BIO

Dan Zemelman began learning piano at age 5, playing primarily classical music.  As a teenager, he developed a passion for jazz.  He studied with Richard Davis at the UW Madison and received the award as 'Best Jazz Artist' at UW Madison in 1996.  In 1998 as part of the Kennedy Center’s prestigious Jazz Ambassadors program, Zemelman toured India and Sri Lanka, representing America’s jazz tradition through teaching and performances.  After moving from Chicago to the Bay Area in 2001, he contributed to John Lee Hooker’s last studio album Face to Face and toured South America with daughter Zakiya Hooker's band.  Zemelman currently plays regularly with the bay area's great bassist/composer Marcus Shelby as well as his own quartet featuring Mike Bordelon on bass, Erik Jekabson on trumpet (toured with Jon Mayer) and Greg Wyser Pratte (tours with blues artist, Dave Specter) on drums.  The Dan Zemelman quartet has performed at Yoshi’s Oakland for three consecutive years, including a successful CD release party in 2009. That same year, he played a concert for SF Jazz's Summerfest series and received an honorary position as an alternate band for Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rhythm Road 2010 music abroad program.

Zemelman has a strong teaching career as well and has been on faculty at Jazzcamp West for 3 years and on faculty at the Jazzschool - Berkeley for 5 years as a teacher, master class technician and accompanist.  

In 2010, Dan had some very notable performances, teaming up with Grammy award winning violinist, Mads Tolling (of Turtle Island String Quartet), to perform for the Prince and Princess Of Denmark at the Danish Embassy in Washington, D.C.  Dan also performs with vibraphonist Christian Tamburr  (Julio Iglesias, Cirque De Soleil), touring with Christian's quartet.  From time to time Dan can also be seen performing with the Modesto Symphony Orchestra - Pop's concerts.