Bill is a pianist, composer, and arranger based in Los Angeles
After Bill Cunliffe won several Down Beat Awards as an Eastman student, he went on the
road as pianist and arranger with Buddy Rich, touring Europe with Frank Sinatra. He later
performed with Ray Brown, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Art Farmer, Woody Shaw and
James Moody.
Bill was the 1989 winner of the $10,000 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Award,
and received stipends from the National Endowment for the Arts and the American
Composer Federation. Bill was Marian McPartland's guest on her famed “Piano Jazz” radio
show in June '98.
His latest CD, Imaginacion on Torii Records; one of the tunes was nominated for a
Grammy for best instrumental arrangement. . As a composer, Bill has been nominated
both for two Emmys and two Grammys, and has composed extensively for film, TV, big
band, chamber groups, choir and orchestra. Recently his compositions and arrangements
have been played by the Illinois Philharmonic, the San Diego Symphony, the Henry Mancini
Institute Orchestra, and the New Zealand School of Music Symphony Orchestra.
He currently plays in duet with the renowned flutist Holly Hofmann, drummer Joe
LaBarberas Quintet, and the woodwind group Trimotif in addition to his own projects. He
teaches at the Vail Jazz Institute and the Skidmore Jazz Institute, and is Associate
Professor of Music at Cal State Fullerton.
