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Bio

Dr. Scott Routenberg enjoys a versatile and prolific career as an award-winning jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and orchestrator.  Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Scott began his jazz piano studies at the age of fifteen, inspired by his uncle, a pianist and vocalist.  Scott's jazz piano teachers include Ted Howe (former instructor at Berklee School of Music), Brazilian pianist Manfredo Fest (arranger for Sergio Mendes; taught Maria Schneider), Dr. Scott Warner, Chip Crawford, and Vince Maggio (student of Oscar Peterson).  Some of Scott's jazz piano influences include Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, and Benny Green.

Jazz piano performance venues include the Montreaux Jazz Festival, Jazz a Vienne, the North Sea Jazz Festival, the Hilton Head Jazz Society, the Gainesville Friends of Jazz and Blues, the Biltmore Hotel (Miami), the Lowe Art Museum (University of Miami), Sursa Performance Hall (Ball State Univesity), and numerous other club, restaurant, hotel, academic, and private events.  Scott has performed with Mark Buselli, Brent Wallarab, Greg Artry, Kenny Phelps, Frank Smith, Howard Levy, Billy Contreras, Arturo Sandoval, Jeff Rupert, Jack Wilkins, Mark Neuenschwander, Gary Keller, Ira Sullivan, John Michalak, Alejo Poveda, Dale Powers, Matt Bonelli, Julie Silvera, Phil Doyle, Brandon Wright, Troy Roberts, John Brown, the North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra, the Naples Philharmonic Orhcestra, and many more.

Scott studied composition and arranging at the University of Miami with Gary Lindsay, Ron Miller (Pat Metheny's teacher), and Raul Murciano (Miami Sound Machine), and at UNC-Chapel Hill with Bill Fritz (arranger for Stan Kenton).  Scott's jazz compositions and arrangements have been performed by the Metropole Orkest, Howard Levy, Christian Howes, Roberta Gambarini, Ernie Watts, Carmen Bradford, the Jeremy Monteiro Big Band, Billy Contreras, the University of Miami Concert Jazz Band, the University of Illinois at Chicago Jazz Ensemble, the New York Youth Symphony Jazz Band Classic, and many others. 

Scott's classical compositions and Pops arrangements have been performed by the Atlanta Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony, the Phoenix Symphony, the Orlando Philharmonic, the Naples Philharmonic, and the Coeur d'Alene Symphony Orchestra.  Premieres include Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), and the Fox Newman Scoring Stage in Los Angeles. Conductors who have premiered Scott's works include Michael Krajewski, Vince Mendoza, David Demand, Thomas Sleeper, and Sofia Kraevska. 

Scott is the 2004 winner of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest's Maxell Song of the Year (awarded 2005), for his electro-acoustic composition Bandwidth, featured on the album Jazztronicus. Scott won the top prize after receiving the Grand Prize in the Jazz Category and competing with winners from 12 other categories, including over 25,000 entries in total. Judges from the Executive Committee included Bjork, Elton John, Joshua Redman, John Scofield, Carlos Santana, the Spin Doctors, Danny Tenaglia, Robin Gibb, Enrique Iglesias, the Black Eyed Peas, the Foo Figthers, James Brown, and many more. 

Other awards and honors include the following: ASCAP Plus Award (2005-2012), 2007 ASCAP David Rose Scholarship, 2007 ASCAP Television and Film Scoring Workshop Participant (Los Angeles, with Richard Bellis), 2006 Downbeat Student Award for Best Extended Length Composition, 2006, 2003 & 2002 ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Awards, 2004 Heineken Music Initiative/ASCAP Foundation R&B Grant Program (Miami winner), and 2004 Henry Mancini Institute Composer Participant (Los Angeles, UCLA).

For the past decade, Scott has been recording, digitally editing, mixing and mastering his own music, the result of which can be heard on his self-produced albums Jazztronicus (2006) and Lots of Pulp (2003), both of which explore jazz-influenced electro-acoustic hybrids. 

Scott holds three graduate degrees from the University of Miami Frost School of Music, including the following: Doctor of Musical Arts in Jazz Composition (2008), Master of Music in Media Writing and Production (2005), and Master of Music in Jazz Piano Performance (2003).  Scott also received a BA in Music and Communication Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2001).  Dr. Routenberg's doctoral essay, Americana Suite: A Composition for Full Orchestra, Big Band, and Jazz Chamber Ensembles Inspired by American Master Paintings is published by ProQuest Learning Company. 

As a jazz educator, Dr. Routenberg has taught at the University of Miami, Miami-Dade College (Kendall), and the University of South Florida.  Dr. Routenberg is currently Assistant Professor of Music Performance (Jazz Piano) at Ball State University in Indiana, where he teaches applied jazz piano/improvisation/composition lessons, jazz improvisation, jazz theory, jazz history, big band arranging, and directs jazz combos.