Cynthia Marie

Cynthia Marie Dillard is a pianist, songwriter, &  teacher with a background in classical, jazz & blues, and folk music.  She is a Honolulu Symphony Best and Brightest Concerto Competition winner, Berklee College of Music Summer Performance Program Songwriter Showcase winner, and a graduate of the University of Washington School of Music in Seattle, WA, with a Bachelor of Arts in Music. 

Ms. Dillard is a recipient of the 2020 Maryland State Arts Council Independent Artist Award.  She has produced three albums of original music, and received Jackstraw Artist-in-Residency and Seattle Mayor’s Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs’ Smart Ventures grants.  A commissioned composer for Gamelan Pacifica and featured composer in Washington Women in Jazz Festival, her music has also been performed at DC’s first Asian-American Singer-Songwriter Showcase, and on a variety of radio programs including Voices from the DMV,  Takoma WOWD-LP, and NPR’s WAMU Bandwidth.  She is a regular performer at the Takoma Park Folk Festival’s Crossroads Stage, sponsored by Strathmore. 

As a collaborator, she appears as pianist and/or vocalist, songwriter, or producer on a discography of over 17 recordings with artists from coast to coast.  As an arranger, she has published over 25 sheet music arrangements sold internationally on Sheet Music Plus, and is the author of new piano primer, Piano Studio with Cynthia Marie.

She has performed her songs in Boston, Seattle, DC, Maryland, Virginia, New York, Philadelphia, North Carolina, and Breschia, Italy. She resides in Maryland, where she enjoys teaching piano and voice to her students at Mike’s Music in Ellicott City, MD, directing the Vocal Ensemble and Chorus at Holy Child, exploring music with her 7th & 8th graders, and greeting piano students across the country online at her home studio.   

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