Jeremy Monteiro – Jazz Pianist/Composer/Educator (Singapore) - Jeremy is regarded as one of the foremost jazz pianists in Asia and has been referred to as Singapore’s King of Swing by the Singaporean, Malaysian, Thai and Japanese press. In 2007, he celebrated his 30^th anniversary as a professional jazz musician. He has more than 20 jazz albums as leader and has played on numerous other jazz albums by other jazz artists, including one by Grammy Award winning jazz saxophonist Ernie Watts, which he also produced.<!--StartFragment-->

He launched his international career playing on the main-stage of the Montreux Jazz in 1988 with his group “Monteiro, Young & Holt” together with original Ramsey Lewis Trio members, bassist Eldee Young, drummer Isaac Redd Holt, saxophonist John Stubblefield and guitarist O’Donel Levy. The band received a 3-minute standing ovation in a concert that was televised in many countries. That year, Swing Magazine of Switzerland called him “one of the best exponents of Jazz Piano” and Montreux Festival Director called the concert “an unforgettable concert of the first 22 years of Montreux.”

On March 7^th 2008, Jeremy was featured on the legendary pianist Marian McPartland’s NPR radio program Piano Jazz, joining a long list of eminent guests, which have included Bill Evans and Oscar Peterson, two of Jeremy’s heroes. The show is broadcast all over North America and beyond and the edited version of the program was delivered automatically as a Podcast to over 100 million people around the world who use the Apple iTunes software.

A recent review on his latest album “Homecoming” by reviewer Ian Patterson in the respected international jazz website allaboutjazz.com had this to say about Jeremy,

“Jeremy....firstly.....he writes sensitive, well-crafted tunes, and secondly, as a pianist he is at the top of the tree. Some may have thought that when Claude Nobs invited Jeremy Monteiro to play Montreux in 1988, the Singaporean pianist had had his day in the sun. On the evidence of this delightful album (Homecoming), maybe his day in the sun is yet to come.”

Besides leading his own straight-ahead jazz bands and being a member of Terumasa Hino’s Asian Jazz All-Stars, he formed his ethno-fusion jazz band Asiana in 1992 to play as the opening act for the Simon & Garfunkel. He also played keyboards for Simon & Garfunkel in that 1993 concert at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. Among other jazz luminaries Jeremy has performed with are James Moody, Jimmy Cobb, Toots Thielemans, Marian McPartland, Bobby McFerrin, Michael Brecker, Ernie Watts, Matt Monro and Cassandra Wilson, to name a few.

Jeremy is Visiting Chair of Jazz & Professor at LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore and a Fellow of the London College of Music which is part of the Thames Valley University in the UK.

He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce in the UK, which is under the Patronage of the Queen. This accords him the right to use the letters FRSA as a suffix to his name. Past Fellows of the RSA have included Benjamin Franklin, Charles Dickens and Yehudi Menuhin and current Fellows include Nelson Mandela and Stephen Hawking.

He has received the pinnacle award in Arts Achievement in Singapore, the Cultural Medallion, the first jazz musician in Singapore to be given this accolade.

Besides running his companies, Showtime Productions Pte. Ltd. and Jazznote Records, he also serves as a Board Member of the National Arts Council and a founder and Director of the copyright administration company, the Composers & Authors Society of Singapore.