Anton Nel - Concert Pianist Performs in Colorado 2011

I recently attended a concert here in Denver Colorado at the King Center that featured concert pianist Anton Nel. You can my review of his performance. The audience was quite favorably impressed with his playing.

If you are interested to know more of his background in his own words, check out this video.

László Mezö, cello Joins Rocky Ridge Music Center 2012

László Mezö, Cellist

László will be filling in for Beth Root Sandvoss during her 2012 sabbatical. Born in Budapest, Hungary, László gained national recognition as one of the top musicians of his generation, and he has forged a career as a soloist, recitalist, master teacher, chamber musician and conductor. He has performed extensively in Europe, Asia and North and South America. László holds master degrees from the Liszt Ferenc University of Music in Budapest and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München. He graduated from the class of Ralph Kirshbaum at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. His CD recording of David Popper's works, on the Hungaroton label, includes several first time ever recordings of the master's cello works.

Do 19th Century Pianos Sound Good?

How do 19th century pianos stack up sound against modern pianos?

How do the older 19th century pianos compare in sound to our modern counterparts. With the new technologies we have today, along with the natural design evolution of the piano, one of the differences is that we can add far more tension on the strings. This provides more power and better tone quality of sound than the earlier pianos. See this sound comparison that illustrates the difference. It has some fun facts about the history and evolution of the piano.

Harlem Stride Piano - Early Jazz Performances - 1920's Music

Performing the Early Jazz Style - Harlem Stride

by Eben Goresko

About eight years ago I began a quest to broaden my piano
performance repertoire into the early jazz,
Harlem Stride style. I previously studied jazz with a number of teachers and listened
extensively over the years to a wide range
of jazz greats from Charlie Parker
on through Mile Davis and into the present.

After hearing Fats Waller's piano solo performances I
was blown away. I decided from then on to learn to play
as much of his music as possible. I proceeded to work up
to the task at hand by transcribing his solos, through
intensive listening and review of his
performances. As a practical matter all of this required
on my part a total revamp of my playing approach and
style.

I will write further about early jazz, Waller, and what I
have learned about performing his music. This is my
most recent recording and performance of "Handful of Keys".
It is one of the great piano solos in history of jazz.

Handful of Keys

I also have included for contrast and as a change of
pace, my most recent performance of a Judy Carmichael Arrangement of Hoagy Carmichaels's
"Lazy River".

Lazy River

You can get additional information about pianos on a number of different sites that I have built. Piano Talk Online is a piano site that has a variety of articles and resources that relate to piano maintenance, playing, history and Colorado Piano Buyers Guide is a rich regional piano site that has exhaustive information about buying and selling pianos and other related resources.