The Invisible Trio with John Chin

John Chin, born in Seoul, Korea and raised in Los Angeles, was introduced to the piano at age four. He began learning Jazz at California State University, which he attended at the age of fourteen as part of a prestigious Early Entrance Program for gifted students. After performing in Los Angeles and receiving his B.A. in Music at nineteen, John continued his musical studies at the University of North Texas where he actively performed in the Dallas/ Ft. Worth area for a year and a half and met Dennis Irwin, Victor Lewis, and Herb Ellis. John then moved to the New York area and received his M.A. of Music from Rutgers University in 1999 after studying as Kenny Barron's protoge. As a Piano teacher for the past eleven years, John"s experiences have ranged from teaching classes and private instruction at Rutgers University to introducing the piano to children as young as four years old as a faculty member of Staten Island Academy's Music Department and through private lessons. As the John Chin Trio performs throughout New York City, John has established his reputation as an exciting and sophisticated soloist and a skilled bandleader. His musical influences are vast. Some of the musicians that have inspired John include pianists Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock, Brad Mehldau, Fats Waller, Art Tatum, Benny Green, Wynton Kelly, Ahmad Jamal, Keith Jarrett and composers Rachmaninov, Bartok, Beethoven and Steve Reich. In New York, he has worked with such musicians as Joe Chambers, Norah Jones, Mark Turner, and Vincent Herring and some of the many musicians the trio has featured are Gregory Hutchinson, Ugonna Okegwo, John Ellis, and Joel Frahm. John was recently one of five finalist in the Great American Jazz Piano Competition .