An experienced performer and award-winning composer, Nick Grondin has presented his music to audiences throughout the U.S. and Europe, including France, Italy, Germany and at the Panama Jazz Festival.
On guitar, he leads the Nick Grondin Group, which performs in the Boston area and New York. He presents his music as modern musical storytelling—inspired by rock, folk and contemporary jazz styles. Their recent album, A View of Earth, features pianists Jon Cowherd and Michel Reis, as well as vocalist Aubrey Johnson, and can be heard on streaming platforms. Using a broad palette of sounds they aspire to connect the listeners and performers through sharing a music that is rich on many levels, intellectual and emotional. Their innovative sounds and artfully-filmed live videos can be heard/viewed via YouTube.
Grondin is an active educator, an Associate Professor of Ear Training at Berklee College of Music in Boston, and Resident Artist in Guitar at the University of New Hampshire. His teaching methods focus on building musicianship and applying it to real-world applications such as improvisation, songwriting and internalizing repertoire, and developing cross-cultural understanding through shared musical experiences.
Grondin recently completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Jazz Performance from the New England Conservatory in Boston (NEC), where he also received his Master of Music in Jazz Composition. He has studied with Miguel Zenon, Billy Hart, Donny McCaslin, Jerry Bergonzi, Frank Carlberg, Allan Chase, Dominique Eade, Dave Holland, and Ken Schaphorst. During this time, he had the opportunity to perform with vocalist Cecile McLorin Salvant, pianist Jason Moran and bassist Dave Holland.
Grondin composes works for large and small jazz ensembles. His pieces for jazz orchestra have received awards such as 2008, 2009 and 2011 ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Awards, the 2008 Down Beat Magazine Student Music Award for Best Arrangement of “Strawberry Fields Forever,” and the 2007 Down Beat Award for Best Extended Jazz Composition. In 2008, Grondin launched the Nick Grondin Jazz Orchestra and released his debut CD, SongTeller – The Jazz Orchestra Project in summer 2009 at the Regattabar in Cambridge, MA.
Before coming to Boston, Nick attended the EDIM School of Modern Music in Paris, France and earned his Bachelor of Arts from Macalester College in St. Paul, MN. Outside of jazz and teaching, Nick likes to spend time with his family, go on walks, cook, travel and sing/play rock and folk tunes on guitar, bass, piano, mandolin and drums.