Sean Higgins, pianist and composer, is an international touring and recording artist acting as a musical ambassador to audiences worldwide. While classically trained; his own group offers a modern take on the jazz trio configuration. Higgins enjoys exploring many musical genres and has played keyboards in many commercial settings such as R&B, pop, and fusion.
Higgins completed a B.M. in Jazz Performance at UNC-Wilmington, and an M.M. at Northern Illinois University, where he received a full scholarship to lead and compose for the NIU Liberace Sextet.
Higgins has opened for Dave Holland, Fourplay, Joe Lovano, Talib Kweli, Ryan Cohen, and Stefon Harris and Blackout....
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Sean Higgins, pianist and composer, is an international touring and recording artist acting as a musical ambassador to audiences worldwide. While classically trained; his own group offers a modern take on the jazz trio configuration. Higgins enjoys exploring many musical genres and has played keyboards in many commercial settings such as R&B, pop, and fusion.
Higgins completed a B.M. in Jazz Performance at UNC-Wilmington, and an M.M. at Northern Illinois University, where he received a full scholarship to lead and compose for the NIU Liberace Sextet.
Higgins has opened for Dave Holland, Fourplay, Joe Lovano, Talib Kweli, Ryan Cohen, and Stefon Harris and Blackout.
Some performances include successful 8-week US Jazz Ambassador tours of the Middle East and Russia with Alvin Atkinson & the Sound Merchants and a Japan tour with Akio Sasajima. He has played in many NYC clubs such as The Jazz Standard, Smoke, Dizzy’s-Jazz at Lincoln Center, Lenox Lounge, Shanghai Jazz, St. Nick's Pub, and Minton's Playhouse. Sean was a member of the Winard Harper Sextet for 2 years and has shared the stage with Antonio Hart, Charles McPherson, Stephanie Nakasian, Wycliffe Gordon, Fareed Haque, Bobby Watson, Terell Stafford, John Clayton, Jeff Clayton, Russell Malone, and many others. Jazz Festival performances include 2004 Iowa City, 2004 Lima Peru, 2005 Elmhurst, 2006 Vail, 2007 Tri-C, 2007 Columbus Jazz & Ribs, 2008 Cape May, 2008 Usadba-Moscow, 2008 Chelyabinsk, 2008 Vladivostok, 2009-12 Shanghai-JZ, 2014 Changsha, 2015 Xi’An, 2016 Xiamen.
During his 10 years based in Shanghai, he toured China extensively as well as internationally with Karen Mok, Shunza, and Ronghao Li.
Sean released his debut trio album, The New Thought feat. (Iajhi Hampden-drums, Josh Ramos-bass) in 2005, his 2nd album Three Years’ Stories (Iajhi Hampden-drums, Motoki Mihara-bass) in 2008, and his latest Shanghai Decade (Nicholas McBride-drums, Ji Peng-bass) in 2018.
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