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Jeremy Manasia
A great artist is a great man in a great child
About Me
A native of Staten Island NY, Jeremy began playing piano at the age of 7, after receiving a
birthday gift from his godmother for a year of piano lessons. The lessons continued, and
in 1985 he was accepted to the LaGuardia HS for Performing Arts. In his second year of
high school he was placed in a jazz history course taught by Justin DiCioccio. Being
exposed to jazz like this would prove to forever alter his life. Within two years he would
perform at Carnegie Hall and Avery Fischer Hall with the NY All City Jazz Band and the
McDonalds Tri State Jazz Ensemble, featuring artists such as Red Rodney, Arnie Lawrence,
Steve Turre, and bandmates including Greg Hutchinson, Abraham Burton, Walter Blanding
and Eric McPherson.
In 1989, Jeremy attended the Manhattan School of Music, where he was introduced to a
larger world of music and jazz through his teachers Harold Danko and Gary Dial. During
this time he toured with the Ryan Kisor Quintet which featured, among others, Chris Potter,
Ari Ambrose, and Dwayne Burno.
After college Jeremy began regularly attending classes with jazz great Barry Harris, who
connected him with the Royal Conservatory of Den Haag, where he received his masters
degree and studied with Dutch jazz legend Franz Elsan. While in the Netherlands, he
toured all over Europe and played on his first recording, the Deep, with the band Five Up
High.
In 1997, Jeremy returned to NYC to study more with Chris Anderson and Harry Whitaker.
He soon become a regular on the NYC jazz circuit, where he has been ever since. Jeremy
has performed with Jimmy Cobb, Peter Bernstein, Javon Jackson, Wayne Esscoffrey, Joe
Magnarelli, Nneena Freelon, Diane Schur, and has recorded with the Charles Owens
Quartet, the Greg Glassman/Stacy Dillard Quintet, David Gibson, John Boutte, Jane Monheit,
and many others.
Jeremy has been a finalist in the Thelonious Monk Competition, the Great American Jazz
Piano Competition, and the American Pianists Association Jazz Piano Competition.
Jeremy is on faculty at the Manhattan School of Music, and has won a Presidential Scholars
award, numerous Downbeat Student Music awards and three Charles Mingus Competition
awards for his teaching.