Jeremy Pelt

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We’re very excited to have Jeremy Pelt back on the SJW faculty! Jeremy is one of the rising stars who not only is a trailblazer in modern jazz, but also works closely with the great legends, respected by the masters as well as by his contemporaries. Forging a bond with the Mingus Big Band early on, Jeremy built upon relationships he forged in the band and with many others, eventually leading to collaborations with some of the greatest masters in jazz. These projects include performances and recordings with Cliff Barbaro, Keter Betts, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Ravi Coltrane, Frank Foster, Winard Harper, Jimmy Heath, Vincent Herring, John Hicks, Charli Persip, Ralph Peterson, Lonnie Plaxico, Bobby Short, Cedar Walton, Frank Wess, Nancy Wilson and The Skatalites, to name just a few.

Jeremy performs with such notable ensembles as the Roy Hargrove Big Band, The Village Vanguard Orchestra, and the Duke Ellington Big Band, and is a member of the Lewis Nash Septet and The Cannonball Adderley Legacy Band featuring Louis Hayes.

As a leader, Jeremy has recorded prolifically, releasing ten albums in ten years. He tours globally with his various ensembles, appearing at many major jazz festivals and concert venues.

Jeremy’s recordings and performances have earned him critical acclaim, both nationally and internationally. He has been featured in the Wall Street Journal by legendary jazz writer and producer, Nat Hentoff, and was voted Rising Star on the trumpet, five years in a row by Downbeat Magazine and the Jazz Journalist Association.

 

Jenny Xu

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Joining the SJW faculty for the first time as a member of the Mentor Fellowship program, Jenny Xu is a Canadian pianist and a graduate of Berklee College of Music (BM ’16), which she attended on full-scholarship, as well as the Manhattan School of Music (MM ’19), which she attended on partial scholarship. She holds a Royal Conservatory of Music ARCT Diploma for Classical Piano Performance, a Bachelor’s Degree in Performance (summa cum laude) and a Master’s Degree in Jazz Arts (summa cum laude). At MSM, Jenny held the piano chair in the institution’s Latin Grammy-nominated Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra both years of her degree in addition to having worked closely with NEA Jazz Master Paquito D’Rivera in his Irakere Combo.

Best known for her work with FRIENDSHIP, her brain-child trio, Jenny’s group boasts a critically acclaimed tour and two albums of her original music: Project Sock Retrieval (October 2020) and Ghost Stories (February 2021). In 2018, she self-released her first two albums as leader: Standards Vol. I and Live at the Silk Purse. Both of which feature Canadian heavyweights André Lachance (bass) and Bernie Arai (drums) as sidemen. 4-time Juno Award winner Campbell Ryga (sax) appears as a guest on her debut album.

Jenny is a recipient of numerous awards and accolades including the MSM Outreach Award (2019), Stingray Rising Star Award (2018), Downbeat Award (2018), Berklee Jazz Performance Award recipient (2016), Dal Richard’s Scholarship (2014), Yamaha Kando Award (2014) and was the first individual ever offered a full renewable scholarship to Humber College in Toronto. She has experience performing at over a dozen music festivals and has had the immense privilege of having worked with Buster Williams, Ingrid Jensen, George Garzone, Eddie Gomez, Kendrick Scott, Dave Liebman, The New York Voices, Paquito D’Rivera and Arturo O’Farrill.

On piano, Jenny has shared the stage with the likes of Harold Mabern and Cándido Camero, in addition to having toured with world-renowned saxophonist, George Garzone. In 2018, she opened for Herbie Hancock at the 2018 TD Ottawa International Jazz Festival as part of the TD Ottawa Youth Summit.

Jeb Patton

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Described as both a “young phenom…on piano” and an “absolute great,” Jeb Patton has earned a well-regarded reputation in the international jazz community. The multi-talented Patton is known as a “player of great expression” and “not one to tread the predictable,” as well as a “simpatico accompanist” for The Heath Brothers, an “innovative” arranger, and one who “cuts…[an] impressive swath on his composition, ‘Hanna’s Mood,’” a tribute to his late teacher, Sir Roland Hanna.

​Jeb Patton graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences degree with a major in music from Duke University, where he studied piano with Tibor Szasz, Douglas Buys, and Jane Hawkins. Studying under Sir Roland Hanna and Jimmy Heath, Jeb earned his Master of Arts degree, summa cum laude, in 1997 from the Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College, City University of New York, where he also received the Louis Armstrong Award for composition from the ASCAP Foundation.

​Since graduating, Jeb has toured throughout the United States and abroad with the Heath Brothers and with Jimmy Heath’s Generations Quintet, performing in theaters, festivals, concert halls, colleges, and clubs. Since moving to New York in 1996, Jeb has also performed with Charles McPherson, The Jimmy Heath Big Band, The Dizzy Gillspie Alumni Big Band, The Dizzy Gillespie All Stars, George Coleman, the Faddis/Hampton/Heath Sextet, James Moody, Jeremy Pelt, Michael Mossman, Lewis Nash, Antonio Hart, The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, The Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, Barbara Cook, Jessye Norman, Frank Wess, Dmitry Baevsky, Grant Stewart, Mike Karn, Joe Magnarelli, Lew Tabackin, Jerry Weldon, Sachal Vasandani, Pete Van Nostrand, Roberta Gambarini, Rodney Green, David Wong, Winard Harper, Diego Urcola, Peter and Will Anderson, Willie Jones III, Marlene Verplank, as well as with his own trio.

​Career highlights also include performing at the Opening Nights of Jazz at Lincoln Center, Jimmy Heath’s 75th Birthday Celebration, October 2001 as well as at Jimmy Heath’s 90th Birthday Celebration, October 2016 at Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center. In October 2003, Patton joined Antonio Hart at the National Visionary Leadership Project Gala and Awards Dinner. As protégés of Jimmy Heath, the duo performed a medley of all Jimmy Heath compositions in honor of Heath being named a Visionary in the Performing Arts. Other memorable performances include Jazz at Lincoln Center, Duo Series with Percy Heath in the Stanley Kaplan Penthouse, February 1 through 3, 2001.

Presently, when Jeb is not on the road, he teaches piano, ear training, transcription, and improvisation at Queens College and Five Towns College. He is also part of the faculty at NJPAC’s Jazz for Teens program. In the field of jazz education, Jeb has two books published by Chuck Sher: An Approach to Comping, Vol. 1 and 2.

David Wong

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SJW is happy to welcome back bassist David Wong to the 2026 faculty. David is a beloved teacher with years of experience at summer jazz programs such as SJW, Centrum, and the Skidmore Jazz Institute, as well as his year-round teaching at the New School, Queens College, and Temple University.

David’s mastery of the acoustic bass is remarkable, which combined with the wealth of experience he’s accumulated working with the world’s great jazz artists makes him an invaluable resource to anyone wishing to improve their jazz playing and to rise to a professional level of musicianship.

David was a longtime member of Roy Haynes’ celebrated Fountain of Youth band, touring throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan until Haynes’ passing. He has also served as bassist for the Heath Brothers quartet, led by jazz icons Jimmy Heath and Albert “Tootie” Heath. In addition, Wong is frequently heard performing with vocalist Sachal Vasandani and pianist Jeb Patton.

David tours the world regularly, and he has performed and/or recorded with Hank Jones, Roy Haynes, Jimmy Heath, Albert “Tootie” Heath, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Benny Green, Russell Malone, Brian Lynch, Jim Rotondi, George Coleman, Keny Burrell, Illinois Jacquet, Lou Donaldson, Barry Harris, Slide Hampton, Andy Bey, Bill Charlap, Wynton Marsalis, Terrell Stafford, Eric Reed, and many others.

 

Carmen Staaf

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Pianist/composer Carmen Staaf is a burgeoning voice in the NYC and global music scenes. As Jim Macnie recently wrote in JazzTimes, Carmen Staaf fans are “a growth demographic”. Her deep rhythmic grounding, creative flexibility, and training in classical and jazz piano alike have led her to perform in a wide range of settings with some of the most influential musicians of our era. She is the pianist and Musical Director for Grammy-winning vocalist and NEA Jazz Master Dee Dee Bridgewater. A graduate of the Thelonious Monk Institute, her past major performances have included the Playboy Jazz Festival in a two-piano setting with the legendary Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter, Jazz at Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and solo piano the Kennedy Center alongside Kenny Barron, Fred Hersch and Joey Alexander. She has also been heard at the Village Vanguard, Blue Note, SFJazz and major jazz festivals around the world including the Newport, Monterey, Montreux, Panama, Dominican Republic, Litchfield, Saratoga, Ottawa and North Sea Jazz Festivals.

Staaf co-leads the group Science Fair with drummer Allison Miller; the band’s eponymous debut (featuring Ambrose Akinmusire, Dayna Stephens and Matt Penman) was released in 2018 on Sunnyside to wide acclaim. It made both the New York Times and Los Angeles Times lists of Best Jazz of 2018, as well as garnering a 4.5-star review in DownBeat and appearing on the DownBeat Critics Poll list for “Best Jazz Album”. According to DownBeat’s Giovanni Russonello, “Science Fair is a true collaboration between two impressive leaders, though what makes you sit up and pay attention the most is Staaf’s pianism. It’s brilliant, enriched stuff, as rugged as it is lush. Still a rather unrecognized figure, her playing comes from a lineage that favors Mary Lou Williams over Art Tatum, Herbie Nichols over Herbie Hancock—but every one of those figures is in there. Science Fair suggests we’re just starting to see how deep her talents go.”

In addition to her own piano trio, Carmen also co-leads a piano trio with drummer Jeff Williams, featuring bassist Michael Formanek. The Jeff Williams Trio album “Bloom” (Whirlwind, 2019) was released to critical acclaim, including a rave review on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross and others (“Staaf dazzles” according to JazzTimes’ Jim Macnie). The trio is set to release an upcoming LP under Carmen’s name on Newvelle records. Staaf also leads her own sextet, Day Dream, which put out an eponymous album in 2017, and is a member of violinist Jenny Scheinman and Allison Miller’s Parlour Game with Tony Scherr (Parlour Game’s debut album came out in 2019). She also plays in the bands of trumpeter Ingrid Jensen and vocalist/composers Thana Alexa (with whom she recorded on “Ode to Heroes” alongside Regina Carter and Antonio Sanchez) and Allegra Levy (Staaf wrote arrangements for and played on several Levy albums including “Lonely City”, “Cities Between Us” and “Looking at the Moon”), in addition to her musical direction for Dee Dee Bridgewater.

Also active in the world of dance, Carmen co-orchestrated the music of Duke Ellington (along with Allison Miller) for the American Ballet Theater’s October 2018 performances choreographed by tap star Michelle Dorrance. She is a member of SPEAK, a cross-cultural meeting of Kathak and tap with jazz and Hindustani classical musicians. SPEAK toured India in 2019 and previously performed at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica and Yerba Buena in San Francisco. Carmen is also the pianist in tap master Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards’ show And Still You Must Swing.

Carmen graduated with a double degree from Tufts University (Anthropology) and the New England Conservatory (Jazz Performance), and immediately thereafter became one of the youngest faculty members ever hired by Berklee College of Music, joining their piano department in 2005. After spending some years touring and recording while based in New York (including winning the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Pianist competition and touring Europe as the accordionist for Mexican singer-songwriter Lila Downs), she was accepted to the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance, where she was mentored by the most important living jazz musicians. 

An active educator, Carmen has held faculty positions at Berklee, the New School, Stanford Jazz Institute, Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music (Chennai, India), Jacob’s Pillow, Litchfield Jazz Camp, and the New York Jazz Academy, and has led masterclasses around the globe. She was also tapped, with Herbie’s approval, to provide transcriptions for Herbie Hancock’s MasterClass performances and online lessons.

Camila Meza

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Vocalist, guitarist, and composer Camila Meza has brought a sound full of warmth, intricacy, and rhythmic clarity to the New York jazz scene ever since her arrival from Santiago, Chile in 2009. Inspired by jazz, South American music, and American popular song, she has uplifted audiences worldwide with her assured and beautiful singing, brilliant guitar playing and vividly colorful, melodic songwriting.

Exposed to a world of great music via her siblings, Meza began performing her own compositions in high school and went on to study at Santiago’s Projazz Institute. She had a flourishing career in Chile by age 19 and moved to New York at 23, graduating in 2013 from The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, where she studied with Peter Bernstein, Vic Juris, Sam Yahel, Steve Cardenas and Gil Goldstein, among others. She has now appeared at leading venues including The Village Vanguard, Jazz Standard and Duc de Lombards (Paris), and has been sought out to perform and collaborate with the likes of Paquito D’Rivera, Aaron Goldberg, Sachal Vasandani and more.

She had her recording debut in 2007 with Skylark, which Meza followed up in 2009 with Retrato, in 2013 with Prisma, and again in 2016 with the ambitious Traces, her first for the celebrated Sunnyside label (produced by Matt Pierson, featuring Shai Maestro, Matt Penman and Kendrick Scott, among others). Hailed by The New York Times as “a bright young singer and guitarist with an ear for music of both folkloric and pop intention,” Meza is also a member of Ryan Keberle’s Catharsis and Fabian Almazan’s Rhizome, among other top jazz ensembles.

Meza has recently played Winter Jazzfest, the Pittsburgh Jazz Festival, the Providencia and Patagonia Jazz Festivals (Chile), the Buenos Aires and Cordoba Jazz Festivals (Argentina), the Swidnica Jazz Festival (Poland), Hildener Jazz Festival (Germany) and Bern Jazz Festival (Switzerland). She was also chosen to take part in the 2015 BMW Welt Jazz Award in Munich, where she took the Audience Prize. She has appeared on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series and WBGO’s The Checkout, and garnered praise from The Village Voice, The Wall St. Journal, JazzTimes, London Jazz News and veteran journalist Marc Myers of JazzWax.

Allison Miller

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“Miller’s craftiness as a percussionist is met by her ingenuity as a composer andgroup conceptualist.” -The New Yorker.

Allison Miller has become one of the most inspiring and beloved of SJW’s faculty.Her brilliant playing and open and inclusive approach to teaching make a masterclass with Allison a life-changing experience.

Allison is a NYC-based drummer, composer, and teacher. She engages her deep roots in improvisation as a vehicle to explore all music. Described by critics as aModern Jazz Icon in the Making, Miller won Downbeat magazine’s 67th AnnualCritics Poll “Rising Star Drummer” and JazzTimes magazine’s Critics Poll. Her composition, “Otis Was a Polar Bear”, is included on NPR’s list ofThe 200Greatest Songs by 21st Century Women+. She is also the first recipient of the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation’s Commissioning Grant. In January 2020. Miller along with her band, Boom Tic Boom, tap dancer-Claudia Rahardjanoto, and video designer-Todd Winkler premiered this new multimedia suite, In Our Veins, with a seven show tour sponsored by Jazz Touring Network and MidAtlantic Arts. The project explores multimedia performance as a vital form of knowledge production through the poetic interpretation of historical events and their association with the geography, ecology and flow of specific rivers.

Miller, a three time Jazz Ambassador for the U.S. State Department, was Monterey Jazz Festival’s 2019 Artist in Residence, alongside bassist/producerDerrick Hodge. Simultaneously her band, Boom Tic Boom, celebrated it’s 10th anniversary with the release of their 5th album, Glitter Wolf, which was included in many“Best Jazz Of 2019”lists, including NPR, Rolling Stone and Jazz Times magazine. NPR’s Kevin Whitehead says, “All the parts fit together like clockwork on Allison Miller’s new album.” The band has toured extensively throughout the US, Europe and Asia as well as being featured on such programs as NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross,Tiny Desk with Bob Boilen, WNYC’s Soundcheck and NewSounds with John Schaefer, and Jazz Night in America with Christian McBride.

While breaking from leading Boom Tic Boom, Miller focuses on collaborations, co-directing Parlour Game with Jenny Scheinman and Science Fair with Carmen Staaf. Parlour Game’s debut album also made“Best Jazz Of 2019” lists, including LA Times, Boston Globe, The Nation, and was recently featured onNPR’s Weekend Edition. Miller is also a proud member of the critically acclaimed Bluenote recording supergroup Artemis, and is the musical director for Camille A. Brown’s Ink.

As a side-musician, Miller has been the rhythmic force behind such artists as Sara Bareilles, Ani DiFranco, Natalie Merchant, Brandi Carlile, Toshi Reagon, Dr.Lonnie Smith, Patricia Barber, Marty Ehrlich, Ben Allison, and Late Night with Seth Meyers.

Allison teaches at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music (where she was recently named a Melba Liston Fellow), Stanford Jazz Workshop, Centrum, Geri Allen Jazz Camp, and is the Artistic Director of Jazz Camp West. She has been appointed Arts Envoy to Thailand for her work with Jazz Education Abroad and endorses Yamaha drums, Zildjian cymbals, Vic Firth heads, Evans drumheads and Sunhouse percussion.

“…Glitter Wolf is undeniably accessible, gloriously melodic and funky as hell.” – New York City Jazz Record

“Ms. Miller is a drummer, bandleader and composer with an aesthetic of limberpoise, drawn at once to brisk maneuvers and deep grooves.” – The New York Times

“Ten years into the band’s existence, these musicians are firing on all cylinders…Glitter Wolf sounds like an album by Boom Tic Boom-and no one else.” – Downbeat

“…the album defies expectations with a mix of head-bobbing grooves and richmelodies…” – The Los Angeles Times

Aldo López-Gavilán

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Praised for his “dazzling technique and rhythmic fire” in the Seattle Times, and dubbed a “formidable virtuoso” by The Times of London, Cuban pianist and composer Aldo López-Gavilán excels in both the classical and jazz worlds as a recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber-music collaborator, and performer of his own electrifying jazz compositions. He has appeared in such prestigious concert halls as the Amadeo Roldán (Cuba), Teresa Careño (Venezuela), Bellas Artes (Mexico), Carnegie Hall and Jordan Hall (U.SA.), Royal Festival Hall (U.K.), Nybrokajen 11 (Sweden), The Hall of Music (Russia), and Duc de Lombard et Petit Journal Montparnasse (France), as well as venues in Canada, Santo Domingo, Colombia, Spain, Greece, Hong Kong, Burkina Faso, Germany, and Austria.

López-Gavilán has lately being touring in the U.S., appearing at Florida’s Miami Dade County Auditorium, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and the San Francisco Jazz Festival, and he completed an ASCAP film music workshop under the direction of Robert Kraft at New York University. He has also toured extensively in Europe, South America, Canada, and the U.S. with Cuban singer-songwriter Carlos Varela, for whom he wrote all the string arrangements for an award-winning documentary that was broadcast by HBO Latino in the U.S.

Aldo has also being performing together with the Harlem Quartet, a GRAMMY winner string quartet founded by his brother and violin virtuoso Ilmar Lopez- Gavilan. They will continue touring broadly for the rest of the year with concerts in many cities such as Tampa, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Detroit.

Yilian Cañizares

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Yilian Cañizares is one of the most intriguing contemporary violinists, singers and composers. Always staying true to her origins, she skilfully blends jazz, classical and Afro- Cuban rhythms with her otherworldly voice. Whether on stage or in a recording studio, there are few talented artists like Yilian – who was born in Havana and settled in Switzerland – with such great respect for the past and sensitivity towards the future, accompanied by a smile to die for.

Two acclaimed albums, the self-produced “Ochumare” released in 2013 and its 2015 follow-up “Invocación”, under the guidance of Alê Siqueira (Roberto Fonseca, Omara Portuondo), have strengthened her reputation as an innovative artist who is capable of transcending musical boundaries. French weekly Le Nouvel Observateur called her the “revelation of the year” due to her charisma, influences and the ease with which Yilian sings and plays the violin. “My sound reflects the richness and mixture of cultures that I carry with me today. It reflects what I am: a woman, Cuban, musician and citizen of the world”, explains the artist.

When she was just 14 years old, Yilian Cañizares was offered a scholarship to study in Caracas. In 2000, she moved to Switzerland to study at a conservatory. After a few years, major orchestras began to request her and, after moving to Lausanne, she collaborated with several ensembles for six years. During this period, the artist created a quartet of musicians from Germany, Venezuela and Switzerland (and later Cuba) and named it “Ochumare”.

Six months later, in 2008, she won the Montreux Jazz Festival Competition with this group.

Since then, her career has crescendoed. In recent years, she has shared a stage with Ibrahim Maalouf, Omar Sosa, Diego El Cigala, Youn Sun Nah, Richard Bona, Chucho Valdés, Roberto Fonseca, Dhafer Youssef. The Lausanne Chamber orchestra and El Comité.

Invocación, her second album, topped last year’s Qobuz world music ranking and has been reissued in a deluxe edition.

“Aguas”, the album produced in collaboration with Omar Sosa, was released on 5th October 2018. Together with their compatriot Inor Sotolongo on percussion, the duo created an intimate, personal record that reflects the perspectives of two generations of Cuban artists who live a long way from their homeland. The album is a mix of moving songs and energetic ballads, a symbol of the incomparable musical chemistry between the two artists. A unique fusion between Afro-Cuban music, classical music and jazz.

The new album, “Erzulie”, named after the Haitian goddess of love and freedom, was released on 15th November 2019. Recorded in New Orleans with her new band “Yilian & The Maroons”, the album features the participation of several guests including Christian Scott (trumpet), Michael League (double bass), Bill Laurance (piano), Bobby Sparks (organ) and Justin Stanton (keyboards). With “Erzulie”, Yilian was nominated as best artist & best album for the Songlines Music Awards.

Yilian Cañizares has recently received important recognitions, including the Swiss Music Award and the invitation to perform during the celebration of the United Nations World Oceans Day 2021.

Victor Lin

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Beloved by Jazz Campers for his ability to get everyone fired up about jazz improvisation, Victor Lin has been on the faculty of the Stanford Jazz Workshop for many years, taught at the Mark O’Connor Fiddle Camp for three years, and directed the jazz program at The Calhoun School, a private progressive education school on the upper west side of Manhattan. Victor is a regular headliner at the Stanford Jazz Festival, curating his popular “An Evening with Victor Lin” concerts for the past 13 years.

A jazz pianist and violinist, he has an undergraduate degree in music from the University of Washington and a masters degree in jazz studies from Rutgers University, where he was a student of Kenny Barron. He holds a doctorate in music education from Columbia University Teachers College, where he teaches jazz piano and jazz ensembles.

In New York City, Victor has performed in a wide and eclectic variety of contexts. As a pianist, he has performed at Lincoln Center Out-Of-Doors, Bryant Park’s Piano Series, and recently been featured in Jack Kleinsinger’s “Highlights In Jazz” at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center. In addition, Victor has performed at Flushing Town Hall, The Japan Society, The Blue Note, and is a regular at the well-known Knickerbocker in downtown Manhattan. As a violinist, he has been a part of Frank Vignola’s Hot Club USA and The Howard Fishman Quartet.