Isaiah H.

Isaiah is an 19 year old jazz pianist/composer with a desire to spread thought-provoking music throughout his community. While specializing in performing his original music with his jazz quartet, he has much experience with big bands, vocal accompaniment, and more. Born and raised in Oakland, Isaiah grew up in the Bay Area Jazz scene and has played with numerous local names during his time there, such as Pee Wee Ellis, Rodney Ruckus, Erik Jekabson, and others. He frequently performed around the Northern California area, including venues such as The Black Cat, Yoshi’s, The San Jose Jazz Festival, The San Ramon Jazz Festival, and SFJAZZ. In 2016, at the age of 13, Isaiah was a winner of Jazz Search West, where he was awarded a scholarship to attend the California Jazz Conservatory in Berkeley, California for his bachelor's degree. After being accepted into the school’s flagship Blue Ensemble, he began performing and teaching around the bay area. The group also toured to Tokyo, Japan where they performed around the city, judged competitions, and gave workshops to middle and high school jazz programs. While he was studying at the California Jazz Conservatory, he was able to audition and participate in the 2 SFJAZZ High School All Stars Combo. Lectured by Dann Zinn, this yearlong program featured frequent performance experiences as well as mentorships from the SFJAZZ Collective. He also participated in the 2 Next Generation Jazz Youth Orchestra where he was mentored by Gerald Clayton and Christian Sands. Isaiah recently graduated with his masters in music at University of Southern California Thornton. During his time in Los Angeles, he has performed with numerous Los Angeles jazz stars such as Logan Kane, Nicole McCabe, Julien Knowles, Devin Daniels, and many more. Isaiah also frequents the popular music scene in Los Angeles, performing regularly with Anilee List, Shayhan, Tonina, and others.