Morgan Liu-Packard is an accordionist, teacher, composer, and saxophonist with a focus on jazz and Eastern European folk music. He is most excited by music that serves a social purpose larger than itself and loves wooden dance floors, dark sweaty nightclubs, and the serendipity of street performance.
After spending his twenties and thirties immersed in the world of electronic dance music—producing albums, performing internationally, and creating software—he became a father. Not wanting his new baby to grow up with a dad who lived entirely behind a computer screen, he decided to finally learn to play the accordion he’d bought years before.
He sought out the best teachers he could find, studying with Matthew Schreiber, Sergiu Popa, Peter Stan, Nathalie Boucheix, Dallas Vietty, diving into the technique of the instrument and the nuances of the French, Romanian, and Serbian styles. He also resurrected skills he developed as a conservatory jazz student, bringing an improvisational approach to the instrument and connecting with the local jazz community as an accordionist.
Morgan performs regularly in the Boston area in various configurations of jazz musicians, with the Balkan brass band Conical Cacophony, and as a solo accordionist.