Emmet Cohen

At 19, Emmet has been playing piano since he started Suzuki lessons in his native Miami at age 3. By age six he won a Dade County first prize plaque playing a Bach Minuet. He continued studying classical music at a youth keyboard program at the University of Miami, and upon moving to Montclair, NJ at age 10, was accepted into the Manhattan School of Music Precollege Division, where he majored for seven years in classical piano in the studio of Dr. Peter Vinograde. His interest in jazz gradually intensified over these years, and he was fortunate to be exposed to and mentored by some of the great jazz musicians in the New York metropolitan area. He is a 2007 recipient of a New Jersey Governor’s School of the Arts four-week jazz workshop scholarship. In the summer of 2007, he was one of four young pianists selected to participate in the 92nd Street Y Jazz in July Master Class, hosted by Bill Charlap and Ted Rosenthal. In 2008, he won a Downbeat Award as an Outstanding Jazz Soloist. Most recently, Emmet was selected as the pianist to play for the 2008 Gibson/Baldwin GRAMMY Jazz Combo, the 2008 Jazz Band of America (part of the Music for All National Festival), and the Monterey Jazz Festival’s 2008 Next Generation Jazz Orchestra. He was also selected to be a member of the 2009 NFAA Clifford Brown/Stan Getz Fellowship, where he received a silver award. Emmet currently attends the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music studying with Doug Bickel, Shelly Berg, and Greg Gisbert.Emmet is also an accomplished Hammond B3 organ player, and performs frequently in the NY/NJ and Miami areas, as both a leader and a sideman.This summer the Emmet Cohen Trio was featured in multiple performances at the River to River Festival in New York City.