Chandler Carpenter grew up 30 minutes south of Cleveland in Brunswick, Ohio. He began taking piano lessons at a local music shop and after a few years, he started studying the guitar. He began performing in various bands around northeast Ohio by the age of 13 playing a wide range of music from blues, funk, and soul to classic rock, hair metal, and grunge. His love of “taking guitar solos” eventually evolved into a love for jazz and improvisational music after playing with his high school big band. Carpenter currently lives in the Tri-State Area of New Jersey. He is a faculty member at Passaic County Community College where he teaches guitar and music theory.

Carpenters diverse musical upbringing has resulted in a genre bending style that is evident in his performance style and compositional methods. He leads many projects including his own Trio and Quartet playing original music and arrangements of classics from the American Songbook, Jazz Standards, and popular music. Additionally, Carpenter is an active pit musician who has performed: Shrek, Into the Woods, Mama Mia, Bridges of Madison County, Tommy, Footloose, Next to Normal, Spongebob, Godspell, Grease, The Prom, Bright Star, and Rent.

As a composer, Carpenter has been commissioned to write for big band, wind ensemble, string quartet, flute trio, and arrangements/production of pop music. He leads his own big band The Chandler Carpenter Big Band which performs his original compositions and arrangements. His big band works with Cleveland based vocalist Jeffrey Cruz playing Carpenters arrangements of Cruz's music which has been recorded and will be independently released.

Carpenter is an alumnus of Youngstown State University (MM - Jazz Studies) and The University of Akron (BM - Jazz Studies). He has studied composition and arranging under Dr. Dave Morgan (Joe Lovano, Franklin Cohen), Jack Schantz (Mel Tormé, Sarah Vaughan, Nacy Wilson), and Chris Coles (Nine Lives Project, John Hollenbeck). As a guitarist, he has studied under Dr. Francois Fowler (GFA Finalist) and Dean Newton.