Private Piano Lessons NYC: July 2011

Monday, July 11, 2011

You Tube Concert Series #1: Legendary 20th Century Pianists

The first concert presents four twentieth century piano giants: Vladimir Horowitz, Artur Rubinstein, Cladio Arrau and Sviatoslav Richter. All three musical giants lived and performed into their 80's--at the highest level. When I say that the piano is something you will never outgrow, these four pianists are the proof. Enjoy!

Vladimir Horowitz plays Chopin Polonaise in A flat, Op. 53:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZGi49Bnghs&feature=related

Artur Rubinstein plays Liszt's Liebestraum:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idbaPu1gDPg&feature=related

Claudio Arrau plays the first four movts of Schumann's Carnnival. (There are 22 movements in all!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dC0JAWQsZwM

Sviatoslav Richter plays the G# minor Prelude by Rachmaninoff:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvH2ZZAsG6A&feature=related

John's Biography

John Allen Watts is a classically-trained pianist, composer and conductor who crossed over into popular music after graduating from college. While in high school, John attended the Manhattan School of Music's pre-college division, where he studied piano with Rosetta Goodkind and composition with Tom Mannoff and Edward Bilous.

John received his B.A. in Music Theory and Composition in 1984 from Brown University where he studied composition with Paul Nelson and Ron Nelson and conducting with Wolfgang Balzar. He was a recipient of several awards while at Brown and conducted the Brown Orchestra.

Both during and after college, John began writing songs, at first for voice and guitar and later for rock and r&b bands. He performed as a keyboardist/vocalist with Blind Dates and was a founding member and principle songwriter for Broken Piece and Beuguart, performing at CBGB's, Nirvana, The Village Underground, and The Ritz to name a few.

In 1990, John and his partner, Doug Maxwell, co-founded Off Wall Street Jam - the nation's first "weekend warrior" music club. Within a few short years, Off Wall Street Jam organized several thousand New York amateur musicians into showcasing bands, performing at clubs such as NY's famed "Lonestar Roadhouse," "Bitter End," and "Wetlands."

In 1999 John wrote and produced his first solo CD "Love Ballads." In the same year, his film score for the independent documentary “Freaks: Uncensored!” was singled out by the NY Times for its “lively and eclectic score”. The documentary was named "Best Documentary" in Videoscope magazine. In 2000, with film scoring partner, Reed Robbins, he composed the music for the short film "Luna," which won "Best Score" at the 2000 NYU Student Film Festival.

Since 2000, John has been performing samba, bossa nova and MPB with his wife, Débora Watts. They have just released their first CD "Débora" that features many world class artists, including the legendary jazz composer and tenor saxophonist, Benny Golson. The CD is available on itunes and CD baby. Fo more information go to: www.brazilianbreeze.com.

A strong interest in Spiritual and folk music eventually led John to the music of the Armenian/Greek philosopher G.I. Gurdjieff and his collaborator, the Russian composer, Thomas De Hartmann. Since 2004, John has performed this music at home and abroad, giving concerts in New York City, Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), Yerevan (Armenia) and Tiblisi (Georgia).