About this user
I'm a composer-pianist, originally from Massachusetts, USA, now living in the small seaside village of Vindenes on the island of Sotra, off the western coast of Norway near Bergen.
I've been playing piano since age 5, and composing since age 7. My background includes much nightclub work in Massachusetts, contemporary music concerts in Chicago (as pianist, composer, and concert director), and presenting works as pianist-composer for community events in Bergen, Norway. My educational background includes an Honors in Music degree from Clark University and doctoral studies in music composition at the University of Chicago (under the late composer Ralph Shapey).
In recent decades most of my works have been scored in various forms of experimental notation, and for variable instrumentation and length. For me it's most convenient to present these works myself in versions for solo piano, but the majority of these pieces could also be presented in versions for other instruments. (Some of these pieces have been slightly shortened here to fit recording requirements.)
In choosing pieces of mine to record for YouTube, I've tried to select a wide diversity of styles, to reflect the musical eclecticism of my compositional approaches; I've also tried to select a mixture of older and newer compositions. Scores of some of these works can be found in the Notes section of my Facebook profile (see the website link above).
I hope you enjoy my music!
Age
57
Hometown
originally Worcester, Mass.; now Vindenes, Norway
Country
Norway
Occupation
social services provider for children with special needs
Companies
I'm not a "company man"
Schools
Clark University (music and mathematics), University of Chicago (doctoral program in music composition), Emerson College (graduate program in speech-language pathology)
Interests
piano, composition, and improvisation; "classical" music and jazz, particularly contemporary serious music, avant-garde, and experimental; Judaism and Jewish thelogy; liberal politics; American, Middle Eastern, and Jewish history; "tikkun olam" [Hebrew: correcting the world's problems]; research into the disorder of stuttering; mathematics and logic; walking in natural scenic areas; baseball (particularly the Boston Red Sox)
PianoplayerPaul
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