Tara Buzash: About Tara

Tara Buzash is a jazz pianist, composer, and instructor in the Princeton, NJ area. She has been playing concerts and festivals, and performing at restaurants, parties, and events, since 1991. She is founder and Artistic Director of the annual Westminster faculty jazz concert, consisting of original music composed by members of the faculty. Last year, she played a solo piano mini-tour called "Creative Spirit" – a true jazz offering with original compositions, new arrangements of old songs, audience requests, medleys, and impromptu compositions – with her husband's artwork on stage with her.

Tara has recorded two jazz piano albums. Her October 2006 album is entitled "Places I've Gone, People I've Seen" and includes new original jazz and arrangements of well-known songs. These recordings showcase Tara's piano talent in various settings. In February 2005, Tara recorded a solo album entitled "Tara Buzash,” including originals and arrangements of various styles of songs.

Tara is currently in her fifth year of teaching at Westminster Conservatory in Princeton, NJ. She has just been named Improvisation Department Head within the elite Young Artist Program, and she serves as Camp Director of Westminster’s summer Jazz Piano Camps for high school and middle school students. During the school year, her teaching duties include private piano lessons and jazz improvisation classes for middle school students, high school students, and adults.

She also maintains a private lesson studio in her home, and leads highly focused trio workshops for jazz piano students.

In addition to playing jazz piano, she has experience in various accompaniment settings. She has played for Broadway tap dancer Maurice Chestnut, for musical theater at the Hopewell Off-Broadstreet Theatre, and for ballet classes taught by the American Ballet Theatre’s retired principal ballerina, Susan Jaffe.

Tara spent two years performing and teaching jazz to Chinese students in the People’s Republic of China. She is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and conducted all of her teaching in this language.

Tara was a collegiate softball athlete and the editor of her college student newspaper. She now enjoys ballet classes and swimming.