Pianist Jake Holtzman began his piano studies at age 4 in San Rafael, California, and is currently based in Austin, Texas, having recently graduated with a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance from UT Austin. He received a Master of Music and Advanced Certificate from NYU, and completed his undergraduate studies at Oberlin College & Conservatory. His piano teachers have included Anton Nel, Eteri Andjaparidze, Peter Takács, John McCarthy, Peter Horvath, and Adam Domash.

A passionate teacher, Jake currently teaches at the Clavier-Werke School of Music and the Paula Wong Piano Academy, and he was a teaching assistant during his time at UT Austin and NYU. Having studied both classical and jazz piano, Jake gave his doctoral lecture recital on teaching jazz to classically trained piano students. He was selected to present on this same topic at the 2023 Texas Music Teachers Association Conference in Waco.

Jake has performed throughout the United States with engagements including San Francisco’s Noontime Concerts, the “Bach to the Future” Concert Series in New York, and Columbia University’s Music at St. Paul’s. His awards include Second Prize in Category A of the I Málaga International Piano Festival Competition, the Gilmore Master Class Fellowship, and the Oberlin Piano Faculty Prize in Accompanying.

Jake frequently works as a collaborative pianist, and he has held positions as a staff accompanist for the Kaufman Music Center’s Lucy Moses School and NYU Steinhardt’s Double Reed Department. In 2018 and 2019, Jake interned at the Castleman Quartet Program where he collaborated and performed with many of the festival students in addition to faculty members Csaba Erdélyi, Charles Castleman, and Tom Landschoot.

While not playing or teaching piano, Jake loves to cook, and devotes time to activism for various social justice causes.