Biography

Aris Chalin is an award-winning jazz pianist and keyboardist from Ann Arbor, MI.

Aris' love for music started early on in life, from listening to radio and CDs in his parents car. He started taking classical piano lessons at age seven. When he was accepted to Community High School in Ann Arbor, he joined the esteemed Community High Jazz Band, and discovered a new path with the piano. While in high school, his combos received two Downbeat Student Music Awards, for Outstanding Combo and High School Combo Winner.

Continuing his studies at Western Michigan University under the tutelage of Matthew Fries (Curtis Stigers, Keith Hall), Aris joined regional jazz fusion band Minor Element, traveling with them to performances in Chicago, Detroit, Windsor CA, and NAMM 2023. In 2020, he and his combo led by Drew Deur received another Downbeat Student Music Award, this time in the graduate student division. At Western, he honed is arranging and composing abilities as well as his performing chops. During his time there, he arranged Jacob Collier's Do You Feel Love? for WMU's Gold Company and GCII for their spring performance GC42. He also arranged and performed one of Chris Potter's compositions entitled Sky for his guest artist arrival in 2022. 

Also during his time at Western, he performed and played alongside world-class jazz musicians in masterclasses and guest artist appearances, such as Chris Potter, säje, Christian McBride, Johnaye Kendrick, and Bobby Broom.

Recently honored as a 2026 Gilmore Festival Fellow, in which he performed as part of the Gilmore Piano Festival, Aris performs regularly. He is currently based in the Ann Arbor/Detroit area and travels around the country with his namesake trio, and as a sideman for many groups.

Aris is also a collaborative partner with Expressive E’s “Osmose” keyboard project, specifically showcasing its use in a live performance setting.

Aris has a wide range of performance experience, including with;

The New York Voices, Kim Nazarian, Jay Ashby, Andrew Rathbun, Keith Hall, Carlo De Rosa, Scott Cowan, Brandon Fitzpatrick, Kasan Belgrave, the Rick Burgess Legacy Trio, Samuel Nalangira, Paul Keller, Tommy Pancy Octet, Liz Townsend, and Oliver Mayman.

Past venues include:

The Gilmore Piano Festival, Blue Llama Jazz Club, Bands at NAMM 2023, Kerrytown Concert House, Sofar Sounds Chicago, Hill Auditorium, Cliff Bells, Bell’s Eccentric Cafe, Chris’s Jazz Cafe, Good Cha Jazz Club (Hangzhou, China), Merriman’s Playhouse, Michigan Jazz Festival, and The Alluvion.