Bio
As an audio engineer and jazz pianist, Duncan LeMay is always surrounded by music. With ample experience in studio recording, live sound, and music production, he brings a wide skillset to any project he is a part of. As a recording engineer, Duncan honed his recording expertise through his education at Indiana University, ten years of freelance recording projects, and two summers working as an audio engineer for Interlochen Center for the Arts. He has mixed audio for livestreams of concerts, classical recitals, singer-songwriter projects, big bands, and alternative rock groups. He has recorded and produced music with artists such as Grayscale Whale, The Reliably Bad Band, Soneros de la Caliza, We Three Swing, and ExWo. As a live sound engineer, Duncan has provided audio reinforcement for various jazz groups, pop groups, and even a few salsa groups.
As a pianist, Duncan has diversified his playing by working with many different groups in the jazz, singer-songwriter, funk, and cuban/salsa genres throughout his musical career. These have included Indiana University John Raymond Big Band, Indiana University Latin Jazz Ensemble, Pat Harbison Group, Joe Galvin’s Danzon Ensemble, Stardusters Big Band, Los Niños de La Noche, Top Shelf, and Double Standard. Currently, Duncan is playing with the Waynesville based Blue Ridge Big Band, Franklin based cover band the Remnants, and the Sylva based We Three Swing jazz collective. In addition to these, Duncan writes and records music for his own projects which often fall somewhere in the realm of jazz or singer-songwriter.
A native of Cullowhee North Carolina, Duncan grew up in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains. Ever motivated to gain experience and skill, Duncan applied to and attended the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics for high school. During this time Duncan started taking jazz piano lessons from his first mentor, jazz pianist Pavel Wlosok. Choosing to pursue his love of music and audio production, in spite of a strong STEM background, Duncan attended the Indiana University’s Jacobs School of music as an undergraduate. Here he further honed his skills as a jazz pianist by studying with Luke Gillespie and Joe Gillman. Duncan, wanting to further develop his ability as an audio engineer, chose to apply for the audio engineering degree after his second year at the Jacobs School of Music. In his time as an undergraduate, he earned a BM in Jazz Studies in four years and a BS in Audio Engineering in three years. All this while maintaining a 3.9 GPA.
Duncan has a passion for arranging and composition. For him, it provides a way to most directly convey his own voice as a musician. His success as an arranger has resulted in his big band arrangements being performed by both the IU Brent Wallarab Jazz Ensemble as well as the IU John Raymond Jazz Big Band. On the other side of things, Duncan has been involved as a score reader for multiple projects including WTIU’s “Gennett Suite”, Interlochen’s Summer World Youth Symphony Broadcasts/Livestreans, Jacobs School of Music’s Concert/Opera Livestreams, and recording sessions with the IU Brent Wallarab Jazz Ensemble.