A lauded jazz pianist, arranger, and educator, Bill Cunliffe is an adept soloist with a swinging flow and a lyrical improvisational quality. A graduate of Eastman School of Music, Cunliffe first launched his career as a drummer and arranger with the Buddy Rich Big Band. He gained wider attention winning the 1989 Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz International Piano Competition. Along with his solo albums, he was a member of the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, and has worked with artists like Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, and Michael Bublé. In 2010, he won a Grammy Award for his arrangement of "West Side Story Medley" with the Resonance Big Band. Based in Los Angeles, Cunliffe balances his time between teaching at California State University, Fullerton, leading his own post-bop jazz groups, and working with his Latin band Imaginación and his classical-jazz ensemble Trimotif.