A native of Seattle, WA, jazz pianist and accordionist Carmen Staaf has performed internationally at the Festa do Jazz do Teatro Sao Luiz in Lisbon, Portugal, the Panama Jazz Festival, the KlezMORE Festival in Vienna, the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland and the North Sea Jazz Festival in The Netherlands, and at the Concurso de Jovenes Jazzistas (Young Jazz Musicians Contest) in Havana, Cuba. As a winner of the 2004 IAJE Sisters in Jazz Competition, she performed at the 2005 IAJE Conference in Long Beach, California and the Kennedy Center Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival.
Carmen has worked with Bob Brookmeyer, George Garzone and Stefon Harris, and has shared the stage with other musical greats including Dave Liebman, Rufus Reid and Ernestine Anderson. She leads her own group, which recently recorded, and co-leads the Staaf Quartet, which recorded its eponymous debut in 2004. She recently also recorded with trumpeter Peter Kenagy, and will be touring the West Coast in August with a quartet featuring Josh Deutsch (trumpet), Kendall Eddy (bass) and Brian Adler (drums). She performs with the Ayn Inserto Jazz Orchestra, Michael Winograd, Isle of Klezbos, Metropolitan Klezmer, and Susan Watts and the Fabulous Shpielkehs. Carmen recorded with the New Jewish group Khevre on its debut album "Oyfn Sheydveg" and with Richie Barshay (drummer for Herbie Hancock, Kenny Werner) on "Homework". Carmen's compositions and arrangements have been performed by pianist Ran Blake and the Seattle Women's Jazz Orchestra, as well as being featured on the Staaf Quartet recording.Carmen is currently a faculty member at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she teaches private piano lessons and keyboard labs as a member of the piano department. She studied at the New England Conservatory with Danilo Perez and Bob Brookmeyer and has been coached by James Moody, Johnny Griffin, David Baker, and George Cables. She spent six months studying and performing in Cuba and is well versed in many Caribbean and South American genres. While a student at the New England Conservatory, Carmen simultaneously completed a degree in anthropology at Tufts University.
