Jazz Man

MARKAVERICH LOST HIS SIGHT WHEN HE WAS A baby, but he began playing a toy piano at age 3. He honed his skills with piano lessons at Perkins School for the Blind in Massachusetts, but it wasn’t until his freshman fall at Dartmouth—when a student who lived next door in Streeter Hall played Oscar Peterson’s Night Train album— that jazz “opened my ears up,” he says. “The playing really struck me, and the soul in the playing—this was what I was looking for the whole time.”

Markaverich’s love for jazz grew during his time in Hanover. Although he had never considered a career in music, he started listening

to artists such as Dave Brubeck, Les Mc- Cann and Ramsey Lewis and playing the grand piano in the Hopkins Cen- ter lounge. “I spent many hours practic- ing there, playing pop tunes, whatever I was interested in,” he says. “Some- times I took re- quests. People came in and sat in with me. I’d sit for hours. Sponta- neous kind of stuff.”

It was at that keyboard that he caught the ear of pro- fessor Paul Zeller, who became a mentor as Markaverich decided to pursue a major in music. “I figured I’ve got to go forward with this wherever it takes me,” he says, “be- cause this is what I love.” He took jazz improv classes with visiting musicians Don Cherry and Bob Northern and a jazz appreciation class with Willie Ruff. After graduating with distinction and gaining a master’s in music at the University of New Hampshire, he moved to Cape Cod

to play solo gigs and combos, then to Sarasota, Florida, where he met his wife, Debii, who handles the business side of the music and does the driving. “She is really an integral part of what goes on in my career, and things would have been much more difficult without her,” says Markaverich.

He plays at venues, from nursing homes to lounges, basing his setlist on audience reaction. “I never know ahead of time exactly what I’m going to play,” he says. “I have ideas, but nothing chis- eled in stone. That’s the beauty of play- ing jazz: Every time it can be a different experience.”

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