Gregg Kallor was born in Cleveland, Ohio and raised in West Hartford, Connecticut. He began improvising on the piano in
his home at a very early age, started classical piano lessons when he was six, and added jazz lessons a few years later.
In high school, he performed in jazz ensembles and rock bands, appearing at The White House and touring Europe. Kallor
(pronounced KAY-ler) studied with Kenny Barron at Rutgers University, and Fred Hersch at the New England Conservatory of Music.
He graduated from Tufts University with a degree in American Studies, and then moved to New York City, where he continued
piano study with Sophia Rosoff and composition with Herschel Garfein.
Exhilaration - Dickinson and Yeats Songs, the acclaimed new recording of Kallor's settings of poems by Emily Dickinson and William Butler Yeats, was released on the composer's own independent label 2008. The recording features mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala, who premiered these cycles with Kallor at his Carnegie Hall debut recital in 2007. Also included on the album are Kallor's setting of Christina Rossetti's poem, Song, and Lullaby, to lyrics by Herschel Garfein. Opera News wrote, "Kallor knows how to make these words sing, and Zabala gives perfect flight to them."
Kallor created an interactive student workshop that explores the relationship of poetry and music (SongsWorkshop.com). This program offers students a unique opportunity to hear Kallor's songs performed live, and to engage in an open discussion about the poems and the settings with the composer. "Kallor's approach to making sense of poetry through music... is an important method of drawing out students' creativity and empowering them to understand for themselves the work of one of the world’s greatest poets." (Jane H. Wald, Executive Director of the Emily Dickinson Museum)
In March 2007, the Abby Whiteside Foundation presented Kallor's official New York concert debut as pianist and composer in Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. Harris Goldsmith wrote: "It took but a few impeccably shaped phrases to make it plain that Kallor is a formidably well-trained technician and a master of stylish proportion as well... This superb recital debut truly established a new, important voice in our musical annals."
Presented there again by the Abby Whiteside Foundation in April 2009, Kallor played a rich and innovative program that showcased his versatility and his fresh approach to the solo recital: classic repertoire by Brahms, Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff, improvisation, contemporary pieces (including music by Brad Mehldau and Elliott Smith) and the premiere of two original compositions. "Kallor [is] one of those rare musicians who successfully straddles the cultural divide between jazz improvisers and classical players." (The New Orleans Times-Picayune)
Kallor's first album, There's A Rhythm, features his jazz trio (with bassist Chris Van Voorst Van Beest and drummer Kendrick Scott). He is currently composing a concerto for piano and orchestra.