NYC-based pianist Grant Richards is an award-winning jazz performer, composer, and educator able to adapt to a wide range of settings, styles, and genres. A native of Portland, Oregon, Grant began playing piano at the age of eight. By the time he entered college, he had won four Student Music Awards from Downbeat Magazine and recorded his first album as a leader. In 2009, Grant enrolled at Berklee College of Music on a full-tuition Jimmy Lyons Scholarship. He has since shared the stage with Grammy® award-winning artists Esperanza Spalding, Eddie Gomez, and Terri Lyne Carrington, as well as luminaries Simon Phillips, Kurt Rosenwinkel, and Valerie Simpson.

After releasing his second studio album Numinous, Grant moved to Japan for nearly three years where he taught at an international music school and performed often in the vibrant Tokyo music scene. Upon his return to the US, he moved to New York City and shortly thereafter acted as the Musical Director for the 2019 Jacob’s Pillow Tap Program led by Dormeshia and Michelle Dorrance in collaboration with renowned artist faculty including Dianne Walker, Brenda Bufalino, Derrick K. Grant, Jason Samuels Smith, Maria Torres, and Sam Weber. In 2021, Richards — a pianist deeply immersed in bebop and the blues — lead his music in a bold and emergent new direction with his album, Ballyhoo, an Afro-Cuban celebration named as one of the best releases of 2021 by Jazziz critic Mark Holston.

Since then, Richards has established a new quartet featuring some of NYC’s most in-demand musicians: Daniele Germani on saxophones, Simón Willson on bass, and Adam Arruda on drums. Brimming with creative momentum on the heels of their 2022 release, One and Done, Grant expanded his quartet to include two esteemed New York jazz veterans: saxophonist Dayna Stephens and trumpeter Scott Wendholt. The resulting powerhouse sextet won a New Jazz Works Grant from Chamber Music America in 2023 and has performances and recordings planned for 2024-2025. Also in 2025, Grant will be leading another sextet featuring violin, cello, and tenor saxophone, resulting in a studio recording supported in part by funding from the Cafe Royal Cultural Foundation Spring 2024 Music Recording Grant.

Grant currently resides in Brooklyn where he maintains an active performing and teaching schedule in the city. In addition to his sextet projects, in October 2024 Grant released  Menagerie, a vast collaborative songwriting project straddling the line between jazz, pop, and neo-soul which features a host of talented vocalists and musicians living in the NYC area.