Justin Fields grew up in the world of art – his mother being an artist and his father being a composer. Some of Justin’s earliest memories are of his time spent in the jingle house where his father worked, sitting in on recording sessions with some of the best musicians in New York. Justin began taking piano at the age of six but was not particularly committed to music until he attended a jazz summer workshop at the age of fourteen. Learning about jazz kindled Justin’s desire to become a professional musician. Over the course of his high school years, Justin began to put real work into studying music through taking jazz piano and theory lessons. Additionally, Justin began taking his classical piano studies more seriously.
Justin graduated from the Aaron Copland School of Music summa cum laude, with his BA in Music Education, as well as a Composition Concentration. He has studied classical piano with Konstantza Chernov and Christopher Vath, and jazz piano with Deanna Witkowski. He also studied composition with David Schober. He is the recipient of the Sol Berkowitz Memorial Award, the Presser Foundation Scholarship Award, the Gabriel Frontier Award, and the Cora E. Alter Scholarship Award in recognition for his artistic and academic achievements at the Aaron Copland School of Music. Justin’s works have been performed and premiered by groups like Choral Chameleon and the Urban Playground Chamber Orchestra. Justin has also performed as a solo pianist for the New York Encounter Cultural Festival.
Justin served as vice-president and president of the Queens College New Music Group: a group of student composers that, among other things, puts on an annual concert series of new music composed by Queens College composers. Justin has student taught at Berkeley Carroll with Justin Indovina, conducting and rehearsing a variety of repertoire with middle school and high school choirs. Justin has also student taught with Brian Wagner at PS 370K and the Brooklyn School of Inquiry. In this placement, Justin worked with: special learners, differentiating and modifying instruction to insure the success of all students, and with gifted learners, enriching instruction to insure that all learners were adequately challenged. Justin recently worked for Education Through Music, teaching K-2 General Music at PS 481 in the Bronx. At PS 481, Justin served a diverse population of students. He taught both Integrated Co-Teaching classes (ICT) as well as a large population of English Language Learners.
Justin worked as the Director of Music at Divine Mercy Parish in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where he also served as the Artistic Director of the Divine Mercy Parish Concert Series.He also worked as the Director of Music at St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Currently, he works as the Director of Music and Liturgy at St. Bartholomew Church in Wayzata, Minnesota. He lives in the Minneapolis metro with his wife and two children.