Kelvin Sholar

Kelvin Lamar Sholar, (born May 22, 1973 in Detroit, Michigan), is an American pianist, vocalist and bandleader. Sholar’s career started at the age of five as a vocalist, later developing as a classical pianist and winning the Michigan Bach festival competition at sixteen. As a jazz pianist, Sholar has gained much national and international exposure with Clark Terry, Lenny White, Wallace Roney, Kevin Saunderson, Bobby Watson, Mark Turner, Q-Tip, Greg Osby, Caron Wheeler, Jerry Gonzales, John Tchicai, Stevie Wonder, Nigel Kennedy and Carl Craig.

Kelvin Sholar has performed on over 100 recordings. He has composed over 300 compositions, which have been performed or recorded by The Roots, Q-Tip, Lenny White and others. Sholar has been awarded over ten musical awards, and he has personally appeared in dozens of international live interviews, media articles, radio and TV shows. Sholar has endorsed Bechstein Pianos, Bösendorfer Pianos, Native Instrument’s “Maschine”, Focus Rite/Novation “X-Station”, Ableton’s “Live”, Ploytech’s “34ONEII” and “Pi Lambda Squared”, M-Audio’s “Axiom Air 49” and Dave Smith’s “Prophet 8” and “Oberheim 6”.

Kelvin Sholar is dubbed a “modern-day Leonardo Da Vinci” (2013 Deutschland Radio Kultur/ Ilke Butzmann-Lorenzon). Sholar has developed a unique method of musical education outlined in his book The Sholar System.