Emmet Cohen is a multi-talented and innovative musician/pianist who captivates his audiences with style, panache and good humor. He began studying the piano at the age of three using the Suzuki Method. He also studied European art (classical) music early in his career. “Music is something that was built into my life at an early age.” He discovered jazz in his teens and attributes listening and learning from other jazz musicians as a hallmark of his early development.
He attended the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami where the eminent pianist-educator Shelly Berg became his mentor. While still a student, he recorded and self-released his debut album, In the Element. In his senior year, he won a national competition for undergraduate and graduate students throughout the United States. In 2011 after placing third in the Thelonious Monk International Piano Competition held annually at Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center, Cohen and the other two finalists were invited to the White House where they met then-President Barack Obama.
Returning to the New York City area to study at the Manhattan School of Music on a full merit scholarship, he received a Master of Music degree in 2014. Jazz Times noted, “Lots of young pianists have chops and energy, but Emmet Cohen also has an instinct for meaningful aesthetic form. His spilling runs and chiming resolutions are necessary t
