Cyrus Chestnut

Cyrus Chestnut is an American jazz pianist whose sound draws together gospel, classical music, and the straight-ahead jazz tradition. Born in 1963 in Baltimore, Maryland, he reached for the piano as a small child and was serving as a church pianist by age nine before studying classically at the Peabody Preparatory Institute. He went on to the Berklee College of Music, earning a degree in jazz composition and arranging in 1985. Down Beat has called him one of the finest jazz pianists of his generation, and JazzTimes has praised his virtuosic playing. Alongside his work as a pianist and composer, he is a producer and a professor.