Aaron Prado, jazz pianist and composer

Dr. Aaron Prado is a pianist, composer, arranger, educator, and radio personality based in San Antonio, Texas. Prado received a Doctorate of Musical Arts in piano performance at the University of Texas at Austin’s Butler School of Music in 2014. Prior to doctoral study, Prado attended Columbia University for undergraduate study and New York University for a Master’s Degree. From 2003-2009, Prado was Music Director and announcer at Trinity University’s jazz radio station – KRTU 91.7FM – and is currently the host of “Aaron Prado Presents” – heard Sundays 2:00-4:00 p.m. In 2011, Prado debuted his “San Antonio Jazz Suite” – a large-scale composition scored for big band, string quartet, and narration depicting the story of San Antonio. In 2015, Prado published a book of transcriptions of solo recordings by jazz pianist Bill Evans (published by Hal Leonard). In 2018, Prado received the Paul Elizondo Grant for the Performing Arts from The Artist Foundation of San Antonio to compose a concert work called “The Hero’s Journey” and the piece premiered at Luminaria 2018 at the Instituto Cultural de Mexico. In 2019, Prado released two new CDs “Live at Jazz, TX” with his sextet and a trio album of original music titled “And Now…” Prado teaches music at Northwest Vista College. The Aaron Prado Trio performs every Friday 5:30-7:30 p.m. at Jazz, TX – located in the Historic Pearl Brewery. He is also the music director for the Sister Cities Jazz Ensemble, an ensemble of international musicians from sister cities around the world.