Multifaceted jazz pianist and composer Emmet Cohen is one of this generation’s pivotal artistic figures. Downbeat praised the “nimble touch, measured stride and warm harmonic vocabulary” he employs to communicate with other musicians and audiences at what he terms “the deepest level of humanity and individuality.”
Leader of the “Emmet Cohen Trio,” Cohen is an international jazz artist and clinician who inspires student performers of all ages to become, like himself, responsive to their audiences. He has appeared in the Newport, Monterey, and North Sea jazz festivals, among others, and at many famous music venues, including Rose Hall and the Kennedy Center. Cohen has also played in legendary nightspots, such as the Village Vanguard, the Blue Note, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, Birdland, Jazz Standard, Ronnie Scott’s, and Jazzhaus Montmartre. He is Hammond B-3 organist-in-residence at Harlem’s SMOKE jazz club. A Suzuki piano student at age 3, Cohen holds jazz piano degrees from the Manhattan School of Music (M.M.) and the University of Miami (B.M.).
He was a finalist in both the American Pianists Association’s Cole Porter Fellowship (2015, 2011) and the Thelonious Monk International Piano Competition (2011). Cohen has performed or collaborated with Ron Carter, Benny Golson, Jimmy Cobb, George Coleman, Jimmy Heath, Tootie Heath, Houston Person, Christian McBride, Kurt Elling, Billy Hart, Herlin Riley, Lea DeLaria, and Bill T. Jones.