Roberta Piket

Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1966, jazz pianist and composer Roberta Piket is the daughter of Viennese conductor and composer Frederick Piket. She studied at the New England Conservatory yet initially chose computer engineering as a profession, leaving the field after one year to devote herself once more to music. As a protege of pianist Richie Beirach, she played for two years in the all-female big band Diva and finished second in the 1993 International Thelonious Monk-BMI Composers' Competition. Following recording sessions with artists such as Lionel Hampton, the Jamie Baum Quartet, and Stephan Crump, she released her first album as a leader, Unbroken Line, in 1997. Live at the Blue Note appeared two years later.