Adrianne Duncan

Pianist, singer, songwriter and composer Adrianne Duncan has been making music since the age of six. The daughter of renowned classical guitarist Charles Duncan (author of The Art of Classical Guitar Playing), she honed her classical piano skills through private study, master classes with such luminaries as Murray Perahia, Leon Fleisher, Emanuel Ax and Ruth Laredo, and summers spent at such institutions as Tanglewood and Brevard Music Centers. Adrianne attended Northwestern University on a music scholarship and is the winner of numerous piano competitions and awards. She has performed in multiple capacities: as a solo artist, in a duo, as an accompanist for individual musicians and musical theatre productions, with chamber groups, in jazz ensembles and as a soloist with symphony orchestra. Now based in Los Angeles, Adrianne has performed in venues in the United States and internationally. She has performed and recorded with some of LA’s most noted musicians, including the Grammy-nominated Lado B Brazilian Project, with whom she toured Brazil on keyboards and vocals. She has played and sung on numerous recordings (including The Jazz Chamber with legendary multireedist Bennie Maupin) and was the musical director of the new musical Twins for its premiere in Berlin. Also a producer and arranger, her projects include albums for actor-singers Jacqueline Emerson (The Hunger Games) and Larry Wolf (Pound, Putney Swope). Her piano playing can be heard on film soundtracks including The Chameleon and The Young Kieslowski, as well as the short films Impact! The Musical and Na Na Na (Na), which screened at Britain’s Kindfest 2020 to an audience of over 50,000 viewers. In addition to her own project, Adrianne performs regularly with her seven-person vocal improvisation collective Fish To Birds at such Los Angeles venues as the Blue Whale, Catalina Jazz Club, REDCAT at Disney Hall and the Skirball Cultural Center. She also has an extensive acting background and has appeared in numerous plays, films, commercials and television shows, including starring opposite venerable character actor Seymour Cassel in the thriller The Chameleon. She will appear in a documentary and a feature film in 2021, both currently in post- production. She was the founder and producer of LA Modern Jazz Series, a concert series featuring world-class creative jazz musicians. Adrianne's album Gemini releases September 24, 2021.

Awards

National Merit Scholar, Northwestern University; music and academic scholarship recipient, Northwestern University; scholarship recipient, Tanglewood, Brevard and Southeastern Music Centers; Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition winner; Atlanta Music Teachers Association competition winner (multiple years); Georgia Music Teachers Association competition winner (multiple years); Music Teachers National Association competition finalist (multiple years); winner of numerous other piano competitions

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