Sarah Jane Cion is an American author and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

pianist.

Music career

Sarah Jane Cion received the Boston Jazz Society Award in 1988. She graduated from the

New England Conservatory The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a Private college, private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. The conservatory is located on Huntington Avenue along Avenue of the Arts (Boston), the Avenue of the Arts near Boston Symphony Ha ...

in 1990. In 1991, she was chosen as one of four pianists to attend the

Banff School of Fine Arts Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (formerly Banff Centre) is an arts and culture educational institution in Banff, Alberta. It offers arts programs in the performing and fine arts, as well as leadership training. It was established in 193 ...

, with faculty of

Steve Coleman Steve Coleman (born September 20, 1956) is an American saxophonist, composer, bandleader and music theorist. In 2014, he was named a MacArthur Fellow. Early life Steve Coleman was born and grew up in South Side, Chicago. He started playing ...

Rufus Reid Rufus Reid (born February 10, 1944, in Atlanta, Georgia) is an American jazz bassist, educator, and composer. Biography Reid was raised in Sacramento, California, where he played the trumpet through junior high and high school. Upon graduation ...

Kevin Eubanks Kevin Tyrone Eubanks (born November 15, 1957) is an American jazz and fusion guitarist and composer. He was the leader of The Tonight Show Band with host Jay Leno from 1995 to 2010. He also led the Primetime Band on the short-lived ''The Jay Le ...

Marvin Smith Marvin "Smitty" Smith (born June 24, 1961) is an American jazz drummer and composer. Marvin Smith was born in Waukegan, Illinois, Waukegan, Illinois, where his father, Marvin Sr., was a drummer. "Smitty" was exposed to music at a young age, rece ...

Kenny Wheeler Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, Order of Canada, OC (14 January 1930 – 18 September 2014) was a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. from the 1950s onwards. Most of his performances were rooted in jazz, but he w ...

and

Dave Holland Dave Holland or David Holland may refer to: *Dave Holland (bassist) David Holland (born 1 October 1946) is an English double bassist, bass guitarist, cellist, composer and bandleader who has been performing and recording for five decades. He has ...

. In July 1996, she worked with

Monty Alexander Montgomery Bernard "Monty" Alexander OJ CD (born 6 June 1944) is a Jamaican American jazz pianist. His playing has a Caribbean influence and bright swinging feeling, with a strong vocabulary of bebop jazz and blues rooted melodies. He was in ...

in his jazz workshop in

Verbier, Switzerland Verbier () is a village located in south-western Switzerland in the canton of Valais. It is a holiday resort and ski area in the Swiss Alps and is recognised as one of the premier off-piste resorts in the world. Some areas are covered with snow ...

. She won the 17th Annual

Great American Jazz Piano Competition Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" * Artel Great (bo ...

held in

Jacksonville Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...

, in 1999. She appeared on the

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

radio ''Piano Jazz'' with

Marian McPartland Margaret Marian McPartland Order of the British Empire, OBE ( Turner;Hasson, Claire, . PhD Thesis. Retrieved 12 August 2008. 20 March 1918 – 20 August 2013), was an English and American jazz pianist, composer, and writer. She was the host of ...

. The Sarah Jane Cion Trio was the opening act for the

George Coleman George Edward Coleman (born March 8, 1935) is an American jazz saxophonist known for his work with Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock in the 1960s. In 2015, he was named an NEA Jazz Master. Early life Coleman was born in Memphis, Tennessee. He was ...

Quartet at the

Mellon Jazz Festival The Mellon Jazz Festival was a festival in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that was sponsored by Mellon Bank. Acts who performed at the festival included Ella Fitzgerald, Diana Krall, Sonny Rollins, and John Zorn John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) i ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

. The Trio was presented in concert by Savannah On Stage in March 2001, and at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is an international broadcasting network funded by the federal government of the United States that by law has editorial independence from the government. It is the largest and oldest of the American internation ...

Stage in Washington D.C. in May 2001. A request festival performer, Cion also played in the Kennedy Center Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival, The Minnesota Jazz Festival, WJCT Jacksonville and the Indy Jazz Fest. Cion's recordings highlighting her original compositions include ''Summer Night'', featuring saxophonist Michael Brecker (#12 on the Yellowdog jazz chart), ''Moon Song'', among the top selling modern jazz albums in Japan (2000) with Chris Potter, and ''Indeed!'' with Antonio Hart. She has performed and recorded with many other artists including

Clark Terry Clark Virgil Terry Jr. (December 14, 1920 – February 21, 2015) was an American Swing music, swing and bebop trumpeter, a pioneer of the flugelhorn in jazz, and a composer and educator. He played with Charlie Barnet (1947), Count Basie (1948� ...

Etta Jones Etta Jones (November 25, 1928 – October 16, 2001) was an American jazz singer. Her best-known recordings are "Don't Go to Strangers" and "Save Your Love for Me". She worked with Buddy Johnson, Oliver Nelson, Earl Hines, Barney Bigard, Gene Ammo ...

Anita O'Day Anita Belle Colton (October 18, 1919 – November 23, 2006), known professionally as Anita O'Day, was an American jazz singer and self-proclaimed “song stylist” widely admired for her sense of rhythm and dynamics, and her early big band appe ...

, Della Griffin, Carmen Leggio, Gerry Neiwood, Bucky Pizzarelli, Dr. Lyn Christie, Don Braden, James McBride and the BMI Jazz Orchestra among many others. Cion performs in the major jazz venues of the United States. She has brought her magic to New York's Blue Note, Iridium, Birdland, Mezzrow, and New Hersey's Trumpets, Cecil's, The Cornerstone, and Ceceres. Cion's book Modern Jazz Piano (published by Hal Leonard) is the standard theory manual at Princeton University. Her music has appeared on ABC's long-running daytime soap, ''All My Children'', and her original composition "Golden Song" appeared in the movie '' Thor: The Dark World,'' as well as "Cat in the Hat" in Clint Eastwood's 2019 ''The Mule.'' She has toured Israel, Portugal, Japan, Germany, Austria and England.Naxos profile: Sarah Jane Cion
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Discography

Books

Sarah Jane Cion has authored or contributed to the following music-related works: * * ''A Baker’s Dozen: 13 Contemporary Jazz Etudes: Studies and Etudes for the Intermediate/Advanced'' * ''The Pianist's Jammin’ Handbook!'' * ''Steinway Library Of Piano Music: Jazz Piano — Pieces To Grow On'' (2006) *

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cion, Sarah Jane American jazz pianists Living people 21st-century American pianists 21st-century American women pianists Year of birth missing (living people)