Pianist and composer Carmen Staaf recently graduated from the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance, where she studied and toured with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Dee Dee Bridgewater and other masters, as well as performing and giving master classes at the White House, the Kennedy Center, and throughout the US, Morocco, and France. In demand on the NYC jazz and new music scenes, she co-leads a band with drummer Allison Miller, with whom she will release multiple upcoming recordings. She has recently performed with Dee Dee Bridgewater, Anat Cohen, Steve Wilson, Terrell Stafford, Allison Miller's Boom Tic Boom, and Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society. She has toured Europe, Latin America, Japan, and India and has performed at the Village Vanguard and the Kennedy Center. She was featured on NPR’s JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater and the NPR Jazz Piano Christmas alongside Fred Hersch and Kenny Barron. Carmen was formerly on the piano faculty at Berklee College of Music and is currently on faculty at the New School and the Stanford Jazz Institute.
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