The Piano Guys are an American musical group consisting of four main members: Jon Schmidt, Steven Sharp Nelson, Paul Anderson, and Al van der Beek. They gained popularity through YouTube, where they posted piano and cello versions of popular songs and classical music.
HOW THE GROUP FORMED?
Paul owned a piano store. Because he started a YouTube channel and a Facebook page, he wanted his costumers to market the pianos in his store. He was ambitious, talented, risk taker and hoped to find the right people to work with so he can be the number one music video channel in the world.
His dream came true when Jon Schmidt went to his piano store one day. Jon wanted to practice on one of the store’s pianos in preparation for his concert that night.
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And that’s how the two of them made the deal and ‘the business began’. Jon needed an accompaniment.
At that time, he remembered a magnificent performer that he met when he was fifteen and thought he would be a good partnership. Therefore he contacted him and told him about the plan.
Steve knew another person that he thought would be a great member in the group. And this was Al van der Beek. Steve and Al have discovered a supernatural writing partnership and he was invited to become a part of the group.
As a result, the four ordinary ‘guys’ joined together as one and played classically influenced instrumental music and shared it with the public. Their videos were watched by more and more people and within a short period of time, then they became YouTube stars. From their popularity, they were able to sign a contract with Sony Masterworks in 2012 that allowed them to continue their
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journey. JON SCHIDMT’S BIOGRAPHY: Jon Schidmt was born on July 1966 in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States.
His parents were German immigrants with taste in classical music. Jon performed in piano recitals at the age of eight and started composing at the age of 11, he was able to play “Mozart Sonatas” at that age and often appeared on stage with his musician father. Then he became a piano instructor when he was sixteen. During his study years, he was worried that he wouldn’t be able to have a successful career in music. Therefore, he studied English in college with plans to get an MBA (business degree). But after a successful concert, he abandoned the plans and turned his full attention back towards a musical career. In 1991, he released a superb album, August End. And after signing with Aubergine Records, he recorded a sophomore offering, Walk in the Woods, in 1993. Then followed by A Day in the Sunset, Jon Schmidt Christmas in 1997 and To the Summit in 2000. They were all released under his own label, JSP Productions.
He performs live at many major concert halls, and has worked with a number of other artists, including David Arkenstone, John Tesh, Kurt Bestor, Lex de Azevedo, and Peter Breinholt. Besides his wonderful albums, he also wrote seven piano books containing transcriptions of original arrangements.
His influences include Mannheim Steamroller, Billy Joel, and Beethoven. Many people have been influenced by his piano playing and his passion continues to inspire the
world. STEVEN SHARP NELSON’S BIOGRPAHY Steven Sharp Nelson was born 5th July, 1977 in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. He initially started with violin but found more passion on the cello. He never planned for music to become his future career but after signing with Stone Angel Music, he released his first solo album, Sacred Cello in 2006, therefore earned the Pearl Award for Best Instrument Classical Album. His music invites people in- people from all different walks of life and tastes in music. Steven plays many instruments and combines multiple elements from these instruments, most obvious is guitar and percussion into an innovative and revolutionary way of playing the cello. So his is worldwide considered as a pioneer in exploring the versatility of the instrument. Based his cello talents, he is an award-winning composer, arranger, and entertainer. He has toured the globe performing his works. In 2011, he joined “The Piano Guys” and together they have created one of the popular channels on YouTube. His individual videos are watched by more than half a million viewers every day, and since 2011, many of them have become the top 10 music videos in the world, including his “Cello Wars” and “Beethoven’s 5 Secrets”, both at some stage reached to #1 on the YouTube charts. Steven tributes to Johann Sebastian Bach’s mantra: music is for the Glory of God and for the enlivening of the soul. His performances include a mixture of soaring melodies, infectious rhythm, and laughter. He doesn’t take himself too seriously and insists that no musician should. His inspirations are from a firm belief in a loving God, two incredible parents that have sacrificed so much to offer him the opportunities he enjoys today, and most of all an amazing wife and three children.
The band is composed of six musicians, and has been in the music industry for over twenty years. The main singer is the director and is the oldest member of the band, he has been there since
out his former partner, and claimed rights to the beginning of a catchy tune that would soon stick
While this Fisk group was active in the l890s, it continued on throughout the years, of course with some different members each year and a complete turnover of members within each four years. For the most part, the singers were students at Fisk.
he would never be a good DJ and that he had a lousy voice, promoted him to program director
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven are very famous past composers that have created many pieces that have influenced not just people of their time, but people in modern times as well.
In the Piano Lesson the main symbol is the piano in Berniece’s home. The piano has a lot of meaning behind it and has been through a lot. This piano has made it all the way from the South to the North, which wasn’t easy. Berniece brought the piano miles from where it was because it meant so much to her. The carvings on this piano are magnificent they represent all of her ancestors. The blood and sweat that were put into making this piano means so much more than just something you play is amazing: “ Willie Boy carved all this. He got a picture of his mama… Mamma Esther… and his daddy, Boy Charles. He got all kinds of things that happened with our family” (1183). Instead of carving what Sutter asked he made the whole piano about the history of his family. After the carving was done, the piano became a monument to his family’s
Anderson had a very strong musical education. At age eleven he began piano lessons and music studies at the New England Conservatory of Music in Cambridge. At his high school graduation from the Cambridge High and Latin School, Anderson composed, orchestrated, and conducted his class song. In 1925 he entered Harvard College. While at Harvard he studied musical harmony with Walter Spalding, counterpoint with Edward Ballantine, canon and fugue with William C. Heilman, and orchestration with Edward B. Hill and Walter Piston. Between 1926 and 1929 he played trombone for the Harvard University Band. He eventually became the director of the Harvard University Band for four years. In 1929 Anderson received a B.A. magna cum laude in Music from Harvard. The magna cum laude is the next-to-highest of three special honors for grades above the average. He was also elected into Phi Beta Kappa. Anderson continued into graduate school at Harvard. In 1930, he earned an M.A. with a major in music. He began studying composition with Walter Piston and Georges Enesco; organ with Henry Gideon and double bass with Gaston Dufresne of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. As well as his studies in music, he continued for his PhD in German and Scandinavian languages. He ultimately mastered Danish, Norwegian, Icel...
During his earliest days of playing music, the church had an impact on him. But in 1943, he moved to Philade...
Every person has a past, every race has a heritage, and every family has a legacy. In Wilson’s play, four protagonists, Boy Willie, Berniece, Doaker and Wining Boy are all wounded by their traumatic pasts’ and have only have one reminder of their family history – the piano. During the beginning of the play, Wilson describes the setting and illustrates a piano that is dominating the parlor and gathering dust in the Charles’ home. The piano is covered with carvings of events and “mask-like figures resembling totems.” Wilson then begins to describe the carvings as “graceful” and rendering a “power of invention that lifts them out of the realm of craftsmanship and into the realm of art.” Nevertheless, to the Charles’ family, the piano is not just an ornately carved piano but rather the only symbol of their family legacy; the only way to understand the piano is to go back to the period of slavery. In the play, Doaker begins to reveal the family history to Boy Willie and explains the significance of the piano. During the slave period, Boy Willie and Bernice’s' grandfather's (Willie Boy) was owned by a man named Robert Sutter. Sutter had traded their grandmother and uncle for the piano as a present for his wife, Miss Ophelia. After getting tired of the piano, Miss Ophelia missed her slaves so much, Sutter made Willie Boy hand-carve the faces of his wife and son's faces all over the piano. However, Willie Boy didn't end there; he carved all of his ancestors onto the piano and “all kinds of things that happened with [the] family.” Miss Ophelia became ecstatic when she saw the piano, because “now she had her piano and her niggers too.” When she looked at the carvings in the piano, she could see all the faces of the slaves she missed and the...
Set in Poland during WW2, The Pianist is a biographical film released in 2003 about a famous pianist’s, Wladyslaw Szpilman, struggle to survive the Nazi invasion. The director, Roman Polanski’s personal connection to this film and the fact that it is based on an autobiography makes this text extremely meaningful. However, the production features of a film is what brings forth the director’s ideas to the audience. The interweaved themes of music and hope are conveyed throughout the film, stating how powerful music is in bringing hope and comfort to an individual. In pursuance of successfully communicating this idea to his audience, Polanski employs the techniques and elements of characterisation, tone and cinematography.
talking about is Steve. I was pleasantly surprised. Not only did he create notes but he also
If one has ever been a fan of Pearl Jam, they of course know that Eddie Vedder is the lead singer, and right beside him with his wicked lead guitar playing, Stone Gossard. The other guys on the strings are, Mike McCready on guitar, and Jeff Ament on bass. My favorite band player of any band is the drummer, and for Pearl Jam, this guy is Matt Cameron. He is the only unoriginal band member when they formed in 1991 and produced their first album, Ten. FYI, the original drummer for Pearl Jam was Dave Krusen.
The pianist is a film made in 2002, directed by Roman Polanski and it circles around the life of Waldyslaw Szpilman which was played by Adrien Brody. This movie is a true story of Wladyslaw Szpilman who, during the 1930’s, was known as the most talented piano player in all of Poland. As the Second World War begins, Szpilman becomes subject imposed to the anti-Jewish laws by the Germans who want to take over Poland. By the beginning of 1940’s Szpilman has witnessed his world/the community go from piano performance halls to the Jewish Ghetto of Warsaw. In addition, Szpilman was obliged to suffer the calamity of his families’ exile to German concentration camps, at the same time he is recruited into a forced German Labor Compound by a police guard named Itzak Heller, who had earlier captured his brother in jail. Then he goes hiding in buildings/apartments, but sooner or later ends-up looking through blown-up/burnt buildings at night for food and hiding throughout the daytime. Then one day, a Nazi Officer by the name of Captain Wilm Hosenfeld, discovers him in a building looking for food. Szpilman tells the captain that he is pianist but Hosenfeld doesn’t believe it. So Szpilman proves to Hosenfeld that he is a pianist by playing it on the piano. Szpilman starts out by playing a solemn and concise version of Chopin’s “Ballad in G Minor”. Hosenfeld impressed by Szpilman’s playing of piano, helps him stay alive, but later runs away from the building he is in when Russian army advances. Later it is shown that Hosenfeld is captured by the army and put in concentration camp where he hears the name of Szpilman and tells an officer that he knows Szpilman, after that we are given the assumption that Hosenfeld died in the camp. On the other h...
When you look at the world and all the people on it as a whole, you see that there are very few influential people whose actions or opinions strongly influence the course of events. Ludwig Van Beethoven, a German musician, is one of those very few. He was an extraordinary musician that lived through hardship and had the horrific fate of deafness, any musician’s worst nightmare. Beethoven left a wall standing in history that captured the art of sounds and worked it beyond imagination into music so fragile and pure yet onerous, unable to be matched by any succeeding composer. His determination to push music forward, go beyond the thinkable, and make it his own, has made a huge impact on all music forever going forward.
There are many musical artists who helped shape the music world. It is hard to choose one favorite musical genius, so I chose two. The composers that caught my attention the most is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. They are both completely opposite people, but they somehow ended up having such a huge impact on music. Mozart started music at a very young age, which is amazing to know that someone so young is so talented. He has a huge impact on music history not only because of his talent at playing instruments but because of the wonderful music he composed. His music affected the lives of a lot of people and it still does so today. Even the great composer Beethoven looked up to him, which also influenced the works we hear from him as well. I like Beethoven because although he faced a rough childhood, he still