Born into a musical household in Teaneck, New Jersey, Caelan Cardello began playing piano at the age of five. By the age of ten he was studying both jazz and classical separately with jazz pianist/arranger Allen Farnham and Juilliard alum Steven Masi. Throughout his middle and high school years, Caelan had the opportunity to perform for or play with jazz idols such as Christian McBride, Jimmy Cobb, Ravi Coltrane, Ingred Jensen, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Brad Mehldau, Wynton Marsalis, and Teaneck's own Jon Faddis and Freddie Hendrix. He was a part of the organization Jazz House Kids for seven years, where he learned from the greatest jazz masters and performed at venues such as Dizzy’s Club and the Montclair Jazz Festival. Caelan has also performed at venues in NYC such as Smoke Jazz Club and The Jazz Standard, as well as the Detroit Jazz Festival and Bahrain Jazz Festival. Other accolades include 2021 winner of the BMI Foundation’s Future Jazz Master award, 2018 recipient of the prestigious James Moody Scholarship, winner for regional National YoungArts, and 2016–17 All State Jazz Band pianist.
Caelan recently finished his Jazz Performance degree at William Paterson University. He studies privately with saxophonist Vincent Herring, guitarist Russell Malone and pianists David Kikoski and Bill Charlap, and has previously studied with Mike Ledonne, Geoff Keezer, Harold Mabern and Kevin Hays.
Esteban is a pianist and composer from New York who captivates audiences and critics with performances that are intimate and sophisticated beyond his years. He attends the Juilliard School on a full-tuition Thomas Dubois Hormel Memorial Scholarship, studying with Ted Rosenthal, and he also studies privately with Fred Hersch. Esteban is a Young Steinway Artist.
At age thirteen, Esteban was the First Prize Winner in the Montreux Jazz Piano Solo Competition in 2016, making him the youngest ever to receive this prestigious award. At fourteen, he was the youngest First Prize recipient at the 2017 Jacksonville Jazz Piano Competition.
With over forty compositions to his name, Esteban has garnered three ASCAP Foundation Young Jazz Composer Awards and has won fifteen Downbeat Student Music Awards. He was selected as a pianist for the Grammy Band in 2017 and 2018, as a 2019 YoungArts Finalist, and as a member of the 2019 Next Generation Jazz Orchestra. He has won a variety of classical piano competitions, including the 2019 MSM Precollege Philharmonic Concerto Competition, playing Prokofiev’s First Piano Concerto. Esteban was commissioned for a big band arrangement by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra for the Thelonious Monk 100th Birthday Celebration in 2018.
Esteban has played to sold-out audiences in venues such as The Blue Note, The Montreux Jazz Club, The New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and Dizzy's Club. He's also performed in Switzerland, Italy, France, Peru, Canada, and Puerto Rico.
Esteban routinely donates his time and performances to charitable causes such as the Jazz Ambassadors, the American Cancer Society, Haiti Disaster Relief, Aid to Victims of Hurricane Maria, and to provide musical instruments for needs-based students.
Los Angeles-based pianist and composer Paul Cornish strives to inspire freedom and collaboration in his music and community. Hailing from Houston where he was a student at the prestigious High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Cornish was one of seven jazz prodigies worldwide selected to be awarded a full fellowship to attend the esteemed Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz at UCLA. Here, he completed his master’s degree and studied and performed with such renowned artists as Carl Allen, Jerry Bergonzi, Billy Childs, Herbie Hancock, Bob Hurst, Geoffrey Keezer, Dick Oatts, Chris Potter, Walter Smith and Terell Stafford.
Cornish received the Los Angeles Jazz Society’s 2020 New Note Commission and recently was awarded First Place in the Jacksonville Jazz Piano Competition and the 18th Street Arts Center’s 2021 Make Jazz Fellowship. Cornish was also awarded the Grand Prize in the 2018 American Jazz Piano Competition. Currently residing in Los Angeles, Cornish has performed extensively across the globe with such notable artists as Herbie Hancock, Mary Stallings, Louis Cole, Theo Croker, Snoh Aalegra, Terrace Martin, John Legend and HAIM.
Thomas Linger, New York-based pianist, originally hails from Waynesville, North Carolina. Winner of the American Jazz Pianist Competition in 2017, he graduated with a degree in piano performance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2015. Since that time, he has worked as a performer, composer, and teacher, having performed in some of the most prestigious venues such as the Village Vanguard, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Dizzy's Club, Smalls, Mezzrow and many more.
Thomas leads his own trio in addition to engagements alongside current luminaries such as Peter Bernstein, Francisco Mela, Joe Farnsworth, Yasushi Nakamura, Stacy Dillard, Sylvia Cuenca, Brandon Lee, and many others. Thomas's debut album Out In It featuring many of his original compositions released on Cellar Records August 2022.
February 23, 2023 - Community concert at Eskenazi Hospital, Indianapolis
February 25, 2023 - Premiere Series at the Jazz Kitchen, Indianapolis | livestream
April 20, 2023 - Community concert at Christ Church Cathedral, Indianapolis
April 21, 2023 - Club Finals at the Cabaret, Indianapolis | livestream
April 22, 2023 - Gala Finals at Hilbert Circle Theatre, Indianapolis | livestream
BIO
Isaiah J. Thompson is a jazz pianist, composer and bandleader from West Orange, New Jersey. He began studying at The Calderone School of Music at an early age, and soon after continued his studies with Jazz House Kids and NJPAC Jazz For Teens. He received both his bachelor’s and master’s from The Juilliard School, was awarded the 2018 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award and earned Second Place in the 2018 Thelonious Monk (now Herbie Hancock) Institute of Jazz International Piano Competition. Isaiah has since performed with major artists including Ron Carter, John Pizzarelli, Christian McBride, Steve Turre and Buster Williams. He was featured on the Golden Globe-nominated soundtrack for "Motherless Brooklyn" and was named a Steinway Artist. Isaiah made his recording debut on Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Blue Engine Records’ release, “Handful of Keys” with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, and he released his debut album as a leader, "Isaiah J. Thompson Plays the Music of Buddy Montgomery" in 2020.
Our diverse world shapes our music, the artistic language of our contestants. It delights, informs, and
inspires us all. It is in this spirit that the American Pianists Association welcomes people of any race,
ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, and gender identity, as well as people with disabilities.
We commit to learn from diverse talents, ideas, and voices. We pledge to create an environment for our
artists, audiences, community partners, board, and staff that is based on the values of diversity, equity,
inclusion, and justice. Further, we commit to enacting strategic and annual plans that provide focused,
measurable strategies for living out these values every day.
