Solo Piano Concert: Kiyoko Layne and Marcus Persiani

Kiyoko Layne- Born in Kagoshima, Japan, Kiyoko Layne played piano and saxophone in her youth and later formed an acapella band while working as a nurse. She began singing to her patients and was overwhelmed by their reaction. When she saw them crying, she realized the power music has to move people’s hearts. She joined a well-known Japanese Gospel Choir and later attended Berklee College of Music. Since moving to Harlem in 2008, Kiyoko has performed in numerous jazz clubs, in the house band at the Jazz Foundation of America's Monday Night Jam, and at United Nations Plaza, while also working as music librarian for the Duke Ellington Orchestra and teaching. Her first CD, "Kiyoko in Harlem", came out in 2009.

Marcus Persiani- The versatile pianist Marcus Persiani has worked with many major artists including Willie Colon, Ray Mantilla, the Sugar Hill Quartet, Vanessa Rubin and George Coleman. Originally from Chicago, where he received both a formal education (B.A, American Conservatory) and an informal one (in clubs and dives), he moved to NYC in 1989 and encountered the “Father of Latin Jazz,” Mario Bauza. Marcus’s compositions and arrangements were featured on three albums by Bauza’s legendary Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, one of which was nominated for a Grammy.

Co-Presented by the Jazz Foundation of America, supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and by the Howard Gilman Foundation.