Benoit, David
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Wikipedia-Article "David Benoit"
David Benoit is a jazz pianist, composer and conductor, born in Bakersfield, California in 1953. Benoit grew up in The South Bay of Los Angeles. He studied piano at age 13 with Marya Cressy Wright and continued his training with Abraham Fraser, who was the pianist for Arturo Toscaninni. He focused on theory and composition at El Camino College, studying orchestration with Donald Nelligan, and later took film scoring classes taught by Donald Ray at UCLA. His education in music conducting began with Heiichiro Ohyama, assistant conductor of the L.A. Philharmonic, and continued with Jan Robertson, head of the conducting department at UCLA. He is currently studying conducting with Jeffrey Schindler, Music Director for the UC Santa Barbara symphony orchestra.
His career as a contemporary jazz pianist began in 1977 and includes 23 solo recordings over the past 25 years. Many of these, including his 1987 GRP Records debut Freedom At Midnight and its Grammy nominated 1988 follow-up Every Step Of The Way, are considered influential classics in the genre, which came to be known as Smooth Jazz. Among his other Grammy nominations are those for Best Instrumental Composition (for “Dad’s Room,” from 1999’s Professional Dreamer) and Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance (for the GRP All-Star Big Band). Combining two of the musical loves of his life, he recorded 1996’s American Landscape with The London Symphony Orchestra. He was voted Keyboardist of the Year for 2000 and 2001 by the Oasis Smooth Jazz Awards, and is currently in the Top Ten on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Chart with Fuzzy Logic, which spawned the recent #1 hit instrumental single “Snap!”
Benoit has arranged, conducted and performed music for many popular pop and jazz artists over the years, including Russ Freeman and the Rippingtons (he was involved with the band in its formative stages), Kenny Loggins, Patti Austin, Dave Koz, Kenny Rankin, Faith Hill, David Lanz, Cece Winans, David Pack, David Sanborn, The Walt Disney Organization and Brian McKnight. He also paid homage to one of his chief influences, Leonard Bernstein, by playing, arranging and performing on The Songs of West Side Story, an all-star project produced by David Pack, which achieved gold sales status.
He began his career as a Musical Director and conductor for diva Lainie Kazan in 1976 before moving on to similar roles with singer/actresses Ann Margaret and Connie Stevens.
Benoit has performed at The White House for three U.S. Presidents: Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan and George Bush, Sr. Other dignitaries he performed for include Colin Powell, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, the late Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, current Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn and Senator Dick Durbin.
He and his wife Kei are the parents of an adopted daughter, June Koko, and reside in Palos Verdes, California.