Membership has its perks!

We're holding a live Q&A with Cyrus on Zoom after the show! It's free with a ticket purchase for student, friend, patron, and donor members of the Friends of Jazz.

Sponsor and corporate members get free tickets to all six fall & spring concerts, as well as an invite to all Q&As.

(Current members, please click here for info on how to redeem your membership benefits.)

To take advantage of these offers, become a Friend of Jazz or renew your membership!

Sponsored by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Shearer Family Fund of The Foundation for Enhancing Communities, on behalf of R. Scott Shearer.   

Recorded at Triforce Studios in Lancaster, PA.

Meet Cyrus Chestnut:  

Born in 1963 in Baltimore, MD, jazz pianist Cyrus Chestnut grew up in a home filled with the sounds of gospel music that his church-going parents played, along with jazz records by artists such as Thelonious Monk and Jimmy Smith. To this day, Chestnut’s ties to gospel music remain constant.  

After graduating from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Chestnut worked with jazz vocalist Jon Hendricks, trumpeter Terrence Blanchard, and saxophonist Donald before joining jazz legend Wynton Marsalis. Chestnut’s recordings include Dark Before the Dawn (1994), which debuted in the sixth spot on the Billboard jazz charts; Earth Stories (1995), for which he composed nine of the CD’s eleven tracks; a solo piano album, Blessed Quietness: Collection of Hymns, Spirituals, and Carols (1996); Cyrus Chestnut (1998); Soul Food (2001), a blend of jazz, classical, gospel, and R&B and You Are My Sunshine (2003).  

The New York Daily News once heralded Chestnut as the rightful heir to Bud Powell, Art Tatum, and Erroll Garner. Chestnut continually tours with his trio, playing at jazz festivals around the world, as well as clubs and concert halls. His leadership and prowess as a soloist have also led him to be first on the list for the piano chair in many big bands including the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band.

Learn more about Cyrus Chestnut at cyruschestnut.net