“I remember really enjoying her voice, and just her ability to merge Jazz, Blues, Folk, Pop - all those elements seem to be brought together in her music." "She really does a great job .. (Oh, Legs!) is a fun, fun song. Each of the songs is different. I love what she does with the creation of these tracks.”
— DC Music Rocks, Aaron Tinjum & Brian Nelson-Palmer
“Piano feels like home, my songs are the heart, and improvisation is joy for me.” - Cynthia Marie
Albums
Cynthia Marie's latest album "Harbor" is on Bandcamp, iTunes, CDBaby, and more:
"Centered around piano and voice, the songs explore a theme of love in its many forms - at times vulnerable, playful, nostalgic - and at other times empowered, emotional, and reflective. This album includes friends & local musicians from the DMV, as well as long-time Seattle collaborators. With diverse arrangements including flute, sax, guitars, strings, a great rhythm section, synths - each song fills a unique space in this journey."
Other Albums by Cynthia Marie on Bandcamp, iTunes, & CDBaby:
Golden Tree Story "Openings" Golden Tree Story "Beyond" EP
“Golden Tree Story is like a fine elixir, a tonic for the soul. This music contains compassion and careful listening, as well as an inner joy that manifests in carefully constructed melodies. One ear is tuned to tradition, the other to the future, and from their instruments and voices comes a beautiful song. Recommended for anyone in need of rejuvenation." Rob Hinrix, ROCKiT Community Arts
Bio
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. She studied classical piano with Bonnie Litten and Ann Tanabe, boogie-woogie piano with Caroline Dahl, and jazz piano with Debbie Poryes.
She is a recipient of the Maryland State Arts Council Independent Artist Award, Jackstraw Artist-in-Residency, and Seattle Mayor’s Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs’ Smart Ventures grant. She has produced two full-length albums and an EP of original music, and was a commissioned composer for Gamelan Pacifica and Washington Women in Jazz Festival. Her music has been performed on a variety of radio programs including WERA.FM, Voices from the DMV, FEMchord, DC Music Rocks, Takoma Radio, Hometown Sounds, and NPR'S WAMU Bandwidth. She is a regular performer at the Takoma Park Folk Festival’s Crossroads Stage, sponsored by Strathmore. She is member of ASCAP.
As a collaborator, she appears as pianist and/or vocalist, songwriter, or producer on a discography of over 19 recordings with artists from coast to coast such as Jason Masi, Jenny Terry, Elena & Los Fulanos, Jahnel Daliya, Summer Januaries, & Steve Olof Larson. As an arranger, she has published over 35 sheet music arrangements sold internationally on Sheet Music Plus, and she is the author of a new piano primer, Piano Studio with Cynthia Marie.
She has performed her songs in Seattle, DC, Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, Raleigh-Durham, NC, throughout Maryland, Virginia, and in Breschia, Italy. She resides in Maryland, where she enjoys teaching piano to her students at Mike’s Music in Ellicott City, MD, music students at Holy Child and students at her Columbia Piano Studio. She is a Maryland state certified teacher, and a member of the Music Teachers National Association, Maryland MTA, and Howard County MTA.
