JOAN HICKEY, B.S.(music education) University of Illinois, Jazz Pianist. Joan teaches and performs as a free-lance artist in the Chicago area. She has been recording and leading her own
groups (trio, quartet. sextet) since 1980, as well as accompanying vocalists.

Venues include The Jazz Showcase, The Green Mill, Pete Miller’s,and the Chicago Jazz Festival. Cab Calloway, Joe Williams, Milt Hinton, Nat Adderly, Von Freeman and Buster Williams are among the artists she has worked with.


Tours include Italy, Sweden, and Denmark with the Jazz Members Big Band. She has been awarded 2 National Endowment for the Arts grants, an Illinios Arts Council grant in music composition,
and her quintet was a finalist in the Hennessy Jazz Competition.


The latest C.D., “Soulmates” was nominated for best jazz C.D. at the Chicago Music Awards.


Her teaching experience includes, jazz piano at University of Il., C-U,(current), Verhoog Music Institute, Jazz vocal camps, ISYM, Midwest Young Artist Jazz camp and U. of Arkansas music camps, as well as a large private teaching studio of budding jazz pianists.


“Hickey remains one of the most appealing and distictive pianists in the city...(she) produces gorgeously singing lines and unexpected harmonies...The gentility of her touch is matched by the intellectual accomplishment of her improvisation.” Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune


“Pianist Joan Hickey’s Soulmates, featuring renowned bassist Buster Williams, is as notable for her songwriting and arranging skills as her keyboard chops. A vibrant harmonic glow informs her jazz and pop classics and originals”
Lloyd Sachs, Chicago Sun Times

“At first one hears a floating, rhythmic grace and a rare sense of melodic neatness-a way of shaping the improvised line so it always falls right into place...the beat is powerful and omnipresent, generating the shape of each phrase.” Larry Kart
ChicagoTribune