A Composer's Corner

Bill Lipner aka William Edge, was born and raised in Tallahassee, Florida. He was surrounded from a young age by the roots sounds of the Deep South. First studying classical piano at the tender age of six and switching to jazz upon entering his teens, his muses included such legendary influences as Dave Brubeck, Ramsey Lewis and Stevie Wonder. After receiving an MBA from Florida State University, he embarked upon a brilliant and successful career in computer technology, but his love of electronic music still remained a dominant force in his life.

His passion soon morphed from that of an avocation to lifelong profession, when he began composing the first of a series of works on the computer and creating his own record label, Sounds Blue Music, both of which culminated in the conception of his new trilogy, representing mans journey to the end of the universe and perfectly paralleling Edges own sojourn through life.

The lush and transporting sounds created by the American composer WILLIAM EDGE epitomize the beyond-the-curve outer space sub-genre of ambient music. Not simply technicality or performance, but instead the combining of sounds and music to create an extraordinary and individual experience for the listener, this music is also perfect for TV and movie soundtracks as well as advertising commercials.

A combination of Smooth Jazz, chilled ambient vibes and relaxing blues grooves is what makes William Edge's music so inviting - take cool atmospheric beats and add sensual Smooth Jazz and you've got the recipe for Bill's music.

Ever wonder how composers approach writing music? Join interviewer Andrew Celentano for an interesting discussion with guest Nathan Asher Sherman who is the guitarist of Floral, a math rock band originally from the Bay Area. Nathan Asher Sherman graduated from the Berklee College of Music for Electronic Production and Sound Design and now lives in Los Angeles.

His music is high energy and multi-rhythmic. His riffs are vibrant, textured and exhilarating. In our interview, he’ll talk about working on new electronic projects growing up in Palo Alto, listening to math rock for the first time, and finding meaning in life through growth. Andrew Celentano, himself a pianist and composer, interviews talented musicians who compose and often perform their own pieces.

Deborah Offenhauser is a world renowned pianist and composer with more than thirty years as a professional entertainer and recording artist.

She has performed on stage with artists such as Isola Jones, The Four Lads, The Moody Blues, The Diamonds, Frankie Laine, and many more.

Deborah has released over a dozen album/CDs worth of originalsolo piano and music orchestrations ranging from movie themes, to soundscapes, love ballads, religious hymns, Christmas music, as well as cover arrangements.

Her music has been performed on TV Shows including Madame Secretary, The Big Bang Theory and Desperate Housewives.

To say that Schmidt is simply a performer with a talent to entertain would be a miscarriage of understatement. Schmidt takes her audiences into her world as easily as the child who discovers the endless universes that exist in a cardboard box.

Schmidt weaves her way through her concert in much the same manner as a jester. Interwoven anecdotes, revealing her past and present, bring people to expect a relationship between themselves and memories driven deep with the passage of time. The concert is an endless display of self-realization through humor and longing, leaving audience members yearning to become an integral part of her world. Having performed on stages across the country, Schmidt has developed the ability to remain fresh. She enjoys her talent to entertain as much as the audience enjoys being entertained.

Find out more about her at www.claudiaschmidt.com

Simon Hester was born in Sheffield and studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Geoffrey Pratley and Jean Harvey winning many prizes for his performances both as a soloist and accompanist.

His career has covered a wide range of musical worlds, and his versatility is much admired in both classical and jazz repertoire. He gives recitals throughout Great Britain and has appeared at the Bath, Edinburgh and Exeter festivals and has toured throughout the UK and abroad with the highly successful show “All You Ever Wanted to Know about Opera”

Simon performs frequently with the violinist Carmine Lauri, and has also worked with the distinguished violinist Maurice Hasson having appeared with him in recitals throughout Europe.

You can find out more about him on his website, YouTube, and SoundCloud:

https://www.simonhestercomposer.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@SimonHesterLonelyPianist

https://soundcloud.com/simon-hester-sistermusic

Dan Pallotta hailed from Malden Massachusetts and inherited a love of music from both sides of his family. As a young man, he went to Los Angeles and tried his luck at country music song writing. He impressed Clive Davis and ended up writing a song for Edgar Winter called “Stranger to Love”.

But things didn’t work out - and instead he created a non-profit spanning 16 states and employing 400 people, raisings nearly $600 million in 9 years to address AIDS, breast cancer, and suicide. He has given a very popular TED talk on why so many charities are ineffective - and he has a documentary film out now based on his first book “Uncharitable”.

He is now in his early 60’s and is returning to music after a 30-year hiatus. Dan has beautiful music videos that we will review that often explore the struggles people face in the world. Please join me for an enlightening experience with the multi-talented Dan Pallotta.

You can find out more here: https://www.danpallotta.com/

Composer & cellist Barry Phillips has been performing folk, new, classical and Indian classical/crossover music for many years. As a cellist, Barry has toured worldwide with Ravi Shankar's daughter's group - The Anoushka Shankar Project. Venues have included the Hollywood Bowl, The Royal Albert Hall-London, The Music Academy-Budapest, Sydney Opera House, Bangalore Palace Grounds, London's LSO St. Lukes, CRR Concert Hall-Istanbul, as well as the Royal Concert Hall-Glasgow as soloist (along with four top fiddlers) with the Scottish National Orchestra.

Barry has arranged quite a lot of Northern European folk music exploring American and Celtic folk tunes. Barry's CD, "Tråd." is a collection of Scandinavian tunes arranged for cello, nyckelharpa (Olov Johansson) and fiddle. Many of Barry's recordings can be heard in various Ken Burns documentaries. In 2012 Barry received a Grammy as producer/engineer of Ravi Shankar's CD The Living Room Sessions Part 1.

You can find out more about Barry here: http://www.barryphillipsmusic.com/

James Cooke, AKA CaptC, is a Massachusetts based singer / songwriter who composes indie rock-pop and flannel country songs.

Many of his songs are accompanied with videos and some of the more recent ones take advantage of AI based design technology which gives them an interesting edge. His videos are on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, and you can find his songs on Spotify, Pandora, and other platforms. You can find out more about him at https://captcmusic.com/

Join host Andrew Celentano, a talented New England pianist and composer himself, for an interesting interview with Robert Dale Klein. Klein’s songs and compositions have been performed on radio and TV, in films, musical theater, and on stages across the USA and foreign countries in both hemispheres. They’ve also garnered recognition from Country Music Television (CMT), the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), the Mid-Atlantic Songwriting Contest and the Berklee College of Music. Eight of the ten songs on his album “This Side of the Dirt” have made the Top Five or Top Ten on KC Café Radio in Kansas City.

Numerous critically-acclaimed artists have co-written songs with Bob, including Dan Navarro, Phil Madeira, Will Kimbrough, Cindy Morgan, Jennifer Ferguson Smith, Sasha Lazard, Juliana MacDowell, Donna Britton, David Glaser, Chuck McDowell, John Mulder, and Lauren Calve. Bob is a Coordinator of both the Washington, D.C. Metro Area chapter of NSAI and of NSAI’s entire Mid-Atlantic Region. He is a member of the Songwriters Association of Washington, Folk Alliance International, and the Americana Music Association.

You can find more information on him here:

https://www.robertdaleklein.com/epk

Vivian Fang Liu, Award-winning Pianist, Singer, Songwriter, Grammy voting member and Educator.

Ms. Liu holds two master's degrees in Music Education from Teachers College Columbia University and Classical Piano Performance from New York University. Her performance venues include Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Hammerstein Hall in New York, St. John Smith Hall in London, and Mozart Hall in Vienna.

Ms. Liu has been invited to sing the American national anthem multiple times at the Professional baseball MLB and basketball WNBA games at Citi Field Stadium and Barclays Center in New York. She was also invited to perform at Gracie Mansion, the former New York Mayor Bloomberg's residence on the NYCHA Celebration Day. Ms. Liu was invited to Perform as a special guest for many famous singers from Hong Kong and Taiwan in their North American tour concerts.

In Composition, Ms. Liu’s original single "Listen to Beethoven" won the Silver Award of Singer-songwriter category at the Global Music Awards in 2018.

You can find more on her here: https://www.vivianfangliu.com/