Like Dave Brubeck and Bill Evans, her imagistic compositions draw as deeply on jazz greats like Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington and Count Basie, as well as the classical tradition and the avant-garde. A lifelong passion for musicand art informs the pianists’ sonic tableaux. Hilton's approach is nuanced, and expressive, her compositional style thorough and painterly, her touch on the keyboard alternately tender, brooding, playful or cerebral.

Originally from a small town on California’s centralcoast, Hilton studied classical and twentieth century piano formally from theage of eight, but in college, received a degree in art. “I approach music as myart now,” Hilton explains; “I build the composition with the musical elements –melody, rhythm, form, then ‘paint’ in texture and color with harmony,improvisation, density and other concepts. The final composition is then sculptedto life through emotional identity, phrasing and nuance. I believe in creating art that touches oursoul and connects us as humans everywhere – to me music is the original SocialNetwork”.

Over the course of her creative career, the"Lioness of Jazz," (JazzReview), has played with many of this era'sjazz luminaries, notably Larry Grenadier, Nasheet Waits, Marcus Gilmore, J.D.Allen, Christian McBride, Steve Wilson, Jeremy Pelt, Lewis Nash and BobbyMilitello of the Dave Brubeck Quartet. As a bandleader, in 2014 Hilton willhave produced a total of sixteen albums, representing 200+ iTunes tracks. A leading advocate for 21st centurycomposition, Hilton notes, “Composers today must create a body of work thatrepresents the sound and energy of our lives in this century while embracing our inheritance. I’ve only seen the New York that inspiredGershwin in movies – todays world looks, sounds and feels different, and musictoday must fit our current experiences”. Hilton’s post bop style influencesextend beyond jazz legends to include bluesman Muddy Waters, minimalists likeSteve Reich, current rockers Green Day or modernists Prokofiev, Stravinsky andBartok, while others have compared her to impressionists Debussy and Satie.

Hilton is a prolific composer and records with many of today’s jazz luminaries. Her twenty six albums sit regularly at the top of the Jazz Week and other radio/streaming charts, drawing over a half million streams on Apple Music, almost a million on Spotify, and three million on Pandora. Her music draws on classical traditions, and twentieth century modernists as well as classic American jazz greats such as Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver and Count Basie, as well as blues heroes Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson.

Known for her warmth and leadership on the stage,Hilton has played major jazz venues coast to coast, both as a solo pianist and with her band, and been heard on hundreds of radio stations around the world –including syndicated programs like NPR’s popular Morning Edition. Committed to helping students who are often overlooked, Hilton regularly spends time to help young blind musicians at the historic Perkins School for the Blind in Boston, TheChicago Lighthouse for People Who are Blind or Visually Impaired, The JuniorBlind of America in Los Angeles, Camp Bloomfield for the Blind in California and has also helped The Berklee College of Music in Boston and their adaptive music lab for visually impaired musicians. “Extending help to those with physical disabilities is an important civil rights movement for today,” Hilton feels.