Micah Graves

Esther Boyer College of Music, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA

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Micah began taking piano lessons from his mom around the 5th grade when he was homeschooled. He soon then started taking lessons from his next-door neighbors for the next two years. Micah studied classically for four years until he got introduced to Jazz. His jazz tutelage began with the Clef Club of Jazz under the directory of Lovett Hines. There, Micah quickly picked up on the fundamentals of jazz, such as improvisation, arranging, and good musicianship. There at the Clef club he was able to expand his knowledge past the things that were on the music towards the things that were unscripted. During this time, he switched over to jazz lessons where he took lessons from Dan Green for two years, and Barry Sames for two years.  A turning point in Micah's tutelage began when he was awarded a full scholarship to attend the Berklee Summer program for two years. There he represented the Philadelphia Clef Club as a city music recipient.  While he was there he found the passion to begin his own writing.  At the end of the program Micah was awarded a 40,000 scholarship to attend the school. This scholarship made it very clear that he wanted to pursue music for the rest of his life. In his senior year of high school Micah was chosen to be the pianist for the vocal ensemble for Allstate. There he got to play with some of the best musicians in the Pennsylvania region.

 

Today Micah is currently a sophomore at Temple university for his B.A in Jazz Piano Performance. Although he had the opportunity to attend the Berklee College of Music, he declined strictly for the reason that he would be able to study with Bruce Barth at Temple. Micah is known for collaborating his own sound into more contemporary modern mixes in music. This last summer he Co-wrote and produced his friend’s EP “Teen angst”. Micah is affiliated with organizations such as Rec Philly, and the Global Village. During this last year Micah started his stint as a band leader under the name of the “Micah Graves Project”.  This group so far has played at banquets and corporate fundraisers, under his project Micah is able to incorporate his own soulful styles into modern day songs. Under his project Micah is able to dig deeper into jazz harmony and mix it with modern and old-school gospel. In a recent radio interview, he announced his upcoming cd release in March, a project he has been working on for the last two years.