Bill Charlap

BILL CHARLAP (Pianist) was born in New York City into a musical family. His father, Moose Charlap, was a Broadway composer and songwriter whose credits included the scores to Peter Pan, The Conquering Hero, Whoop-up, Alice Through the Looking Glass and Kelly. His mother, Sandy Stewart, is a popular song singer who performed with Benny Goodman, co-starred on TV's Perry Como Show and scored a Grammy nomination for her hit single, "My Coloring Book" by the songwriting team of Kander and Ebb.

Mr. Charlap began playing the piano at a very young age. He studied with jazz pianist Jack Reilly and classical pianist Eleanor Hancock and informally picked up pointers from jazz/popular song pianist Dick Hyman, who was a distant cousin on his father's side. Mr. Charlap was fully thrust into the jazz world in the late '80s when he joined baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan's quintet and in 1994 was enlisted by alto saxophonist Phil Woods for his band. Mr. Charlap was the musical director of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, A Celebration of Johnny Mercer as a part of the JVC Jazz Festival in New York and later took the revue on the road.