Exhilarating jazz pianist/improviser Marilyn Lerner performs to acclaim internationally, from her native Montreal to Havana, from Jerusalem to Amsterdam and the Ukraine. Her groundbreaking recordings have garnered recognition, including "Best Western Canadian Jazz Recording 2004."

Lerner's work spans the worlds of jazz, creative improvisation, klezmer, and 20th century classical music. She composes for film, theatre, radio and television. She produced the first contemporary Canadian jazz recording to come out of Cuba, playing her compositions with greats Dafnis Prieto, Yosvanny Terry, and Jane Bunnett (on the Jazz Focus label).

Along with her innovative solo piano work, Lerner tours with the Queen Mab Trio (with Lori Freedman and Ig Henneman), across Canada, the U.S. and Europe. Their 2006 European tour including the prestigious Wels Unlimited Festival in Austria. Lerner has appeared with Tito Puente, Gerry Hemingway, and Steve Lacy. In the jazz world she performs with Sonny Greenwich, the Mad Satie Trio, Lou Grassi and Ken Filiano, and in the Jewish scene with Adrienne Cooper, Frank London, From Both Ends of the Earth, Alicia Svigals and David Wall.

Lerner's original music has garnered the Montreal International Jazz Festival award for best composition. Her audio art collages have been broadcast nationally. A recent commission by CBC in honour of Shostakovitch's 100th birthday was performed by the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra in November 2006.

A prolific recording artist, her most recent work includes Romanian Fantasy, a solo CD of improvisations on traditional Eastern European Jewish music recorded at the Glenn Gould Studio at CBC, Queen Mab Trio's Thin Air (WIG), solo improvised piano Luminance (Ambiences Magnetiques), Special Angel (C.B.C. records), her award-winning duo with jazz guitar legend Sonny Greenwich, and, with singer David Wall, Still Soft Voiced Heart (Traditional Crossroads), original settings of contemporary Yiddish poetry. 

Lerner conducts workshops on improvisation and on Jewish music throughout North America, Europe and the former Soviet Union. Current projects include recording and performances of "Shake my Heart like a Copper Bell", a contemporary Yiddish song cycle for which she received a Hadassah-Brandeis research award, ongoing collaborations with poet Patrick Friesen, and a new jazz trio project with Nick Frasier and Matt Brubeck.