Welcome to the tonebase Piano Community!

Dominic Cheli said:
Where are you from and what's your favorite food from there? ;) 
What are you currently working on? 
What are you hoping to get out of this community? 

Hi everyone,

Nice to meet you all. Let me briefly introduce myself:

1. I live in the Netherlands in the beautiful city of Gouda. Talking about food, we of course have to talk about cheese, what Gouda is famous for (next to beautiful historic buildings).
2. Have been playing organ for many years and switched to piano last year (and I didn't regret it!). Started with easy pieces like Bach's Prelude in C (BWV 846, now working on the Fugue) and Chopin's Prelude in E minor (Op 28 no. 4). Jeremy Siskind's session on jazz triggered me to investigate the world of jazz piano music.
3. When watching the recording of the live session of Ben Laude I discovered this community. I expect this to be a great place to interact, especially around live sessions.

Thanks everyone at tonebase for putting this all together!

Edwin

 Dominic Cheli said:
Where are you from and what's your favorite food from there? ;) 
What are you currently working on? 
What are you hoping to get out of this community? 

Hi all!  I'm Mat.  As a teenager, I started playing heavy metal electric guitar to pick up girls.  It worked most of the time ...  Over the years, I played in different bands, did some bar gigs, recorded a few singles (that were never published ) and went on tour a couple of times. In 2020, I decided to take a break from guitar and try classical piano.  

• I'm from Montreal, Canada.  Favorite food is poutine (not the president but the dish).  
• I'm working on Rameau, Jean-Philippe: Menuet en rondeau 
• I decided to start the RCM grades, so I'm sure I'm at the right place.  I'd like to connect with other members, discuss, exchange and share tips... 

Cheers!

Welcome, Mat. And nice to meet you. There are a lot of great people here...

Greetings, fellow pianophilles!!!  My name is Ty.  I'm 51 and currently live in Houston, TX.  I'm a resident pianist with the Houston Ballet.  I was adopted at age 17 and my parents wanted to give me some opportunities I perhaps didn't have as a child.  I chose 2 things: 1st, I wanted to continue my gymnastics training.  2nd, I had always wanted to take piano lessons.  After that discussion, for the 1st couple of months I would walk up to the local college and listen to students practicing and picked up a few things through asking some of them for help.  After a couple months, my parents found a teacher for me and I studied through my junior and senior years of high school before going on to college as a piano performance major.  Sadly, I never finished getting my degree (hopefully one day.....it's never too late, right?) but I have been playing piano full-time professionally (ballet) since 1997 and have been extremely grateful for the opportunities it has afforded me!!!  

As far as food goes, I LOVE sushi!  Smoked salmon nigiri is my all-time fav.  

Regarding pieces I'm working on, I have started tackling Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 6 and Rachmaninoff's Prelude Op. 23 No. 7 in C minor.  

Piano is literally the air that I breathe and I simply have never seen my life existing without it!  The classical piano repertoire (not just the Classical period) has always held a special place in my heart and speaks to me in spiritual ways that no other genre can.  Not to be morbid....but early on in my studies I was told of a pianist who died while playing a concert.  I thought.....wow, that's how I want to go - doing the very thing that has enriched my life and given it so much meaning!!!  :-)  

I look forward to getting to know you all and thank you to the Tonebase team for creating this terrific forum!  Incidentally, I think we may know someone in common.  Caroline Hong (The Ohio State University and Cincinnati Conservatory of Music) is a treasured friend of mine and I think you may know her as well.  :-)

Tyrone Boyle  I finished my music degree at 36. Jason was playing professionally since he was 12. He studied for a time at USC for jazz studies and couldn't afford to finish up, so he did classical piano performance (bm) at a state college here in CA 10 years after he started- for him the degree was for his mom... he was the first in his fam to go to college, but piano is his life. I am 50 now... while I am by no means a "professional" I do teach. Playing piano is definitely the biggest joys (and curses at times) I know! One of my choir directors from high school, who is also a church organist once said, "I hope I play until I die. It would be fitting that I would play during mass, and you all of the sudden heard a funny blocked chord... only to find out it was me, expiring on the organ."  (to add on to your morbidity! ;-) ) That's the spirit! I hope am still playing in 40 years! Nice to meet you!

Hi everyone,

I was born and raised in Staten Island, New York (which is part of New York City) and my favorite food from there I suppose is (NY style) pizza :) But I haven’t lived there for many years. I now live in Washington DC.

I am currently working on:

-Mendelssohn, Songs without Words, Op. 19 No. 1

-J. S. Bach, The Well Tempered Clavier, Book I, Fugue in C major, Prelude and Fugue in C minor

-Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition (opening Promenade only, for now)

-J. S. Bach, many of the Two Part Inventions

- Scott Joplin, Maple Leaf Rag

-other shorter pieces including some Beethoven Bagatelles, Schubert Moments Musicaux, Impromptus, etc.

What I’m hoping to get out of this community- for context, I’m close to retirement age. I started playing piano seriously again about 10 months ago, after a long hiatus (although I have always been been involved with music -playing guitar, singing, etc. in the interim). The Tonebase lessons are valuable (those that coincide with the pieces I am learning and re-learning, but also the ones that focus on less well known composers (such as Rzewski, Ligeti) and other genres (such as Jazz).

Steven