NYU Jazz Piano Faculty Jean-Michel Pilc was born in Paris, France in 1960. He has performed with many jazz icons of American and European jazz music including Roy Haynes, Michael Brecker, Dave Liebman, Jean Toussaint, Rick Margitza, Martial Solal, Michel Portal, Daniel Humair, Marcus Miller, Kenny Garrett, Lenny White, fellow NYU Jazz Faculty member Chris Potter, John Abercrombie, Lew Soloff and Richard Bona. He has also worked with Harry Belafonte, as his musical director and pianist.

While living in Europe, Professor Pilc toured in over forty countries and participated in more than a dozen recordings, as well as many film scores. Arriving in New York City in 1995, he formed a trio with Francois Moutin (bass) and Ari Hoenig (drums). Soon, they were performing at most of the NYC’s top jazz venues.

Professor Pilc has been awarded commissions from Chamber Music America's New Works: Creation and Presentation Program, funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, as well as several grants from Meet the Composer. In 2000 he was awarded the prestigious Django Reinhardt Prize from the French Jazz Academy.

Professor Pilc has received rave reviews including: 

"Mr. Pilc seems to have dropped from the sky fully formed, with technique and his ideas in place. He is a physical and densely harmonic player, a splashy stunner who also has a Rubik's-cube mind for chord substitutions."

Ben Ratliff, New York Times

"...visual art references come to mind: Cubist renderings of melody in which the original is reshaped into a completely different visual perspective; the shimmering opaqueness of Impressionism in some of Pilc's lush harmonies... Pilc is a player with a future, one whose impressive work deserves far wider exposure."

Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times

""Follow Me" stands a major summation of Pilc's keyboard art, which has no counterparts. Pilc ranks among today's titans of the instrument... there's more to his art than the speed, precision and power of his 10 phenomenal fingers."