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WRTI's NPR Live Sessions Video of the Week: Pianist Victor Gould Plays "Ascension"

Pianist Victor Gould in the WRTI Performance Studio

Pianist Victor Gould took a shine to the piano at age four and has been sparkling on the keyboards ever since. Born in Los Angeles, Victor's piano virtuosity has made waves in New York’s renowned jazz scene and beyond. After obtaining degrees as one of the initial recipients of the Herbie Hancock Presidential Scholarship at Berklee College of Music and at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, he launched his career as a a notable pianist, composer, and arranger.

Victor's debut album, Clockwork, was voted #1 Debut Jazz album in NPR Music's 2016 Jazz Critics Poll. In 2018, the pianist dropped his sophomore album, Earthlings, and is on the eve of the release of his 2020 offering, Thoughts Become Things.

The acclaimed pianist has been featured in engagements or recordings with Wallace Roney, Esperanza Spalding, Branford Marsalis, Terri Lyne Carrington, Donald Harrison, Jazzmeia Horn, Jeremy Pelt, Louis Hayes, Vincent Herring, Eric Alexander and more. His consummate skill as a player and bandleader is in the forefront of this Live Sessions performance of "Ascension" featuring Tamir Shmerling on bass and Anwar Marshall on drums.

In the liner notes of Thoughts Become Things, Victor muses: “I’ve been thinking recently about how we manifest our own future, and how our thoughts mold our reality, both negative and positive...The simplest rule is just to be kind to everyone and think positively.”

Pianist, composer, and arranger Victor Gould plays "Ascension" in the WRTI 90.1 Performance Studio

Bobbi I. Booker is an award-winning multimedia journalist and radio personality whose velvety voice has been a mainstay in the Delaware Valley for over two decades. She can be heard on Spirit Soul Music, Sundays from 6 to 9 a.m., and Jazz Through the Night, weeknights from 12 midnight to 6 a.m.