Will Gorman

Adjunct Instructor of Music
Jazz Voice, Vocal Jazz Ensemble

Will Gorman is an emerging vocalist, pianist, organist, and arranger. Starting classical lessons at a young age, he was dragged to jazz band in high school and never turned back. Since then he’s been busy working and recording with jazz legends and rising stars such as Vincent Herring, Claudio Roditi, Cecil Alexander, Winard Harper, Sheila Jordan, and Jumaane Smith among others. He’s performed at clubs and festivals all over the U.S., Europe, South America and Asia, including Jazz in Marciac, Blue Note Beijing, Jazz Madrid, Rochester International Jazz Festival, Smoke Jazz and Supper Club, The Black Cat and many more. His own performances blend the jazz, blues, and gospel music of a time gone by, with a modern outlook to take the best of America’s musical contributions, and create a unique and soulful experience for the listener.

At age 19, he joined the band of Grammy award-winning blues master Joe Louis Walker, balancing time between touring and school. He’s played extensively with rising blues stars “King” Solomon Hicks and Vanessa Collier on three of her albums, including Live at Power Station, a live DVD recorded in the famed NYC studio as a keyboardist and background vocalist.

After accompanying Motema recording artists The Royal Bopsters on piano, he subbed as the bass vocalist for several performances, including a performance of Anne Phillip’s Jazz Nativity. He has also performed as a background singer for artists such as Dionne Warwick and Mickey Guyton on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Rockefeller Tree Lighting Ceremony broadcasts. Through Jazz House Kids, an arts organization based in Montclair, NJ, he directs a middle school jazz choir in the Paterson School District.

He attended William Paterson University, studying with Bill Charlap, Harold Mabern, Cecil Bridgewater, Jim McNeely,  and Pete McGuinness, completing his B.M. in Jazz Piano in 2019 and M.M. in Composition and Arranging in 2020.  In 2018, Will was a fellow in the Program for Jazz at Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, studying composition with Rufus Reid and Billy Childs.