Bio

R. Taylor Fleming is a pianist, composer, and educator from Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. He began his musical training at the Uptown Music Collective in Williamsport, where he studied under Berklee alumnus Dave Brumbaugh, who introduced him to a contemporary approach to music. Before pursuing higher education, Fleming created and directed Central Pennsylvania’s Donald Heiter Community Center music program (2015–2017), providing a music curriculum and performance opportunities for local youth. He then enrolled at Berklee College of Music, earning a summa cum laude degree in piano performance and contemporary writing & production in 2021 while working closely with faculty members such as Joanne Brackeen, Pat Bianchi, and his primary mentor, pianist Doug Johnson. During this time, he performed with professional bands across New England and received the Berklee’s Urban Service Award for his work at the West End House Boys & Girls Club.

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After graduating, Fleming returned to central Pennsylvania, where he established a thriving private teaching studio that has served more than 100 students through private lessons, workshops, camps, and ensemble coaching. His compositional projects include the EP A Book About Birds, the crowd-funded album Friends of the Valley, and the big-band composition Moon Through Trees. In 2024, he expanded his musical horizons by traveling to Rajasthan, India, to study tabla and make recordings with local musicians. Fleming continues to draw from jazz, classical, rock, and diverse world traditions and cultivates his combined experience in performance, composition, community program leadership, and pedagogy. In 2025, he earned coach-level certification with the Association for Body Mapping Educators and is currently pursuing a master’s degree, on scholarship, in jazz composition at the New England Conservatory.