensemble, the Free Bridge Quintet. Bob also teaches every summer at Interplay Jazz Camp in New England. In 1990, he took a six-month leave of absence from UVA to assume the post of artist-in-residence at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont.