Ari Hest

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Ari Hest
Ari Hest 05112011 Saint v2 400.jpg
Hest at The Saint in Asbury Park, New Jersey, May 11, 2011
Background information
Born (1979-06-16) June 16, 1979 (age 46)
New York City, U.S.
Genres Rock, folk, pop
OccupationsSinger-songwriter, musician
InstrumentsGuitar, keyboards, harmonica
Years active1999–present
Labels Columbia, Project 4
Website www.arihest.com

Ari Hest (born June 16, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter from the Bronx borough of New York. [1]

Contents

Early life and education

Hest was born in New York on 16 June 1979. His father, Jeff Hest, plays the horn, used to wrote jingles [2] and is a college music professor. [3] His mother, Lisa Hest is a cantor. [2] [3] His older brother, Danny, was his manager for a time. Hest took piano lessons as a child,[ citation needed ] and later taught himself to play guitar. [4] [3] He also played baseball in high school. [4]

Hest first attended Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, [3] beginning in 1999[ citation needed ] and later transferred to New York University, [3] where he received a degree in communications in 2002.

Career

Hest released an EP, Incomplete and two albums, Come Home and Story After Story all independently as he grew his fan base touring colleges and universities around the U.S.

In March 2004, Hest signed a recording contract with Columbia [3] and recorded the album Someone To Tell and a five-song EP "Guilty Hearts EP" in the fall of 2005. His next EP was called The Green Room Sessions, a home spun recording entirely played and produced on his own. Shortly after releasing that, he worked with producer Mitchell Froom on "The Break-In", which was his last release on Columbia.

As an independent artist once again in 2008, Hest created 52, a subscription based service in which he wrote, recorded and released a new song every week for a year. [5] [6] In 2009, he released Twelve Mondays, a collection of 12 fan-selected songs from those 52, remixed.

Between 2011 and 2014, Hest released three more albums: Sunset Over Hope Street (2011), The Fire Plays (2012) and Shouts and Whispers (2014). [7] Several songs from these albums have appeared in films and TV shows. [7]

In 2016, Ari co-wrote a number of songs with Judy Collins, and the two released an album of duets June 3 entitled Silver Skies Blue , after two years of on-and-off touring together. The album earned Hest his first Grammy Award nomination (it was Collins' first nomination in 40 years). Silver Skies Blue was nominated for Best Folk Album at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards in 2017 but lost to Undercurrent by Sarah Jarosz. This is not Hest's first collaboration - he has two other projects: The Open Sea with Rosi Golan, and more recently, the Brazilian guitar inspired Bluebirds of Paradise with Chrissi Poland.

Discography

Extended plays

Soundtrack and other albums

References

  1. ↑ Fitzpatrick, Heather (March 4, 2013). "Interview & Photos: Ari Hest @ the Triple Door". Back Beat Seattle. Archived from the original on October 16, 2014. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
  2. 1 2 Barron, Nicole (April 11, 2011). "Interview with Ari Hest". The Celebrity Cafe. Archived from the original on October 17, 2014. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Oksenhorn, Stewart (December 14, 2004). "Ari Hest finds – and keeps – his own groove". The Aspen Times. Retrieved January 4, 2026.
  4. 1 2 Gula, Larissa (November 23, 2009). "Ari Hest takes inspiration from family, variety of talents". The Pitt News. Retrieved January 4, 2026.
  5. 1 2 McKee, Jaime (September 12, 2008). "Ari Hest takes on new project, releasing 52 songs in 52 weeks" . Take 5. Asheville Citizen-Times. p. 18. Retrieved January 5, 2026– via newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ Ransom, Kevin (March 3, 2011). "After Year of Frenetic Output, Songwriter Takes Time". The Ann Arbor News. p. D3. Retrieved January 5, 2026.
  7. 1 2 Berndtson, Chad. "Music: Eclectic Ari Hest coming to Scituate". Wicked Local. The Patriot Ledger. Retrieved January 4, 2026. Longtime Hest fans can hear that evolution over the albums he released between 2009 and 2015, including "Twelve Mondays," "Sunset Over Hope Street," "The Fire Plays" and "Shouts and Whispers." A number of Hest song's from this more recent period have been used in movies and TV shows.
  8. ↑ Ransom, Kevin (March 3, 2011). "After Year". The Ann Arbor News. p. D3.

Bibliography

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