Sullivan Fortner - Moments Preserved

Sullivan Fortner is a New Orleans-based jazz pianist, composer and arranger who’s already demonstrated prodigious talents.

He began playing the piano at age seven then won the Cable Cox’s “Amazing Kid” award at age 11. Two years later, he enrolled at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, where he became Valedictorian of his high school graduating class. He continued his formal music studies at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in jazz performance, and at the Manhattan School of Music, where he earned a Master’s degree in jazz performance.

Fortner complemented that experience by studying under such jazz piano masters as Peter Martin, Fred Hersch, Jason Moran, and Phil Markowitz, and playing in bands led by Stefon Harris, Etienne Charles, Roy Hargrove, and Christian Scott. Fortner is also the recipient of the 2015 American Pianist Association Jazz’s Cole Porter Fellow Award.