Dr. Joel Pierson is a composer and jazz pianist whose work straddles the worlds of jazz, pop, and contemporary classical music. He frequently uses humor as a means to engage audiences with new music, and he has been featured in over one hundred publications, including the Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, the LA Times, Mashable, McSweeney’s, and on BBC Radio 4 and NPR’s All Things Considered.
Joel is the Artistic Director of The Queen’s Cartoonists, a musical ensemble dedicated to the preservation and performance of music from classic and contemporary cartoons. Joel’s work with TQC is at the crossroads of the Golden Age of Jazz and the Golden Age of Animation, performing faithfully reproduced film scores while synchronized to the original films. Joel composes music for contemporary cartoons as well, working with living animators and studios around the world, including Netflix, Aardman, and the National Film Board of Canada. Concert highlights include sold-out shows at the Blue Note Jazz Club, Konzerthaus Berlin, SFJAZZ, and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The Queen’s Cartoonists’ first album, Mozart’s Jazz Requiem, reached number four on the Billboard Classical Crossover chart.
In addition to his work with The Queen’s Cartoonists, his collaborations span artists as diverse as the New York Philharmonic, the Kronos Quartet, Linkin Park, Ke$ha, Father John Misty, My Chemical Romance, Wayne Newton, Tommy Tune, The Animals, and over twenty major symphony orchestras, including the Philly Pops and the Cleveland, Houston, Toronto, Detroit, Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Cincinnati orchestras. Joel has performed on all seven continents (yes, including Antarctica), and in his youth was a songwriter signed to Warner Bros. Records.
Joel’s other projects include The Court at Versailles (a jazz piano trio that performs acoustic renditions of electronic dance music), The Midnight Mai Tai Orchestra (a big band specializing in mid-20th century “tropical jazz”), and Music for Open Doors (music therapy concerts offered in close coordination with a number of medical doctors and therapists). Joel is also the founder of NYCPianoDoctor, a music school in New York City with over one hundred students and twenty teachers.
Joel’s Sadsap Music, a publishing company focused on humorous music education books, is another outlet for his comic sensibility. His first book, You Suck at Piano, was a viral hit on Kickstarter and was published by Mascot Books. Follow-up books include You Suck at Piano 2: You Still Suck, 20 Piano Pieces for People with Emotional Problems, You Suck at Guitar, and a play-along graphic novel called The Nutsmacker. His most recent book, The Crew Bar, is a “disaster memoir” about a trip around the world as the in-house pianist on an ocean liner.
Originally from Washington, D.C., Joel is a permanent resident of Mexico and splits his time between San Miguel de Allende and Jackson Heights, Queens. He received a Bachelor of Arts from Westmont College in classical piano performance, a Master’s Degree in jazz piano performance from New York University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts in music composition from the University of Maryland. A longtime CAMI Music artist, Joel is now represented by New Sound Arts. Joel is a Yamaha Piano Artist and can be reached through his website.
And yes, the rumors are true: Joel did once get a shoulder massage from Paul McCartney.