Teaches in Southern California

From Signal Hill, California

Plays and Piano

About

Jason Heemang Griffin is a composer/pianist based in Long Beach. After attaining a Bachelor's degree from Stanford University, he moved back down to LA county to pursue a career in music. Having just received a Master's in Composition from Cal State Long Beach, he is currently actively taking on new teaching, performance, and composition jobs.

While Jason's compositional activities range from media music to research in Korean folk traditions, he has always been active in providing piano accompaniment and lessons to students around him. At Stanford he had provided five years piano accompaniment to the music department's vocal and choral classes, acting as a professional staff accompanist in the last year. At CSULB, Jason went above and beyond the normal responsibilities of a TA to personally write syllabi, design midterms and finals, and act as a lecturer for the university's class piano curriculum. From teaching in private studios to a university setting, Jason is equally adept at teaching piano to young beginners to adult amateurs. While he adjusts the difficulty of technical instruction to each piano student, Jason draws on his compositional background to emphasize music analysis and expression to all levels.

In his free time, Jason enjoys learning the languages and trying the cuisines of all world cultures. Discovering Cambodian food and learning to read Vietnamese are two new experiences that he gained while being in Long Beach. Jason believes that keeping an open mind and embracing new perspectives on the world are critical to the process of making music fresh and accessible to all, whether while composing new projects, performing with different colleagues, or working through repertoire pieces with students.