Born and raised in Greenwich Village, the heart of New York City’s music scene, Jeff Koch started playing electric bass when he was 12 years old. He then began studying upright bass one year later in high school. He began to play regularly around the city as a jazz and rock bass player – most notably at the legendary CBGB’s. Jeff’s high school jazz band was a part of the “Essentially Ellington” competition and the “Berklee College of Music High School Jazz Competition” where he won multiple awards for his bass playing.

Quickly discovering his passion for music, Jeff decided to pursue performing and attend the Manhattan School of Music, where he received both a Bachelors (2011) and Masters degree (2013) in Jazz Bass Performance. While studying at MSM, Jeff began to perform around the country and around the world with a variety of different projects. He shared the stage with many musicians including Jon Faddis, Dave Liebman, Christian Sands, Bob Mintzer, and Mark Whitfield to name a few.

After finishing at MSM, Jeff traveled to Mumbai, India, where he and some of his classmates helped teach the True School of Music. While he had already been an active teacher for the Jazz Standard Youth Orchestra and Jazz at Lincoln Center’s “Jazz For Young People” program, it was in India that he truly discovered his passion for teaching. When he returned to NYC, Jeff continued to study music education and went to Columbia University’s Teachers College. He received a Masters degree in Music Education in 2015. He has also been running his own private guitar and bass studio for the last 20 years.

Since then, Jeff has been continuing to perform around the world and teach at both schools and individual lessons. Some of the places he has recently played include The Blue Note (NYC), The Kennedy Center (Washington DC), Ronnie Scott’s (UK), The Bimhuis (Netherlands) and the North Sea Jazz Festival (Netherlands).