bio

Ariel Pocock is a pianist, singer, and composer. Critics have described her work as having “levels of stylistic and emotional breadth and artistic depth that few of [her] peers can match” (Ottawa Citizen), and have said that she has a “true facility for…sinewy jazz piano [and] breezy, achingly plain-spoken vocal chops…” (Seattle Times).

Notable performances include the Tokyo Jazz Festival, the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Rochester Jazz Festival, the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, the Quebec International Jazz Festival, the 55 Bar, Jazz at Lincoln Center Shanghai, the Port-Au-Prince Jazz Festival, and Birdland Jazz Club.

Born in 1992 to classical pianist parents, Ariel was drawn to jazz piano from an early age. After moving to the Seattle area at the age of 10, she benefited greatly from the area’s wonderful high school jazz education programs and from her piano teacher Michael Stegner.

Ariel received a Stamps Family Scholarship to study jazz piano performance at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, where she worked with Martin Bejerano, Shelly Berg, and Gonzalo Rubalcaba. During her sophomore year of college, Ariel recorded her first album, Touchstone, with Larry Grenadier, Julian Lage, Seamus Blake, and Eric Harland. Produced by Matt Pierson, the album was released on Justin Time Records in 2015. She recorded a second album on Justin Time Records: Living in Twilight (2017), with Jim Doxas on drums and Adrian Vedady on bass. Both albums received favorable reviews in Downbeat and Jazz Times, and spent several weeks in the top 10 radio spots on the JazzWeek play charts.

Ariel’s most frequent collaborators include guitarist Keith Ganz, saxophonist Chad Eby, bassist Steve Haines, and pianist Ernest Turner. She has also performed extensively with vocalists Veronica Swift, Arianna Neikrug, and Halie Loren.

Ariel lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina with her husband Evan Ringel and their dog Joni. In 2021, she began a post-baccalaureate program in the pre-medical sciences, and hopes to matriculate to medical school next year. She plans to continue writing and recording original music throughout her medical training and career.

Before returning to school, Ariel was a jazz piano professor at UNC Greensboro (2017 - 2022) and at East Carolina University Brody School of Music (2019- 2021). Other previous teaching engagements include Brevard Music Center, the Stanford Jazz Festival, the Northeast Jazz and Recording Camp, the Jefferson Jazz Institute, and Russell Lacy Music.