David Benoit: A Charlie Brown’s Christmas at Shalin Liu Performance Center 2023

An unforgettable pairing of jazz and the holidays arrives in Rockport as the phenomenal pianist David Benoit returns with his heartwarming Charlie Brown Christmas concert! Get in the yuletide spirit as Benoit and his band pay homage to Vince Guaraldi’s iconic soundtrack!

For four decades, the GRAMMY-nominated pianist/composer/ arranger David Benoit has reigned supreme as one the founding fathers of contemporary jazz.  David’s career as a jazz pianist began in 1977 and includes 40 solo recordings over the past 40 years. Many of these, including his 1987 GRP Records debut Freedom at Midnight and its Grammy nominated 1988 follow-up Every Step Of The Way, are considered influential classics in the genre, which became known as “Smooth Jazz.” Among his other Grammy nominations are those for Best Instrumental Composition (for “Dad’s Room” and 1999’s Professional Dreamer), Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance (GRP All-Star Big Band) and voted “Keyboardist of the Year” in 2000 and 2001 by the Oasis Smooth Jazz Awards, and on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Chart.  Recently, David has topped the jazz charts with guitarist Marc Antoine with their CD recording, So Nice and hit single “Caminando.”

He has received three GRAMMY nominations in the categories of Best Contemporary Jazz Performance for “Every Step of the Way” (1989), Best Large Ensemble Performance for GRP All-Star Big Band (1996), and Best Instrumental Composition for “Dad’s Room,” the latter from the album Professional Dreamer (2000). In 2010, David Benoit received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Smooth Jazz Awards.  He has also worked with an impressive potpourri of musicians including the Rippingtons, Emily Remler, the late Alphonse Mouzon, Dave Koz, Faith Hill, David Sanborn, CeCe Winans, Keiko Matsui, Hiroshima, and Brian McKnight.

David Benoit currently hosts a morning radio show on KKJZ 88.1 FM, CA, and continually tours & records, is composer in residence at Montalvo Arts, the Music Director a & Conductor for the Asia America Symphony Association, and resides in Palos Verdes, California with his wife Kei and daughter June Koko.