Chase Morrin
Chase Morrin, composer, arranger and pianist from San Diego, CA, graduated with his M.M. in Jazz Composition from New England Conservatory of Music, Pi Kappa Lambda, in 2016. He graduated from Harvard University in 2015, earning his B.A. in Computer Science and a minor in Neurobiology. At Harvard, Chase was awarded with The Louis Sudler Prize as the senior who demonstrated the most outstanding talent and achievement in the composition and performance of music during his undergraduate years. In addition, Chase was a 2013 Harvard Artist Development Fellow. Chase is currently working on a second M.M. at Berklee College of Music’s Global Jazz Institute.
Chase is currently involved in a number of projects with musicians from the Boston/Cambridge area which have included composing for the NEC Jazz Composers’ Workshop Orchestra and a new duo ensemble, Gapi, with Gayageum player Do Yeon Kim. He recently was commissioned by the Louisville Orchestra to compose and write a piano concerto which he performed with the orchestra in April, 2016. In addition, he recently released The Corn Knight, a collaboration with marimbist, Yaniv Yacoby. Chase directs, composes, and arranges for the Chase Morrin Trio with bassist, Johnny Chapman, and drummer Jongkuk Kim. His trios/bands have won the open combo division at Monterey’s Next Generation Jazz Festival in which they performed at the festival and have also been showcased at the Jazz Education Network (JEN) conference. He released his first trio CD, En Común, in 2012 and his second trio CD, Turtle, November 2016.
Chase has earned numerous awards for composition and performance which include the 2012 ASCAP Jimmy Van Heusen award as an aspiring young composer and recently performed at Lincoln Center in NYC; several ASCAP Young Jazz Composer awards; 2012 Yamaha Young Performing Artist for Jazz piano; Jazz Education Network (JEN) Composer Showcase awards; nine DownBeat awards in composition, arranging and performance; five film scoring and composition awards through the Music Teachers’ Association of California (MTAC) and the Young Composers’ Guild (YCG); Monterey Jazz Festival’s Gerald Wilson award for his big band composition “Mumphis”; Los Angeles Music Center Spotlight Award for jazz instrumentalist; and three awards from the National Foundation for the Arts (YoungArts) in classical composition, jazz composition and jazz keyboard.
During the summer of 2013, Chase studied on Harvard’s OFA projects grant at the Banff International Workshop for Jazz and Creative Music and the Yellow Barn Young Artist’s Program. Chase has toured and performed at a number of world-renowned festivals including the Panama Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, Reno Jazz Festival, Vail Jazz Festival, Bowdoin International Festival, and Centrum Jazz Festival. He has also performed at Catalina Jazz Club (Hollywood), Vitello’s (Los Angeles), Yoshi’s (San Francisco), Jazz Alley (Seattle); Jazz at Lincoln Center (New York), Dizzy’s, (San Diego), Harvard, NEC, and Berklee to name a few recent venues.
