Results for "piano"

Jose Valdes

Director José Valdes draws on 31 years experience in the world of music performance. He owns Valdes Music Productions (VMP) and personally leads and directs about 10 various types of bands for public and private events. Also, he provides his expertise as composer and arranger for all the musical material. Having done thousands of parties, his advice on music selection and detail planning is invaluable. Also José is available as master of ceremonies, bi-lingual Spanish and English. José Valdes has performed with Tito Puente, Lou Rawls, Paquito D’Rivera, Andy Gonzales, Armando Manzanero, Jose Fajardo, Freddy Cole, Ira Sullivan, and many other fine musicians

Joe Ercole

Born: November 2, 1951

Joe Ercole started playing piano at the age of 9. He studied at Peabody Conservatory of Baltimore on a scholarship. Once a month the faculty monitored Joe’s progress. He would have to play in the concert hall for the faculty behind closed doors. After a year, a handful of professors would offer to teach him for free and come to his house. To cut down on travel time his father elected to have them come to him. That went on for 4 years. Then Joe heard the Beatles and turned his interest toward that genre of music, despite his father’s disappointment. At the age of 13 he started a band and started to play rock and roll and Motown cover tunes. At 16 he heard Jimmy Smith the jazz organist and his attention turned to jazz

Robert G. Smith

Born: October 28, 1949

San Francisco Bay Area-born pianist, Robert G. "Bob" Smith, exemplifies the best of prominent musicians performing in the Washington D.C. area today. He is the most active union musical director in society, popular, and jazz venues in our Nation's Capital. Bob completed over 32-years of service with The United States Army Band as the official White House and Vice President's House pianist, Sergeant Major of The United States Army Chorale, and as Enlisted Director and Founder of The Army Blues Jazz Ensemble. His White House duties kept him entertaining every president from Richard Nixon through Bill Clinton, and every vice president from Walter Mondale through Al Gore

Saeed Meerkhan

Born: May 11, 1984

Saeed Meerkhan studied piano and classical music theory under various teachers in Damascus, and then went on to study oriental and jazz independently. He has taken part in a number of workshops, the last of which was in Egypt in May 2008. A number of songs from his current portfolio of nearly 25 was performed in his first concert on January 5th, 2009. This concert was one of the events of Damascus Arab Capital of Culture 2008, featuring Shams Ismael, a Syrian singer, and Nasser Meerkhan, Saeed's brother who is an 18-year-old singer, along with a group of young Syrian musicians. The idea began when Saeed Meerkhan set lyrics by the Syrian caricaturist Saad Hajo to song in 2002

Viktor Séthy Sethy

Born: March 11, 1968

Born in 1968. Studied classical from age 6 to 16.Then two years of jazz. Played with members of Dave Holland Quintet in Warsaw,1987. Got accepted by Berklee at age 16,but couldn't make it. Having mostly improvised solo piano gigs around Europe from 1984 to 88. Went to the USA in 1988,became the member of Rockland County's Jazz,and Blues Society.Played in a band,named P.G.Q. with Bob Magnuson,and Paul Golenya. Returned to Hungary by 1993. Became known more,like a fine artist. Teaching at the mean time,and giving mostly improvised solo concerts on piano,organ,or guitar. Having 10 CD-s available.

Antonio Ciacca

Born: March 14, 1969

A graduate of the Bologna conservatory with a degree in contemporary music, German born Italian pianist Antonio Ciacca has played with jazz legends Steve Grossman, James Carter, Marcus Belgrave, Larry Smith, Roy Brooks, Lee Konitz Art Farmer, Mark Murphy, Johnny Griffen, James Moody and Dave Liebman. Antonio was the pianist for Steve Lacy for his seven years before and has toured extensively throughout the world with jazz legend Benny Golson. With performances in venues such as Pizza express and Ronnie Scott's in London, the Blue Note in Milan, Alexander Platz in Rome, London Jazz Festival, Pori Jazz festival, Stockholm Jazz Festival and the Village Vanguard (with Wess Anderson and Wynton Marsalis), Antonio has proven himself on the world stage

Mark Berman

Born: May 5

Mark Berman is a much sought after pianist, composer, arranger, orchestrator and music director. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut, where his dad, Arnold “Sonny" Berman, a well known trumpet player and big band leader, taught the young musician classics like “Moonglow” by playing notes on the horn which he would expect his son to then chord out on the piano. The younger Berman recalls some early piano pounding at age five, followed by a lifelong love of Miles Davis, Glenn Miller, Count Basie and others. You name it, he heard it from his dad and all the other musicians in the family

Henry Gibson Jr

Torn between a love of traditional acoustic bebop, the algorithmic textures of techno, the high energy of fusion and the spirituality of worship, Henry is redefining the role of the electronic keyboard in jazz music. "My musical conception came about as a solution to the problem of playing for audiences of different musical taste and coming up with something that I loved which the audience could appreciate as a fresh modern sound while still retaining the integrity of the tradition of what I believe that jazz is all about... Learning the rules first and then breaking them!" "I needed to find a way to put more presence to the piano when playing with larger ensembles where the piano was expected to be the lead instrument." I also needed to find a way to be as expressive as possible with melody lines and also gain the ability to mix elements of different genres without changing instrumentation." "Galactic Love" PolyGram - (1992) is Henry's first experimentation with his new concept. After a 10 year reclusive absence from the bandstand, Henry has returned and is again promoting his PolyGram release “Galactic Love.” Concurrently, he is working on the follow-up recording while also establishing his on record label

Omer Rizi

Born: May 27, 1982

I Was born and raised in the city of Beer-Sheva, Israel. I Started to play the keyboards at the age of 5 and piano at the age of 9 and took private lessons until I was 14. From 14 to 18 I studied classical piano at the Beer Sheva Conservatory the teacher Fania Izenberg. I took also several private lessons with Leonid Ptashka and Slava Ganelin. I've graduated from high school with 11 credits of music classes.During high schools' summers, I participated in "Rimon contemporary music school" summer workshops. By the age of 18 I competed in an international classical competition in Albena, Bulgaria

Richard Scott

My parents made me take piano lessons when I was four. Mom encouraged me to practice what the piano teachers wanted me to play, but I always wanted to play the music I heard on the radio or TV. I studied classical piano at first, but I soon became more interested in playing jazz and popular music "by ear", entertaining the family members after Sunday dinner. My grandfather played his old records and encouraged me to figure out the songs. My first interest in traditional jazz came from an old record I came across, "Curtain Going Up" by the Dukes of Dixieland. My first paid gig was in 1991 at a local art center, and my repertoire grew rapidly when I began working at the Pullman, a local restaurant frequented by lovers of old architecture, old antiques, and old music