I was going to tell you a little about the amazing show I was lucky to be part of last weekend. One of the highlights for me was the opportunity to meet and perfrom with pianist David Lanz, who has been the single biggest influence on me musically! Pianist David Nevue also performed at this show, and on his blog he describes the evening quite beautifully, so I'll let him tell the rest...
"Last Saturday night I performed a Whisperings piano concert with fellow pianists David Lanz and Scott D. Davis at the Vacaville Performing Arts Theatre (in California) - a 500 seat venue. We sold over 400 tickets to the show, making this the largest crowd I had ever played for.
"I started the show by playing Overcome, from my CD of the same name. I then welcomed the crowd and introduced them to the Whisperings: Solo Piano Radio concept - telling them about the broadcast and more or less what we're trying to. Then, I sat down and played The Vigil, As the Deer, Big Snow in Salzburg, The Gift and Sweet Dreams & Starlight, telling the stories about the songs as I went along.
"Playing for such a large crowd was quite the experience. It was wild how I'd finish a song, and the audience would just keep clapping and clapping and clapping. I mean, it wasn't just polite applause, it was enthusiastic, happy, "we love you" sort of clapping. I was really overwhelmed by it - I felt undeserving of such praise! The cool thing was, the audience didn't just do this for me, but for Scott D. Davis and David Lanz as well when they played. I don't know if I've ever played to such a thoroughly happy bunch of people. Was there something in the water, perhaps? :)
"After I finished playing my set, I introduced Scott D. Davis. Scott is far and away the 'rocker' of Whisperings. He's got long hair, fast music, and limitless energy. He played three of his original tunes, plus solo piano arrangements of 'My Immortal' by Evanescence and 'Nothing Else Matters' by Metallica. It's really interesting to hear these songs done on solo piano - they are quite enjoyable. Check out Scott's Rockfluence CD. It's really quite good and a lot of fun.
"I then introduced David Lanz who came out and played one song, a 'teaser,' before intermission. He played the title track from his latest CD, Spirit Romance and it was stunningly beautiful. After intermission, I introduced David once again and he played the entire second half. He started with a 'medley' of all his most popular songs. It ran probably, oh, eight minutes or so, and was quite ingenious. How he put all those songs together (probably twenty of them) capturing the big moments from his popular tunes and tossing them into one, big, musical salad I'll never know. It was very cool. Then David played a number of favorites including his classic 'Cristofori's Dream' and his very moving version of 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' by Procol Harem.
"For the encore, we had a little fun together. We played what I called 'Stand, Sit and Play.' If you've every seen the show 'Whose Line is it Anyway?' is the same basic concept as their 'Stand, Sit and Lie Down' game, except we've got a piano to play!
"I started the 'game' by playing a bit of music and then, after about 90 seconds or so, Scott slid onto the bench with me and seamlessly took over at the piano. After another 90 seconds or so, David Lanz took over from Scott, and then it was my turn again, and then Scott's and David's. The idea was to keep the music going without interruption - like one long piano piece played by three different people. It was pretty tricky making the switch (especially with the pedaling) and keeping it smooth. But it was a blast and the crowd just ate it up, applauding wildly after each successful switch!
"After the concert, David, Scott and I went out to autograph CDs and just hang out with the crowd. Again, I was struck by the enthusiasm. The show went about two and a half hours and these folks weren't the least bit tired!
"We finally got everything packed up and out of there by about twelve-thirty in the morning - and then the three of us (plus families) all went and shared a meal at BJ's restaurant in Vacaville."
I hope to have some pictures and video from the show pretty soon. When I get them, I'll post them here.