Mike Bond
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About
Mike Bond is a pianist, composer, and music director based in the New York area. A Rutgers University graduate who received the Excellence in Jazz Performance Award and the Arthur G. Humphrey Award, he developed under the mentorship of pianist Orrin Evans and has worked with Steve Wilson, Ben Wolfe, Billy Kilson, Conrad Herwig, Curtis Lundy, and the Captain Black Big Band, among others. His debut album The Honorable Ones (2020) received four stars in DownBeat and featured Wilson, Wolfe, Josh Evans, and Anwar Marshall. Beyond jazz, Bond serves as music director for tap legend Savion Glover and has worked with Broadway performers including Andrew Polec and T. Oliver Reid. He is a core member of the AAPI Jazz Collective, which reimagines traditional Asian songs in the style of Black American folk music, and currently works as an accompanist and vocal coach at Rider University.
Trivia
Bond is multi-racial Chinese, English, and Irish American. As a core member of the AAPI Jazz Collective, he has performed at the Metropolitan Museum's Lunar New Year celebration and a diplomatic reception welcoming the President of Taiwan to New York City. He won the New Jersey Perry Award for Outstanding Music Direction in 2016 and has improvised live accompaniment for Elle Magazine's "Burn Ballad" feature alongside Babyface and Offset.
Early Life
Mike Bond began piano lessons at age four and was winning high honors competitions and performing at Carnegie Hall by age six. His parents were both amateur pianists who are self-taught and continue to learn challenging classical repertoire. He began taking jazz lessons around age fourteen. Bond enrolled at Rutgers University, where he graduated cum laude with a dual major in Music Education and Jazz Piano Performance in 2012. At Rutgers, he came under the mentorship of pianist Orrin Evans, who encouraged him to embrace risk-taking and step outside his comfort zone. He also studied with pianist Mike LeDonne, further developing his jazz vocabulary and approach.