INFORMATION FOR
Major: Jazz Studies and Performance—Piano
Current Title: Performer, Composer, Teacher; Faculty, Governor's School for the Arts, Norfolk, Virginia
Jazz pianist Justin Kauflin is an award-winning musician. As leader, player, composer, and producer, he has released 10 recordings to date, including his first vinyl live recording, Justin Kauflin Trio Live at Sam First, and collaborated on more than 30 albums, among them Oscar, with Love, a tribute to the great jazz pianist Oscar Peterson. For 10 years, he has worked and toured under the management of Quincy Jones and Quincy Jones Productions In addition, he has scored a number of short films and feature-length documentaries including Reflection: A Walk with Water and Liv. Justin is featured in, as well as composed the film score for, the Academy Award short-listed documentary, Keep On Keepin' On, about hius mentor, the late jazz trumpeter Clark Terry. He recently joined the jazz faculty at the Governor’s School for the Arts, a magnet-level performing arts school where he was a student from 2000 to 2004, helping to develop a new generation of young talented musicians in the Hampton Roads, Virginia area. Justin continues to tour, with upcoming performances in Denmark and India, and will be performing in a number of tribute concerts in dedication to Oscar Peterson.
Proudest Professional Accomplishment: “I've been incredibly blessed to learn from and work alongside musicians and human beings I never thought I'd ever get a chance to meet, like Mulgrew Miller, Clark Terry, Quincy Jones, and Jacob Collier. The thing I'm most excited about is the fact that I get to share these experiences and the wisdom I've gleaned with my students. To take part in the legacy of passing on the love and encouragement I received from such amazing and incredible people is a true gift.”
WP Pride. “William Paterson is at the center of everything that has happened to me professionally. I wouldn't have had the chance to learn from my hero, Mulgrew Miller. I wouldn't have met and spent hours and hours learning from the legend that is Clark Terry. I would have never met Al Hicks, the director of Keep On Keepin On and Quincy. None of these things would have come to me if I hadn't gone to WP. I'm forever grateful for the central roll William Paterson has played in my career and my musical life.”
