Brandon McCune

Brandon McCune is a jazz pianist based in Newark, New Jersey, known as a versatile accompanist working across the jazz, gospel, and classical traditions. A Chicago native, he began piano at age three through the Suzuki method and earned a Bachelor of Music from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in 1997, studying privately with Kenny Barron, Mulgrew Miller, Betty Carter, Larry Ridley, and Ted Dunbar. In 1998 he was selected through a national audition as a U.S. Jazz Ambassador to Africa, performing concerts, master classes, and workshops abroad. He has worked as a sideman and music director for Abbey Lincoln, Nnenna Freelon, Betty Carter, Terence Blanchard, Russell Malone, and Bruce Williams, among others, and appears on recordings by artists including Nnenna Freelon and Abbey Lincoln. He released his own album Tell the Story on MAC5 Records.