Alum

Chase Morrin

Assistant Professor
Affiliated Departments
Berklee Global Jazz Institute
Ensemble
cmorrin@berklee.edu
Telephone
617-747-8446
Personal Websites
Chase Morrin's website

For media inquiries, please contact Media Relations

A pianist, composer, and educator from San Diego, California, Chase Morrin is known for his diverse musical range spanning jazz, classical, folkloric, and popular traditions. His music is focused on culturally collaborative projects and humanitarian missions, creating communal spaces for the arts.

Morrin earned a B.S. in computer science with a minor in neurobiology from Harvard University and an M.M. from both New England Conservatory and Berklee College of Music's Berklee Global Jazz Institute. In addition to his studies, he has garnered accolades from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP); DownBeat; the Music Teachers’ Association of California; the Young Composers’ Guild; and the Yamaha Young Performing Artists.

Morrin premiered his own piano concerto with the Louisville Orchestra in 2016, and he has released four albums including The Corn Knight, Turtle, and Gapi. He has toured and performed at a number of world-renowned festivals including the Panama Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, Reno Jazz Festival, Vail Jazz Festival, and Bowdoin International Festival, among others, and has studied with teachers including Danilo Pérez, Vijay Iyer, Bruce Brubaker, Kati Agocs, and Fred Hersch, among others.

Career Highlights
  • Composed a piano concerto commission, April 2016, for the Louisville Orchestra, and performed piano with the orchestra
  • Created and implemented a pedagogically based collaboration process between jazz and classical musicians for a scheduled residency at Yellow Barn, Putney, with the Music Alliance Project, from January 2017 through the present
  • Albums include Gapi (Korean/jazz collaboration on piano with the Gayegeum Duo with DoYeon Kim, focused on melding the aesthetics of jazz and traditional Korean music; nominated for a National Korean Award), Turtle (with the Chase Morrin Trio including JK Kim on drums and Jonathan Chapman on bass), and The Corn Knight (a marimba/piano duo with Yaniv Yacoby)
Awards
  • Nominee, National Korean Music Awards (Korean Grammys), best jazz crossover album for Gapi, 2018
  • Recipient of 10 DownBeat awards in composition, arrangement, performing and leading groups, 2009–2017
  • Recipient of the Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts, Harvard, 2015
  • Recipient of the Hugh F. MacColl Prize for Violin/Cello for the duo composition The Horrors of Toledo, 2015
  • Recipient of the Harvard Artist Development Fellowship, 2013
  • Recipient of four ASCAP Young Jazz Composer awards and three ASCAP Plus awards, 2007–2013
  • Two-time Jazz Education Network (JEN) Composition winner, Composer Showcase, 2012 and 2014
  • Recipient of four composition and film scoring awards through the Music Teachers’ Association of California Young Composers’ Guild, 2007–2013
Education
  • Berklee College of Music
    Massachusetts
    Master of Music (MM)
    Contemporary Performance - Global Jazz
  • The New England Conservatory of Music
    Massachusetts
    Master of Music (MM)
    Jazz Composition
  • Harvard University
    Massachusetts
    Bachelor of Arts (BA)
    Computer and Information Science
In Their Own Words

"I care about interconnected learning and finding deep and personal ways to explore music as a way of life. I encourage students who work with me to delve deeply into the the music they are passionate about and find ways of connecting it to the communities around them."

"I have deep experience as a performer and composer within jazz, classical, and folkloric traditions. Because of my experience with cultural collaborative projects and disciplines outside of music, I offer a multidimensional perspective to the concepts my students wish to explore."