Stephanie Nilles is a musician, songwriter, singer and composer who lives in Appalachia. She was raised in Chicago’s suburbs, where she was a student of Annie Marchand Sherter on the piano and Dr. Tanya Lesinsky Carey on the cello. She was a Fischoff Competition gold medalist and a finalist in the Corpus Christi International Piano Competition as well as the International Young Artists Competition. The Cleveland Institute of Music awarded her a Bachelor of Music in classical pianist performance. She studied with Olga Radosavljevich, Anita Pontremoli and other musicians. She moved to New York City in 2006. In 2006 she started writing music. At the same time, she worked as an administrative assistant and researcher at Yeshiva University’s Center for Ethics. She performed 150-200 gigs per year in the US, Canada, Central and Eastern Europe, and her adopted home of New Orleans. The vast majority of these gigs she booked herself. As a participant in the Weill Music Institute, she has performed at Carnegie Hall as well as as soloist and leader at the Stimmen Festivals in Lorrach, Festwochen Gmunden and Bardentreffen Nurnberg. She also appeared as a band leader at Ingolstadt Jazz Festival (Germany), Ballydehob Jazz Festival(Ireland) and a variety of jazz clubs, DIY
