Book a concert
Jazz Meets Jewish
An Unforgettable Night of Song and Inspiration
Many speakers come with slides. I come with a piano.
A 75-minute interactive concert and storytelling experience: live jazz, niggunim, personal stories, humour and improvisation woven into an exploration of Jewish identity, creativity, Geulah, and the unique light each person can bring into the places only they can reach.
The evening
From Reform to Chassidic, with jazz the whole way through.
When Dan Berry left LA to study music at Princeton, the last thing he expected was for jazz to become part of a much bigger journey from Reform to Chassidic Jew.
From discovering a spiritual calling in music after 9/11, to years of learning in Eretz Yisrael, to the challenge of figuring out how to remain fully observant without walking away from the musical world he loved, Dan's path eventually led him to a new question:
What if the tension between Jewish life and your individuality is where your deepest contribution begins?
Unlike a typical speaker with slides, Dan comes with a piano. We're just going to flow with it and see what happens — which is why no two evenings unfold quite the same way.
The arc of the night
Seventy-five minutes. Three acts.
Act I
Where I came from.
Reform kid, LA, a piano. Jazz arrives as something closer to a spiritual calling than a career — and then 9/11 happens, and the question of what the music is actually for stops being abstract.
Act II
How I got here.
Princeton, then two years learning in Eretz Yisrael. A yellow jacket at Selichos in 770. Keeping Shabbos meant walking away from jazz almost entirely, because Dan couldn't picture showing up in those rooms as an observant Jew. Years later he hears niggunim floating around Las Vegas, played by people who aren't Jewish at all.
Act III
What the story means.
Possibility, Geulah, creativity, improvisation. Everyone has access to people, places and rooms nobody else can reach. The tension between Jewish life and your own individuality isn't the problem — it's where your deepest contribution starts.
The music carries the story rather than decorating it — a standard like East of the Sun for Princeton, a niggun for Eretz Yisrael, improvisation for everything still unresolved.
How it runs
Seventy-five minutes, then the real part.
The concert runs about 75 minutes, with a meet-the-artist schmooze built in straight afterwards. Dan stays — farbrenging, answering the questions people were too shy to ask in front of a crowd. That's where the night stops being a performance and becomes a connection.
If someone in the room is wrestling with how an observant life and their own creative work fit together, this is the part of the evening they'll remember. Dan's invitation from the stage is simple: come find me when we wrap here.
Built for
Jewish communities who want more than a recital.
- Synagogues
- Chabad houses
- Jewish federations
- Hillel chapters
- JCCs & cultural centers
- Day schools & yeshivas
- Donor & lay-leader events
- Shabbatons & scholar-in-residence weekends
It's just as comfortable opening a federation campaign event, anchoring a synagogue's arts series, or closing a Chabad-house retreat. Communities book it when they want their members inspired rather than lectured.
Practical
The things you're about to ask.
- How long is the evening?
- Seventy-five minutes of concert and storytelling, with a meet-the-artist schmooze built in straight afterwards. We can shape the run time around your program.
- Is this a concert or a talk?
- Both, and neither. Many speakers come with slides — Dan comes with a piano. The stories are punctuated by live jazz, niggunim and improvisation, and the room's reactions change where it goes, so no two evenings unfold the same way.
- What kind of room does this work in?
- Sanctuaries, social halls, salons, atriums, campus lounges. Anywhere with a piano (or where we can bring one) and an audience of 30–500. The format scales gracefully up and down.
- Do you provide the piano and sound?
- Dan plays whatever you have, and if you don't have one we'll coordinate a rental together. Sound reinforcement can be arranged when needed — the requirements are simple, and Dan will walk your team through them.
- How do we book?
- Use the button on this page or write Dan directly. Plan on 6–12 weeks of lead time for the best calendar windows; travel is worked out per event.
Ready when you are
Let's give your community a night they keep.
Tell Dan a little about your community, the date you're eyeing, and what you're hoping the night feels like. He writes back personally.
Start the conversation ›