Nial Djuliarso

Nial Djuliarso, pianist, vocal coach

A native of Jakarta, Indonesia, Mr. Nial Djuliarso has performed in prestigious stages such as the Weill recital hall at Carnegie Hall in New York; the North Sea Jazz Festival in the Hague; Kennedy Center in Washington D.C; Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, and Sarasota Jazz Festival, Florida. Nial is currently a staff pianist at the Grand Hotel in Mackinac Island, MI.

Awards include 1^st place at the 2003 Horace Silver piano competition, 3^rd place at the 2005 Montreux solo jazz piano competition, and 3^rd place at the 2005 Moscow jazz piano competition. In March 2004, Nial was invited to audition for the Juilliard school jazz studies program and was accepted. Nial started at Juilliard in September 2004 and he is currently in his 2^nd year. His teachers at Juilliard are Wynton Marsalis, Kenny Barron, Carl Allen, Renee Rosnes, among others.

Nial Djuliarso was born on February 5^th, 1981. He credits god and his parents, Tripudjo and Vera Djuliarso, for all his accomplishments and for instilling an appreciation for music since childhood. Nial started taking piano lessons since he was 2.5 yrs old. After seeing Pat Metheny live in Jakarta at the age of 15, Nial became really interested in learning jazz.

From there Nial went on to study at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, where he received his Bachelor of Music degree in May of 2004. At Berklee, Nial was able to study with Danilo Perez, Joe Lovano, Joanne Brackeen, Hal Crook, Ed Tomassy, among others. He also met his mentors there, Sonny Watson, whom Nial played with for 5 yrs, and Bo and Bill Winiker.

"Nial Djuliarso is a fine talent destined to be a world-class jazz pianist. His passion, intuitive abilities, and very apparent in-depth study will certainly engage the most astute jazz aficionado."
Rufus Reid - Jazz Bassist