Career Highlights
EDUCATION:
Florida State University, piano performance, Tallahassee, Florida 1981-1985
Instruction: Leonidus Lipovetsky, 1981-1985
AWARDS /HONORS:
Young Artist’s Award, National Association of Jazz Educators 1982
First Prize, Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition 1987
National Academy of Achievement Award 1995
Helen Keller Personal Achievement Award, American Federation for the Blind 1998
Commissioning Award: Chamber Music America (From Rags to Rhythm) 2001
Artist-in-Residence, 2002 Winter Olympic Games 2002
Inducted into Jacksonville Jazz Hall of Fame 2003
Housewright Scholar, Florida State University 2003-2004
Judge, Great American Jazz Piano Competition, Jacksonville, FL 2004, 2009
Commissioning Award: N.C. Association of Jazz Educators (Journey into Swing) 2004
ASCAP Commissioning Award (premiered at Rose Hall) (The Sound of the Band) 2005
CAREER:
Pianist, Wynton Marsalis Band 1985 – 1991
Bandleader, Marcus Roberts Trio /Marcus Roberts Jazz Band 1990 – present
Guest pianist with symphony orchestra 1996 – present
Assistant Professor, School of Music, Florida State University 2004 – present
Associate Artistic Director of Jazz Education, Savannah Music Festival 2008 – present
Director, “Swing Central” (Nationwide high school band competition & workshops) 2008 – present
Guest appeara nce s with selec ted Symph ony Orche stra s:
Aspen Music Festival Orchestra, Grant Gershon conducting (1998)
Atlanta Symphony, William Eddins & Robert Spano conducting (1999, 2007, 2008, 2009)
Baltimore Symphony, Daniel Hege conducting (1998)
Berlin Philharmonic, Seiji Ozawa conducting (2003)
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa conducting (1996, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2003)
Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra, Michael Butterman conducting (2007)
Buffalo Philharmonic, Thomas Wilkins conducting (2002)
Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, (2011)
Colorado Symphony, Marin Alsop conducting (1998, 2000)
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Robert Spano conducting (2005)
Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra, Theordor Kuchar conducting (2008)
Glasgow Symphony Orchestra, Robert Spano conducting (2007)
Idaho State-Civic Orchestra, Chung Park conducting (2011)
Jacksonville Symphony, Roger Nierenberg conducting (1997)
Los Angeles Philharmonic, Grant Gershon conducting (1997)
Minnesota Orchestra, Lawrence Foster conducting (1997, 1998)
Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Charles Dutoit conducting (2000)
New Japan Philharmonic, Seiji Ozawa conducting (2003)
New Jersey Symphony, David Alan Miller conducting (2003)
NHK Orchestra, Tokyo, Japan, Seiji Ozawa conducting (2005)
New York Philharmonic, Bramwell Tovey conducting (2006)
Orchestra National de France, Seiji Ozawa conducting (1998)
Philadelphia Orchestra, André Raphel Smith conducting (1997, 1998)
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Meyer conducting (2009)
Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Michael Butterman conducting (2010)
Saito Kinen Festival Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa conducting (1997, 2005)
Savannah Symphony, Chelsea Tipton conducting (2002, 2003)
Seattle Symphony, Alastair Willis conducting (2003)
Shreveport Symphony, Michael Butterman conducting (2006)
Utah Symphony, Scott O’Neill conducting (2002)
PRINCIPAL TELEVISION & DOCUMENTARY WORK AND APPEARANCES:
Among Giants (Solo Piano, PBS Broadcast) (1995)
Boston Pops Orchestra, Keith Lockhart conducting (1995)
Loosely Mozart (Marcus Roberts Big Band) (1996)
Colorado Symphony, Marin Alsop conducting (1999)
The Musical Encyclopedia (Six-part educational series for children, NHK Television, (1999-2000)
Montreal Symphony, Charles Dutoit conducting (1999)
Musical Score, I’ll Make Me a World, PBS Documentary on African-American Artists (1999)
Piano Grand, Smithsonian Productions (2002)
Nightline, “Genius of Soul” broadcast (2004)
Charlie Rose Show (1996, 1999, 2004)
Sundance Film Festival (2005)
Higher Ground (Hurricane Katrina benefit concert, Rose Theater at Lincoln Center) (2005)
12,000 Parts, One Masterpiece (The Making of a Steinway Piano), Plow Productions) (2006)
BBC Proms, London (Marcus Roberts Trio with Glasgow Symphony) (2007)
Marciac Jazz Festival (Marcus Roberts with Wynton Marsalis) (2008)
Leonard Lopate Show (2009)
Tavis Smiley Show (2009)
Marciac Jazz Festival (Marcus Roberts Trio) (2009)
“Wynton at 50”, Live From Lincoln Center (2011)
SELECTED SPECIAL EVENTS:
Rhapsody in Blue, 17-city tour (Marcus Roberts Jazz Band with Orchestra) (1996)
Tanglewood Summer Music School Gala Benefit (1997)
Saito Kinen Festival, Matsumoto, Japan (1997, 2005)
Penumbra Theatre’s Gala 20th Birthday Celebration with August Wilson (1997)
Young Audiences Gala Annual Benefit, New York (1997)
Solo piano recital at Avery Fisher Hall, New York City (2001)
Musical Director, Louis Armstrong Centennial Celebration at Versailles (2001)
Tanglewood Gala, “Farewell to Seiji” (Final concert with Seiji Ozawa & Boston Symphony) (2002)
Talking Jazz, Chicago Humanities Festival (2002, 2003)
Sundance Christmas Cantata with Robert Redford (2003)
Annual benefit gala, Jazz at Lincoln Center (2004, 2005, 2006)
Six-city tour of South Korea, Eagon Concert Series (2004)
Special 70th birthday concert for Maestro Seiji Ozawa, Matsumoto, Japan (2005)
Sundance Film Festival Concert (2005)
Benefit performance for Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, Monticello, FL (2006)
Grand opening show, Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, Encore Park, Alpharetta, GA (2008)
Special recording, Marcus Roberts Trio with U.S. Army Field Band (2010)
Marcus Roberts Trio (special guests), Count Basie Orchestra, Orchestra Hall, Chicago, IL (2011)
Annual benefit gala, Services for the Underserved, New York, NY (2011)
“Marcus Roberts draws few distinctions between the playful and the professorial. As a pianist, bandleader and composer-arranger he balances erudition against reserves of charisma and wit. His first set at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola on Tuesday night was typical: generous in its warmth and strategic in its pacing, with a wealth of serendipitous detail.”
—Nate Chinen, NY Times
Marcus Roberts at Seoul Arts Center
Marcus performing on Smithsonian Productions broadcast
Marcus Roberts, Swing Central, 2011
