Through his exploration of Pan-American piano Cliff Korman has embraced the cross-fertilization among traditional genres and repertoires, discovered the piano as a new instrument. In mastering rhythm and unfolding a maze of melodic suggestions, Korman works with sound like a diamond carver, constantly marveling at the intimate dependence of clarity and hybridity. His improvisational dialogue with the masters of the pan-American piano tradition becomes every day more punctual, drawing connections between many of the early 20th century giants like Radamés Gnattali, Duke Ellington, and Heitor Villa-Lobos and Korman's contemporaries on both sides of the continent.

Korman's recent CD Migrations (Planet Arts, 2005) featured a suite inspired by a variety of classical and popular fonts whose elements were connected by improvised reflections on piano solo.

In 2007 at the Fazioli Salon Korman presented an innovative investigation on piano solo in which he draws on the Pan-American classical repertoire to explore the modes of creativity in relation to oral and written sources. For over twenty years Korman has divided his time between New York and Brasil, establishing numerous channels of exchange on a personal and institutional level.

An original practitioner both in the jazz and Brazilian popular and classical repertoires, he is also an expert in the history of Brazilian music and has succeeded in maintaining the authenticity of the "luso" component next to the prevailing anglo-hispanic traditions. His research, however, transcends ethnic identifiers to focus on the broader human search of the way in which through music we experience, express, and remember.