Billy Test | |
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| Born | February 21, 1989 Philipsburg, Pennsylvania |
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 | This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations .(September 2021) |
Billy Test (born February 21, 1989 [1] in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania [2] ) is an American jazz pianist, composer and arranger, who has been a member of the Big Band of West German Broadcasting Cologne (WDR Big Band) in Cologne since 2018.
Test started playing the piano at the age of seven. He started out as a classical pianist. In 2011 he completed his bachelor's degree at William Paterson University with a double degree in jazz and classical piano [2] with summa cum laude and in the same year won the first concert competition in the history of this university. In May 2015 he completed his master's degree at the Manhattan School of Music in New York, where Jim McNeely, Garry Dial, Phil Markowitz, Dave Liebman, Lisa Yui and Marjean Olson were his teachers. He was also taught by Jean-Michel Pilc, Frank Kimbrough, Sophia Rosoff, Marc Mommaas and Fred Hersch.
Test played with the Village Vanguard Orchestra and musicians like Dave Liebman (saxophone), Scott Robinson (trumpet), Joel Frahm (saxophone), Leon Parker (drums), Benyamin Nuss (piano), Ugonna Okegwo (bass), Sheila Jordan (vocals), Noah Preminger (saxophone), Bill Goodwin (drums), Jay Leonhart (bass), Billy Drummond (drums), Jerry Bergonzi (saxophone) and Dennis Mackrel (drums).
As a solo pianist and with his quintet The Test Subjects, he appeared in New York clubs such as the Cornelia Street Cafe or the Deer Head Inn. He can be heard as a soloist on Jon Di Fiore's album Patience (2012), Verena McBee's Can't Help It (2013), Miho Hazama’s Dancer in Nowhere (2018), Olivia Foschi's Fleeting Windows (2018), Diane Hoffman's Do I Love You (2018), Aimée Allen's Wings Uncaged (2018) and Sara Decker's Poetryfied (2020).
As a teacher, he has taught at the New York Jazz Workshop, the Manhattan School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music Precollege. He has been a visiting musician and lecturer at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania, the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, and the Penn State Summer Music Academy.
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