Dylan Hayes is a top called jazz pianist, composer and arranger originally from San Francisco and currently resides in Seattle, WA. He is 27 years old and began playing piano at age 7. After attending Marin School of the Arts for high school, he continued his studies at Cornish College of the Arts, from which he graduated from in 2019, and was able to study piano with Dawn Clement and Jovino Santos Neto as well as arranging with Jim Knapp. While attending Cornish, Jim Knapp handed over the Jim Knapp Orchestra book to Dylan Hayes and local legend Jay Thomas. Dylan’s piano playing has brought him to share the stage with top tier musicians such as Benny Bennack III, Barry Stephenson, Jay Thomas, Johnaye Kendrick, Thomas Marrtiott, Christopher Brown and Chris Amberger. Dylan’s debut record “Songs For Rooms And People” was released on Blujazz Productions in March, 2020. His debut record is one of the top ten jazz albums of 2020 in The Seattle Times. A New York / Seattle based band that Dylan leads called “Meridian Odyssey” released a record titled "Second Wave" under Origin Records and was listed as one of the top fifteen best albums of 2021 in The Seattle Times. Meridian Odyssey’s sophomore release “Earthshine” received the Northwest Recording of The Year award in Earshot Jazz’s 2022 Golden Ear Awards. In 2023, Dylan received a commission to arrange one of Thomas Marriott’s compositions for The Carolina Philharmonic. The conductor was floored to hear an applause after the string soli that Dylan arranged, and said that he’d never seen an audience clap mid-way through a piece of arranged music in a classical setting before. Dylan was commissioned to arrange Julian Priester’s compositions for the Fellowship ‘Ceptet, which premiered at Dimitriou's Jazz Alley in 2023. He has also been commissioned to arrange for the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra and the Portland Composers Jazz Ensemble. In 2024, Dylan toured and recorded a record in Europe, played in New York City, toured the West Coast and recorded four records of all original music; trio record, octet record, neo-soul / pop record with Vela The Band, and Meridian Odyssey’s third album. Dylan recently played at the Havana Jazz Festival in January of 2025 with his band Vela The Band.