
I played all classical music when I was [growing up]. That instills the soul in you, you know? Liszt, Bach, Rachmaninoff, Gustav Mahler, and Haydn.
Louis Armstrong
Gerry Bryant: Living Life in the Third Stream

Harvard educated, Global Music Award-winning LA musician and entertainment attorney Gerry Bryant is living life in the “Third Stream,” a term used to describe a musical genre that synthesizes classical music and jazz – and for him, an equally successful law career. He pivots between music and law as smoothly as a soft autumn breeze. His frequent musical collaborator, violinist Mark Cargill, who has worked with him for more than 15 years, credits his background as an attorney.
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“Gerry researches and brings an analytical approach to his music. His music is just so powerful. You can’t shake it,” he says.
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Bryant discovered classical music at the age of 10 when he sat down and played his grandmother’s old piano in Cleveland, Ohio. He wrote his first classical composition at 13. Having grown up in a poor neighborhood where rhythm and blues filled the air, Bryant instead fell in love with classical music. When his parents realized that he could just “pick things out” at the piano, his father moonlighted and took on additional nightshift janitorial jobs to pay for piano lessons from noted music teacher Ethel Morton.
That was the beginning of a long journey that decades later led to a profound unearthing of the music of overlooked Black classical composers throughout history. Bryant’s releases of “The Composers Volume 1” in 2022 and, in 2025, “The Composers Volume 2” -- for which Bryant received a Silver Medal for outstanding achievements in the Global Music Awards’ classical genre category -- are in many ways the most poignant works of his collection. Cargill encouraged it.
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“Something sparked his interest in these composers, and he dedicated himself to producing their music. Suddenly, orchestras started to discover them, including the LA Philharmonic,” Cargill says. “Much of his music is film-worthy because films have to have emotion.”
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Bryant always knew that he wanted to be a concert pianist, but the seeds of his dream sprouted in high school when he landed an opportunity to attend Phillips Andover Academy in Massachusetts and study with New England Conservancy of Music teacher Albion Metcalf. There, Bryant was awarded the prestigious Fuller Prize for musical excellence. He then attended Harvard University, where he immersed himself in other musical genres and expanded his musical vocabulary.

He came to Southern California with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and attended UCLA, where he earned a law degree and an MBA, simultaneously, for the purpose of navigating the music business and handling the fine points of his own music contracts. After graduation, he helped other talented artists through the prestigious Century City law firm Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp, and then through his own solo practice, before landing at PBS SOCAL, where he has spent the past 14 years serving as its Director of Legal and Business Affairs. He has also served as a longtime board member for several arts organizations, including California Lawyers for the Arts, to advocate for artists.
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While law has provided the financial backbone of his professional life, his love of creating and performing classical and jazz music has been the gentle but constant heartbeat that has inspired his work for the world to enjoy. He serves as leader-keyboardist, composer, and arranger of PocketWatch, a five-member contemporary jazz group he founded during his days at UCLA. The group has recorded three albums, including its latest, “Only Time Will Tell.” PocketWatch exclusively plays Bryant’s melodic, upbeat and infectious compositions, which combine classical music and jazz elements.
Bryant is now at a place in life where he wants his musical legacy to ignite positivity and “make people walk away with a smile.” Nowhere has he experienced that more than when he has volunteered to play the piano for hospital patients.
Many of Bryant’s albums – sixteen and counting -- have received critical acclaim from noted classical music and jazz reviewers, including the aforementioned Silver Medal he received from the Global Music Awards.

