Chris Jarrett

Chris Jarrett (born 1956) is an American pianist and composer who has lived in Germany since 1985. Chris Jarrett was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. as the youngest of five sons of the couple Daniel and Irma Jarrett. The parents divorced when Chris was still a toddler. All the children of the family were musical and three became professional musicians. His eldest brother is the pianist Keith Jarrett. He received private lessons with Vincenz Ruzicka (himself a student of Rosina Lhevinne) as a 13-year-old and continued his studies at the renowned Oberlin Conservatory of Music (Ohio).

In 1985 he went to Germany studying at the Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg. From 1988 to 1989, he taught at the college. This is where his career as a professional musician began. He first composed smaller pieces for piano, later added chamber music, ballets, film music, operas, oratorios and larger orchestral pieces. After his time in Oldenburg, he lived in Neuhäusel near Koblenz (Rhineland-Palatinate). In 2006 he moved to Paris, but soon returned to Germany and has since lived in the southern Palatinate.

From 1985 on, he has continued touring clubs, theaters and concert halls all over the world as a pianist. He has appeared in countries including most European states, Russia, the Ukraine and Canada, North Africa, Australia and Indonesia. He has appeared on stages alone or with musicians like Dhafir Youssef, Zoltan lantos, Luca Ciarla, Ramesh Shotham, Pascal Gully, Erwin Ditzner or Leszek Mozdzer. He also performs regularly in a duo with the drummer Erwin Ditzner and leads the quartet Four Free.

He performs primarily as a solo pianist, playing his own compositions with influences from classical music and jazz improvisation; but in 2014 he launched a career as an organist as well. He concertizes with his improvisational organ music, "New Journeys," in European cathedrals and on some of the world's most renowned instruments.

Jarrett's wife is the classical pianist Martina Cukrov Jarrett with whom he also occasionally appears for piano duo concerts. Since 2019, Chris Jarrett teaches music history as a guest lecturer at the Johannes-Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany.