Toby Koenigsberg received his Master of Music degree in Jazz and Contemporary Media from the Eastman School of Music and pursued graduate study in classical piano at the Peabody Conservatory.
A critically acclaimed recording artist for the Origin and Ninjazz record labels, Koenigsberg has released the albums Push, Sense, and Drift, the last of which interprets the music of Elliott Smith. He has performed at major venues throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, including the Rochester International Jazz Festival, the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music Jazz Festival, Jazz Festival Calgary, the Värinää Festivaali in Finland, the Knitting Factory in New York City, and elsewhere. He has presented at the annual conference of the International Association for Jazz Education, the Royal Academy of Music in London, England, the Shenyang Conservatory in Shenyang, China, Shikoku University in Tokushima, Japan, at which he held a visiting professorship for over a decade, and at universities throughout the United States.
Koenigsberg is the author of six books on piano playing, musicianship, songwriting, and music production. His Contemporary Songwriting has been adopted as a required textbook at over a dozen institutions of higher education throughout the United States; its third edition, Contemporary Songwriting with Ableton Live and GarageBand, publishes from Bloomsbury Academic. His five-volume piano method, Toby’s Piano Improvisation, was recommended by the Oregon Music Teachers Association as the primary book series for Levels 1–5 of its Jazz Syllabus program. He has also published articles in Jazz Education Journal and JazzED magazine.
Koenigsberg’s professional leadership roles have included Performance Chair and Discipline Liaison—Applied, at the international conference of the College Music Society, CMS Summit 2.0: 21st Century Music School Design, and Jazz Syllabus Chair, for the Oregon Music Teachers Association. A nationally sought-after consultant, Koenigsberg regularly advises universities across the United States on curricular innovation in music studies.
