2nd Annual Piano Summit

Miss Lee Kanehira was born and raised in Tagawa city, Fukuoka Prefecture, South Japan. She started to play classical piano in childhood. After graduating from a music college, she met the blues. Since then she taught herself and consistently played the blues piano. In 2004, she started to play with local blues bands as well as the musicians who are visiting her hometown on tour. She is visiting Chicago every summer since 2008 and playing with great musicians, such as Kenny “Beedy Eyes” Smith, Billy Flynn, The Cash Box Kings etc. Her first leader album “  Miss Lee became the 2018 Chicago Blues Piano Contest winner. She is a lady blues pianist who is dedicated to playing old school Chicago blues, a rare kind in these days.

Jason Kutz’s musical interests lie wholly within and between the classical and jazz worlds. All music is constructed with the same building blocks, and it’s only with small changes in formula that genre and affect differ. His greatest interest is discovering and blending these borders, and using them as fuel for each musical project.

Chris Rottmayer is a jazz pianist, composer, and jazz vibraphonist living in Madison, Wisconsin. Chris has been a freelance jazz pianist since 1990, was a pianist for Walt Disney World from 1999 to 2020, and has released three albums as a leader: Reactive Synthesis (2013), Sunday at Pilars (2019), and So In Love (2020). Chris is currently the Instructor of Jazz Piano at the University of South Florida, where he has taught since 2007, and is pursuing a DMA in Piano Performance at the University of Wisconsin- Madison where he holds a Teaching Assistantship in the Theory department.

Dave Stoler is a native of Madison WI, and has formerly resided in New York City, Milwaukee and Miami. One of the busiest keyboardists in the area, Dave works with his own jazz trio, the Tony Castaneda Latin Jazz Sextet, The Ben Ferris Octet and The Darren Sterud NOLA Tribute Band.  He also co-leads Steely Dane, a 16 member Steely Dan tribute band. He performs regularly with his trio and quartet at Smalls Jazz Club in New York City. His recording, titled “Urban Legends” is available on cdbaby.com.  He was a semifinalist in the Thelonious Monk Piano Competition, The American Jazz Piano Competition, and a finalist in the Jacksonville Jazz Piano Competition. He received a Master Of Music Degree in Jazz Performance from the University of Miami-Coral Gables, and has a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Composition from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.