Miles Okazaki

Teaches at New York Jazz Workshop

Miles Okazaki in Port Townsend, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest near the Olympic Mountains and the Canadian Border. He began to teach himself guitar at age 6, and by the time he was a teenager, he had already won many awards and local notoriety.

Okazaki moved to New York in 1997 to dedicate himself to a career in music. His first major gig at was with saxophone great Stanley Turrentine. He spent several years touring as an accompanist for the vocalist Jane Monheit, and many other singers, working on Standard repertiore. He is the recipient of several prizes and commissions, including 2nd place in the 2005 Thelonious Monk Guitar Competition, grants from the Chamber Music America "New Works" program, FAJE's "French-American Cultural Exchange, The Jazz Gallery Residency Commissioning Program supported by the Jerome Foundation, and the American Music Center's Composer Assistance Progam. He has studied guitar with Rodney Jones, improvisation with Kenny Barron, arranging and composing with Manny Albam and Anthony Davis, South Indian percussion with Ganesh Kumar, and Bach and Counterpoint with Kendall Briggs. He holds degrees from Harvard University, Manhattan School of Music, and The Juilliard School. For the last two years, he has been a working member of Steve Coleman and Five Elements.