about
Pianist, singer, songwriter and composer Adrianne Duncan has been making music since the age of six. The daughter of renowned classical guitarist and Clark Atlanta University professor Charles Duncan (author of The Art of Classical Guitar Playing), she honed her classical piano skills through private study, master classes with such luminaries as Murray Perahia, Leon Fleisher, Emanuel Ax and Ruth Laredo, and summers spent at such institutions as Tanglewood and Brevard Music Centers. A Georgia native, she was the pianist for the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra for four years under the baton of Maestro Jere Flint, winning their concerto competition to perform Schumann’s Concerto in A minor, Op. 54 in Atlanta Symphony Hall.
Adrianne attended Northwestern University on a music scholarship and is the winner of numerous piano competitions and awards. She has performed in multiple capacities: as a solo artist, in a duo, as an accompanist for individual musicians and musical theatre productions, with chamber groups, in jazz ensembles and as a soloist with symphony orchestra.
Now based in Los Angeles, Adrianne has performed in venues in the United States and internationally. She has performed and recorded with globally recognized musicians, including the Grammy-nominated Lado B Brazilian Project, with whom she toured Brazil on keyboards and vocals. She has played and sung on numerous recordings (including The Jazz Chamber with legendary multireedist Bennie Maupin) and was the musical director of the new musical Twins for its premiere in Berlin. Also a producer and arranger, her projects include albums for actor-singers Jacqueline Emerson (The Hunger Games) and Larry Wolf (Pound, Putney Swope). Her voice and piano playing can be heard on film and television soundtracks including God’s Country with Thandiwe Newton, Sanctuary with Margaret Qualley and the Emmy-nominated musical episode of The L Word: Generation Q. She was actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s piano coach for the titular role in the feature film Belle.
In addition to her own project, Adrianne performs regularly with her seven-person a cappella vocal improvisation collective Fish To Birds at such Los Angeles venues as the Blue Whale, Catalina Jazz Club, REDCAT at Disney Hall and Skirball Cultural Center. She has an extensive acting background and has appeared in numerous plays, films, commercials and television shows, starring opposite venerable character actor Seymour Cassel in the thriller The Chameleon. She is the founder and producer of LA Modern Jazz Series, a concert series featuring world-class creative jazz musicians.
