New Orleans has been a jazz piano town since Jelly Roll Morton claimed he invented the jazz piano. Conun Pappas, Jr. is a native son of the Crescent City and a successor to a long line of great New Orleans piano players. Signs of his talent showed at the early age of six when he created a tune on a keyboard to accompany his sister while she was practicing a dance school routine. His parents enrolled him in classical piano lessons for formal training where his skill and talent blossomed. While attending a summer music camp Conun discovered jazz and auditioned for enrollment at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) where he was accepted. His journey from the jazz program at NOCCA to the Manhattan School of Music to the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music has placed him in a markedly unique tradition. His playing and compositions are firmly entrenched in the style and vocabulary of modern jazz but his music transcends categories. In addition to Donald Harrison and Alvin Batiste, Conun has performed with the Danny Rivera Orchestra, the Wild Magnolia Mardi Gras Indians Tour Band and the Victor Goines Quartet. He understands the musical language he’s chosen as he continues to develop his distinct musical voice.
Awards
NPR's Heavy Rotation(Best Songs of 2013 List)EditRe-order
NPR
December 2013
NPR celebrates the best music of 2013. "125th and Broadway" (composed by Conun Pappas) performed by The Bridge Trio made the list.
Piano Legacy AwardEditRe-order
April 2014
The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra honor significant Jazz artists, professionals and supporters during our annual THE BIG BEAT gala Under the leadership of Irvin Mayfield, Host Committee Co-Chairs, and NOJO board members Soledad O'Brien and David Schulingkamp
Piano Legacy Awards are presented to musicians who are continuing and enhancing the distinct and important New Orleans piano tradition, both locally and globally.
Willie Metcalf Scholarship (2005)
Make It Funky Music Award (2007)
Gear
Steinway Pianos
Yamaha Motif
Korg
“their music subtly and intelligently bridges (no pun intended) lots of music gaps and has the ability to appeal to many different types of music listeners… including a half-assed wannabe indie know-it-all and her anti-music mother.”
Admin, InvadeNOLA (Apr 02, 2012)
“The New Orleans natives and New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts graduates, who’ve gone on to earn degrees from several of this country’s finest music institutions, have reached another milestone in their bright careers. That these guys are young, that this is The Bridge Trio’s first release could be focal points in considering the merit of this work. In this case, they are not. Dyson, Pappas and Moran — The Bridge Trio — are accomplished musicians playing and writing exciting jazz. The album, The Bridge Trio, satisfies on those absolute essentials of jazz music.”
Read more
“their music subtly and intelligently bridges (no pun intended) lots of music gaps and has the ability to appeal to many different types of music listeners… including a half-assed wannabe indie know-it-all and her anti-music mother.”
Admin, InvadeNOLA (Apr 02, 2012)
“The New Orleans natives and New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts graduates, who’ve gone on to earn degrees from several of this country’s finest music institutions, have reached another milestone in their bright careers. That these guys are young, that this is The Bridge Trio’s first release could be focal points in considering the merit of this work. In this case, they are not. Dyson, Pappas and Moran — The Bridge Trio — are accomplished musicians playing and writing exciting jazz. The album, The Bridge Trio, satisfies on those absolute essentials of jazz music.”
- Geraldine Wyckoff, The Louisiana Weekly (Jan 17, 2012)
“There is a new star emerging on the musical scenes of our town and New York. Multi-talented Conun Pappas, Jr”
- Mary LaCoste, The New Orleans Tribune (Jul 05, 2011)
Show less
Primary Instrument
Piano
Willing to teach
Advanced only
