Mary louise knutson biography template

Pianist and composer Mary Louise Knutson celebrates nearly three decades of performing in the Twin Cities and beyond!

She has performed in countless configurations, including both the JazzMN Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra, supported numerous musicians playing.

Minneapolis-based jazz pianist and composer, Mary Louise Knutson, has been called "one of the most exciting artists to happen to jazz piano in quite some.

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From classical to jazz

After growing up in Wausau, Wisconsin, Knutson graduated from Lawrence University in Appleton with
a degree in classical piano performance. But during a summer session at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, she encountered other young musicians who were studying jazz.

What she heard intrigued her, and when she moved to Minneapolis after graduation, she knew she wanted to be a jazz pianist.

It was a style of music that she mostly taught herself.

“I sat in my apartment listening to recordings, transcribing and analyzing them, learning how to express melodies,” she said. “The biggest part was learning how to improvise melodies, which is something I’ve worked at continuously.”

As she freelanced with other groups and sat in on jam sessions, she knew she wanted to form her own trio, so she did. And that group’s been going strong for 28 years now.

When she’s not busy with her own group, Knutson plays with the JazzMN Orchestra and accompanies b

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Photo by Dietrich Gesk

Minneapolis-based jazz pianist, composer and teacher, Mary Louise Knutson has toured all over the United States with former Tonight Show bandleader and trumpeter Doc Severinsen and his big band and with her own group, Mary Louise Knutson Trio. She has appeared with such jazz greats as Dizzy Gillespie, Bobby McFerrin, Dianne Reeves, Kevin Mahogany, and many others. As a show player, Knutson has performed with artists such as Reba McEntire, Michael Bolton, Donny Osmond, Smoky Robinson, the Osmond Brothers and comedian Phyllis Diller. Knutson's latest jazz trio CD, In the Bubble, made JazzWeek's Top 10 and stayed in the Top 50 for 19 consecutive weeks. Knutson's debut jazz trio CD, Call Me When You Get There, was featured in JazzWeek's Top 50 for eight consecutive weeks, earning Knutson the award for “Top New Jazz Instrumentalist of the Year” in 2001 from KWJL Radio in California. In 2006 Knutson was a Minnesota Music Awards nominee

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As fortunate as we are to have an opportunity at each year’s Twin Cities Jazz Festival to hear legender like McCoy Tyner or Ellis Marsalis, along with younger stars such as Anat Cohen or Joey Alexander, what may be as impressive is the sheer vitality of the local jazz scene put on display annually. For example, if an attendee chose to focus entirely on the piano, the options would run the stylistic and generational spectrum, beginning with the precocious talents of Jordan Anderson and Will Kjeer, working through the next generation or two with Javi Santiago, Ted Godbout and Bryan Nichols, then on to more established veterans like Laura Caviani and Mary Louise Knutson. This is merely one instrument, in fact a small sample of the pianists that will be performing in downtown Saint Paul and, one might argue, a significantly underrated jazz scene on a national level.

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