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The Jazz Vespers at Pound Ridge Community Church is a unique and uplifting musical service that blends the soulful rhythms of jazz.

Join us for an inspiring evening where talented musicians create an atmosphere of spiritual rejuvenation through dynamic jazz performances.

“The best guitar player I’ve heard in maybe my entire life is floating around now, Pasquale Grasso,” said the jazz-guitar icon and NEA Jazz Master. “This guy is doing something so amazingly musical and so difficult. He’s the most significant new guy I’ve heard in many, many years.”

Strong praise for a man who grew up on a farm in Ariano Irpino in the Campania region of Italy. Their bucolic circumstance notwithstanding, Pasquale’s family loved music and, along with his saxophonist older brother Luigi, he was exposed early on to recordings of some of the world’s great music, from Classical to Jazz.

Pasquale's talent would not go unrecognized for long and he found his way to studies with Italian-American guitar master Agostino Di Giorgio and, through him, with the legendary pianist and teacher, Barry Harris (whom our own Pete Malinverni credits for much of his musical and teaching direction). Seeking to further develop his skills at this instrument, Pasquale studied classical guitar, and it’s that work that enables him to ply his unique art, Jazz music informed by the great masters Charlie Parker, Bud Powell etc., but executed in a wholly new technique that astounds listeners worldwide.

Since coming to New York in 2012, Pasquale has become an important presence on the City’s Jazz scene as well as touring extensively. Winner of the Wes Montgomery International Jazz Guitar Competition, he won a Grammy award for his work on “Linger Awhile”, the debut recording of Samara Joy, and has been recognized as Guitarist of the Year in Downbeat magazine’s rising star category.

Pasquale is on the faculty at the SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Music, where his studio continues to draw the very best of young guitarists. And they learn not just the guitar with him, but are also inspired by his continued desire for musical growth. In Pasquale’s own words, “all of the musicians I love are inspiration for me to get new ideas and form my style, because it’s still growing,” Pasquale says. “And it’s gonna be growing until the day I die.”

Pasquale Grasso is a Sony Masterworks recording artist.