Uri Caine was born in Philadelphia and began studying piano with Bernard Peiffer. He played in bands led by Philly Joe Jones, Hank Mobley, Johnny Coles, Mickey Roker, Odean Pope, Jymmie Merritt, Bootsie Barnes and Grover Washington. He attended the University of Pennsylvania and studied music composition with George Rochberg and George Crumb.
Since moving to New York City Caine has recorded sixteen albums as a leader. His first two CD’s “Sphere Music” and “Toys” paid homage to the great jazz pianists Thelonious Monk and Herbie Hancock. His third CD, “Urlicht/Primal Light”, featured arrangements of the music of Gustav Mahler and won the international “Composer’s Hut” award for Best Mahler CD of 1997. In “Wagner in Venezia” , Caine arranged the music of Richard Wagner for a small ensemble playing live at the Café Quadri in St. Mark’s Square, Venice. His next CD, “Blue Wail”, included original compositions for a piano trio and featured Ralph Peterson and James Genus. That same year while touring Uri recorded “Gustav Mahler in Toblach”live at the Gustav Mahler Festival in Toblach/Dobbacio, Italy. In 1999 he released “The Sidewalks of New York” a tribute to early Tin Pan Alley. In 2000 Caine released a version of Schumann’s ‘‘Dichterliebe” song cycle, “Love Fugue”, and a new version of “The Goldberg Variations”. In 2001, three new CD’s were released-“Solitaire” for solo piano, Rio” , recorded live in Rio de Janiero with several groups, and “Bedrock3”, a trio featuring electric piano with Zach Danziger and Tim Lefebvre. In 2002 he recorded The Diabelli Variations an arrangement of Beethoven’s Opus 120 for piano and orchestra with Concerto Koln. A new cd of Mahler songs, Dark Flame was released in 2003. “Live At The Village Vanguard “, was recorded there in 2004 and featured Drew Gress and Ben Perowsky. His most recent cd is “Shelf-LIfe” with Bedrock.
Recently Caine has received commissions from the Vienna Volksoper, The Seattle Chamber Players, Relache, The Beaux Arts Trio, the Basel Chamber Orchestra and Concerto Koln. The Pennsylvania Ballet performed the “Goldberg Variations” in 2002, choreographed by Val Caniparoli. Caine was the Director of the Venice Biennale for Music in September 2003, where he also premiered his new work “The Othello Syndrome”. He has performed his version of the Diabelli Variations with orchestras including the Cleveland Orchestra, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the CBC Orchestra in Candada and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. In June of 2004 the JVC Jazz Festival featured his trio, Bedrock, Mahler, and Goldberg projects at the Village Vanguard. In 2006 he was named composer in residence for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and premiered his Concerto for Two Pianos and Chamber Orchestra with Jeffrey Kahane in May 2006.