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Lara Driscoll

Lara Driscoll is a French-American pianist, composer, and educator from Chicago. She is known for her “captivating style and uncluttered finesse” (COCO Jazz CKVL FM Montreal) and her “magical touch...musical solos” (Geannine Reid, All About Jazz). Her forthcoming album, Woven Dreams, is set to release in early 2020. A versatile artist with a passion for expressive communication through music, Lara has performed with a diverse array of projects in venues such as the Montreal Jazz Festival, Jazz Showcase, Andy's Jazz Club, Chicago Symphony Center, Upstairs Jazz Bar and the Rex. She has shared the stage with artists such as Terell Stafford, Jim Pugh, Dick Oates, Chip McNeill, Larry Gray, Andre White, Joel Miller, Jean Michel Pilc and Fred Wesley. Lara received the University of Illinois John Garvey Jazz Scholarship, North Texas Jazz Festival outstanding soloist and Luminarts Graduate Jazz Composition, Performance, and People’s Choice awards. Her trio was recently invited to perform her original compositions at the Jazz Education Network Conference. Lara studied with Cheryl Lim, Alain Swain, Chip Stephens, Chip McNeill, Tito Carrillo, Dana Hall, Joan Hickey, William Heiles, Jan Jarczyk, Remi Bolduc, Josh Rager, and Jeff Johnston. While recently completing graduate work in jazz piano performance at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, Lara taught as a lecturer for McGill. She has since joined the music faculty at Loyola University, DePaul University, and Harold Washington College (City Colleges) where she teaches courses in piano, jazz, theory, non-western music, and humanities.

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Album Review

Lara Driscoll: Woven Dreams

Read "Woven Dreams" reviewed by Jordan Penney


Woven Dreams is the debut album of pianist and Illinois-based university instructor, Lara Driscoll. The disc's uncluttered piano, bass and drums format encourages the clarity and luminosity of her compositions to shine forth, and they do. The format also draws attention to the richness of the group's internal dynamics. The influence of Bill Evans is felt strongly in Driscoll's style. It is evident, first, in her lyrical and measured playing which, like that of Evans, exhibits poise in ...

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