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Bio
The story "behind the music"? More Cowbell!! In addition to being a composer/lyricist and singer, I am also an arranger/orchestrator. I write Pop/Rock, Jazz, Classical, and Theatre Music.
From childhood, I was exposed to a wide variety of music, but probably the biggest influence was the Beatles and George Martin. Not only are the songs and performances great, but so are the orchestrations, which is why I eventually learned the craft. Other influences would range from Mozart, Beethoven, and Prokofiev, to Rodgers and Hart, the Gershwins, and Sondheim, to Ellington, Strayhorn, and Gil Evans, to the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Yes, and Billy Joel. In the current pop market, I really like Alicia Keys.
I'm essentially self taught, though I did have piano lessons enough to learn to read music, and a music theory class in college to give me a basic understanding of structure. Songwriting, however, is not something that can truly be taught, only its analysis. Either a writer hears strong melodies, or he doesn't. She either knows how words sit on tunes, or she doesn't.
When I moved to New York, I was fortunate enough to be taken under the wing of Stephen Sondheim's copyist, and from her I learned that craft. As a copyist, I then got to go to orchestra rehearsals, and read, hear, and learn from many of the world's finest theatre composers (Sondheim, Cy Coleman, Jerry Herman, Michael John LaChiusa, and Jason Robert Brown) and orchestrators (Jonathan Tunick, William Brohn, Don Sebesky, and Michael Starobin).
Most recently, I've entered the world of ProTools, and am now creating my own demo recordings using ProTools, Finale, and musician friends.
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