“This Road,” from the album Passage, was named a WINNER (2nd Prize) in the 2018 International Songwriting Competition. There were over 19,000 entries in the ISC in 2018. Listen to “This Road.”

Dave is a winner in the 2020 ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Awards, run by the ASCAP Foundation. The winning piece, “Break Points,” comes from the 2019 album Passage. See the release in JazzTimes or in NewMusicBox.

Peter Hum of the Ottawa Citizen selects Passage as one of the top five jazz debuts of 2019.

Passage was included in the All Music Guide “Favorite Jazz Albums of 2019”, alongside albums from Joe Lovano, Terri Lyne Carrington, Branford Marsalis and a host of others. “The jazz pianist's engaging debut balances post-bop harmonies with a soulful gospel warmth and contemporary classical sophistication.”

From Robert Ham for DownBeat: “…a great opening salvo for this young bandleader. Meder shows throughout that he has the ability and the style it takes.”

From Ken Micallef for JazzTimes: “…Meder sails through diverse tempos and themes in a manner reminiscent of Oscar Peterson. The pianist’s fingers run circles around his musicians, seeming to leave lofty chemtrail-like spirals in the air.”

“This Road” (featuring Miguel Zenón) from Passage was featured on Jazziz magazine’s New Music Monday series. Read more about the track and listen here.

From Mike Jurkovic for All About Jazz: “…inventing his music freely, bringing honky-tonk, swing, blues, rock-and-roll—in other words a vibrant hybrid of the whole American spectrum—to bear, making for a sparkling debut full of exciting promise.”

S. Victor Aaron at Something Else Reviews features the latest video release from Passage, “The Old Rugged Cross,” filmed at Dizzy’s Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center in February 2018. “…[The Old Rugged Cross] reveals a facet of Meder as that boy playing piano in a church in his native Florida…Regardless of which gear Meder is in, there’s an authenticity to his piano that can’t be schooled.”

Dave is selected as a semi-finalist in the upcoming Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition. See the press release from Nate Chinen (NPR).