Adrianne Duncan

Adrianne Duncan has been making music since the age of six. The daughter of renowned classical guitarist Charles Duncan (whose books The Art of Classical Guitar Playing and Classical Guitar 2000 [Alfred Music] are used in university guitar programs worldwide), she honed her skills through private study, master classes with luminaries including Murray Perahia, Leon Fleisher, Emanuel Ax and Ruth Laredo, and summers spent as a scholarship recipient at such institutions as Tanglewood and Brevard Music Centers.

Adrianne attended Northwestern University on a music scholarship and is the winner of numerous piano competitions and scholarships. She has performed in multiple capacities: as a solo artist, in a duo, as an accompanist for individual musicians and musical theatre productions, with chamber groups, in jazz ensembles and as a soloist with a symphony orchestra. Her piano playing has been heard on National Public Radio and the soundtracks to feature films and television shows, and she has performed for such luminaries as President Clinton and Stevie Wonder.

Now a pianist, singer, composer and songwriter based in Los Angeles, Adrianne has performed in numerous venues in the United States and internationally. She has performed and recorded with some of LA’s most noted musicians, including the Grammy-nominated Lado B Brazilian Project, with whom she toured Brazil in the summer of 2017. She has worked as a session player and singer in multiple genres and was the musical director of the new musical Twins for its premiere in Berlin in 2016. She is also a producer and arranger, most recently co-writing, producing and arranging albums for actor-singers Jacqueline Emerson (The Hunger Games) and Larry Wolf (Pound, Putney Swope). In addition to performing her own work, she performs regularly with her seven-person vocal improvisation collective Fish To Birds at such venues as the Blue Whale, Catalina Jazz Club and Skirball Cultural Center. She is the founder and producer of LA Modern Jazz Series, a concert series featuring world-class creative jazz musicians.

Adrianne’s own compositions are rooted in the jazz and classical traditions but informed by such songwriter-poets as Joni Mitchell and Nick Drake. Her dense harmonies and often unconventional structures leave room for improvisation and melodic development, supporting quirky and intelligent lyrics that speak to her love of story and character.

Adrianne Duncan’s tracks

• What If. . . ? by Adrianne Duncan
• Fish to Birds - Message To Prez by Adrianne Duncan
• Christmas In LA (Demo) by Adrianne Duncan
• Whatever It Takes (Live Demo) by Adrianne Duncan