HOLD MY POCKET

John Lander is a pianist, multi-instrumentalist, performer, producer, composer, arranger, musical director and film-maker, born and raised in Brooklyn. For over a decade, he has led an incredibly eclectic career, touching on virtually every aspect of the musical art form. Beginning as a teenager in his native New York City as a jazz and improvisational pianist, John’s career now spans the globe as a critically acclaimed and internationally in-demand artist, with extensive touring and concert experiences at major venues, cultural institutions and stages throughout the United States, Africa and Europe. An artist with a high capacity to create works across all styles and genres, John has worked with internationally renowned artists of all mediums, including Grammy winning musicians, Broadway performers, prima ballerinas, operatic divas, jazz icons, pop sensations and rap legends- with domestic and international composer and producer credits in film, television, dance, and theater.

On the academic side, John Lander has spent years working at many prestigious institutions including the Juilliard School, Columbia University/Barnard College, New York University Tisch School of the Arts, Dance Theater of Harlem, the Opera de Lyon, Ballet Hispanico, Martha Graham Dance Company, Paul Taylor, and the Limon Company, to name only a few. A long-time collaborator with dancers and choreographers in the US and throughout Europe, John is often commissioned as a composer for domestic and international dancers and dance companies.

Known for being an extremely social person, John has spent much of his career focusing on collaborative and community oriented work. For five years in his early twenties, John hosted a popular weekly jam session at the iconic Caffe Vivaldi in the West Village, and has continued to host other well-known and recurring sessions in New York. Between 2017 and 2020, John founded and led Liberated Artist Collective, a diverse collective of NYC based and international artists of varying disciplines collaborating to create community events, artistic projects, and educational content. The general objective was to further member artists’ careers individually and collectively through supportive and self-generative group structures, and the collective put on several events and performances during its time. In 2021, he co-founded trippy.studio with fellow co-founder and friend Shah A. Ullah; a community art space and production studio located in Gowanus, Brooklyn. During its existence, trippy.studio produced several original films, ranging from live concert recordings, to art performances, to interviews. trippy.studio as a physical location served as a cultural hub, producing events for and with local artists and members of the community at no cost to them, and even worked with high-school student interns who learned basics of coding, event production, and mixed media. During this time, John honed his videography skills, and was responsible directing, editing, and producing films, in addition to curating events and performances in the space. John continues to shoot and produce videos for himself and clients alike, and has been working on producing a small documentary series detailing the lives of the artists he meets during his travels.

Driven by a love of people, learning, and new experiences, John has shaped his career to satisfy his desire to become a well-rounded and thorough musician and person. He currently is based between New York City and Lyon.