Debbie Poryes

Debbie took to the piano at five years old, playing show tunes and studying classical music. Hearing Monk and Miles as a teenager, she fell in love with jazz and decided to become a jazz pianist. She spent her early years jamming, practicing and gigging in the SF Bay Area where she grew up.

Downbeat gave Debbie’s latest CD, “Loving Hank,” a 4-star review, including it on its list of notable CDs for 2018, and wrote, “Debbie Poryes is a consistently inventive, talented modern mainstream jazz pianist who sounds very much like herself.” Jazz Chicago wrote, “Poryes’s playing is confident, yet playful, thoughtful, but full of life,” and All About Jazz said, “Poryes colors outside the lines and plays to challenge and compel, but never forgets to entertain.” Renowned jazz critic Herb Wong added, “Impressive, too, is how her swinging joyousness articulates every note she plays.” All her recordings contain Debbie’s compositions as well as her own arrangements of standards and other jazz tunes. All can be streamed through Apple Music et al.

Debbie maintains a full-time private teaching practice. She taught for 20 years at the Berkeley Jazzschool, summers at the Stanford Jazz Workshop, and she has given presentations to groups, including the California Music Teachers’ Association, and the Golandsky Institute. She held a tenured position teaching for seven years at the Hilversum and Arnhem Conservatories in The Netherlands. She felt the call to teach early in her career and continues to adore helping students understand jazz and further their own playing. Her students enjoy her open-minded sensibilities, organization, and sense of humor.

In the summer of 2018 Debbie moved to the Philadelphia area. Her husband Tony Fels retired from his teaching job at the University of San Francisco and they, along with their daughter, returned to his hometown. She continues to teach her California, national and international students with Zoom as well as her in-person local students. She is happily playing with all the wonderful Philly musicians she’s met. Her trio has played at Chris’ Jazz Cafe in Philadelphia and she’s been playing solo, duo and trio at private parties and other events.