Carolyn Downie is a composer, pianist, writer and teacher. She studied jazz composition and performance at The New England Conservatory of Music and Berklee College of Music and earned a degree in composition from the California Institute of the Arts ('01).

Carolyn has two independently released solo piano albums of original music, "Waves at Bathsheba" and "Etudes". Currently, pieces from these recordings are being used in various multi-media projects online, in radio and film. Impressionistic, expressionistic, ambient and improvisatory, these albums explore new sonorities and approaches to piano performance, composition and interpretation. These works were inspired by composers such as Debussy, Chopin, Morton Feldman, Bartok and Ginastera, along with various concepts of traditional and Eastern theory, third-stream composition and the work of modern visual artists.

In 2007, she finished writing and producing a book and audio CD of piano pedagogy and music research entitled Piano Traveler, songbook 1. With this product, she hopes to educate students in a creative and entertaining way. Also with story and theme-based lyrics, music theory, history and instrumentation information included with each song, this book aims to provide fun imagery, educational topics and positive messages to students of all ages.

Carolyn Downie was recently awarded as a Top Finalist in the Unisong International Songwriting Competition 2006 (children's music category). She is also the recipient of Third Place/Honorable Mention Award in the 2005 International Narrative Song Competition for another one of her songs included in this new book.

Learn more about Carolyn Downie... www.cdbaby.com/carolyndownie  www.carolyndownie.com