Biography
Joey Chimes is a multifaceted composer, pianist, improviser, and music teacher currently living in Chicago, IL. His music, while wildly eclectic in its juxtaposition of harmonic and stylistic traits, is marked by its organic sense of development and a keen attention to detail. His debut album, Reflections on Solitude, was released in 2020.
Photo by Sarah Gaglione
His compositional work blends old and new styles, tradition and experimentation, and consists of works for acoustic instrumentation, electronic “sound art” compositions, and film scores. His works have been performed as part of the Atlantic Music Festival in Waterville, ME, and the Walden School’s Creative Musicians’ Retreat in Dublin, NH.
In Chicago, he has performed at a variety of venues in the city, including the Hideout, Davenport’s Piano Bar, the Northman Riverwalk, and the Montrose Saloon, as well as at 54 Below and Theater Row in New York City. In 2023, he and Jackie Smook were awarded the Best Emerging Artist award at United Solo for their show “The Jackie Smook Program of De-Dumbification”. He is the music director and composer-in-residence for Chicago-based dance company Dollop Dance Theater and plays keyboard and synth in the band Roseloft. He also currently plays for ballet classes at Hyde Park School of Dance.
He began studying classical piano at the age of seven, and started composing and improvising shortly after. While in high school, he was enrolled in the precollege division of the Manhattan School of Music. He attended Kenyon College in Gambier, OH, where he studied piano with John Reitz and composition with Ross Feller and Gabriel Lubell. While in college, he travelled to Milan, Italy to aid and collaborate with composer Roberto Andreoni on a large-scale operatic work commissioned by Pennsylvania State University. He graduated cum laude from Kenyon in 2019, and in addition to completing his Senior Capstone in Music with distinction, he was awarded the Gabriel A. Ben-Meir Senior Award in Music and the Thomas B. and Mary M. Greenslade Award in Music Performance.