Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner - Non Classical Who is the best current new age pianist?

Anyone familiar with Tim Janis? Heard him and his ensemble last night on PBS. A member of the group plays flute and an short instrument seemingly of wood with a mouth piece that is flat-no reed i believe. Looks like a child's toy perhaps eight inches length played by placing fingers over holes in the body. I have no idea what it is. Can anyone tell me and the opinion of Tim's work?

Jim

Yann Tiersen is awesome on the piano! he plays minimal music!
you can listen to Michael Nyman's music, he's great too!

dwight@tfrog,

Your music is awesome! IMO I would call it contemporary solo piano with neoclassical influence. (I personally do not care for the term "new age"..) Hope this helps. Nice work! :-)

TR

Why, thank you (and can I quote you?). The one I pointed you to, in fact several of the tracks, are rather contemporary - but not in a 12-tone row fashion. My own tastes reach well into the 20th century; Debussy sneaks in at strange places, and at least one track is a downright hommage to Satie. I can listen to Barber and Rachmaninoff all day, but that's as far as I've gotten.

So, contemporary, certainly, but with a profound classical influence. Nothing neo about it. Still, that may be where I fall in - neoclassical.

One definition I've found, "a movement in music lasting roughly from 1915 to 1940 that sought to avoid subjective emotionalism and to return to the style of the pre-Romantic composers," didn't seem to fit at all. I strongly believe that music is emotional and subjective. For myself, I would adjust it a bit to include the Romantics. Another definition would be, "characteristic of a revival of an earlier classical style," and I can live with that.

So, not New Age, but Neoclassical improvisation. Shame that no one lists that category as an option. I'm still stuck betwixt and between.

dwight

I would like to see a battle of the new age pianist to determine who is the best, like the drum battles between Buddy Rich – Gene Kupa, et al.
It is hard to define “new age” music but a word I would use to describe it is “ethereal”.
My Webster’s dictionary defines Ethereal:
1 a. of or relating to the regions beyond the earth b. celestial heavenly c. unworldly, spiritual.
2. a. lacking material substance, immaterial intangible. b. marked by unusual delicacy or refinement.

Some people hear [definition 1] and like “new age”, while others hear the same piece and are turned off by its lack of substance [def 2].

This IMHO is “new age” and is my favorite “new age” performance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSjJa62gD5U

dwight, I listened to your improv several times and enjoyed it very much.

You may not want to hear this but I think the recording you posted would indeed fall under the new age label. Or perhaps I should say that I have listened to many new age artists whose music sounds similar in style to yours-- Michael Jones, to give one example.

Other than having a visceral reaction to the suckiness of the "new age" name, is there a reason you would NOT want to call it new age?

If it helps any, David Nevue doesn't like the label either and simply calls his music "solo piano."

Michael Gettel and Wayne Gratz. Not exactly new, but good new age piano.

Man I love this thread! I have been introduced to a lot of composers I had never heard of before, and the latest of these is Michael Gettel. Thank you for mentioning him, SteelersFan (and welcome to the forum, btw! ). I've just spent the last hour listening to him on Rhapsody. Some really good stuff there, and more complex than a lot of new age piano.

Thank you! Several times, eh? I think most folks hear the opening 30 seconds, make up their minds, and move on. Thanks for sticking with it.

Hmmm... Listening to Michael's music as I type, at least the bits that he offers on his website. How do I put this nicely? ... What turns me off of most current music is the, not lack of depth, but lack of dimension, if you know what I mean. The piece I'm listening to right now develops a nice theme, beautifully, really, but I keep waiting for it to break open, and it never does. It presents a singular idea, a singular emotional wrapper. (The other obvious difference is that his music is compositional, mine is improvisation.) But I don't want to make the usual mistake of listening to a sampling and thinking that this represents the man's entire output. I've only heard the four examples on his Listen page... He's apparently been recording for 25 years.

Well, that's the question, and that's why I jumped in on this thread. I have no idea where my music fits in, at least not the track that I pointed you to. For something completely different, " Hammers " is a baby grand stepping out, a far cry from the very New Agey " latenite * ." I'm completely comfortable with the notion that "latenite" is New Age. But I'd like to think that the "October 20" and others of that vein go well beyond that moniker.

When I think New Age, I think along the lines of Eighty8's two definitions (above). There's nothing wrong with "ethereal," when that's what I'm trying to achieve, but I hope that my music also challenges the listener to listen, not merely to meditate. My worst fear (includes any of us, I'm sure) is to be shuffled off as background music, floating just out of range.

Well, it's not that I don't like the label, I just don't know that it quite fits.

(*"latenite"... You have to imagine, this is the night that I've just received my "new" Knabe baby grand. There it sits, but my wife and daughter have already gone to bed; it's late. But I can't help myself, I just have to try this piano out. But I have to play, oh, so quietly, for fear of disturbing their sleep. latenite is six minutes of me marvelling at the wonderful tone of a baby grand - after playing a studio upright for years - and there's actually a tension throughout, trying to keep the music restrained and contained. Now, I can't think of any category that this one would more comfortably fit in than New Age, so let it be.)

I would agree with Nevue, in that I would truly not want to be tagged as a "New Age pianist ," for fear that this would give the wrong impression to anyone who hadn't heard my music. "Solo pianist" is purposely vague, but that may be the way to go, when what I play spans several different genres...

I'll just have to categorize the individual pieces and refer to myself as "dwight, piano player."

not sure if I saw mention of David Lanz on this post, but you gotta put him up there! I'm a HUGE fan of Michael Gettel & Wayne Gratz as well. A few more lesser known gems you ought to check out:
Joe Yamada www.joeyamada.com
Jennifer Thomas www.jenniferthomasmusic.com
Steven Cravis www.stevencravis.com
Matthew Tavis Johnson www.matthewtavisjohnson.com

A new new age solo piano artist to discover? Canadian composer Stephan Moccio. debut album is called Exposure.

www.myspace.com/stephanmoccio

My absolute favorite is Eldar! His performance on "Re-imagination" album is nothing but AMAZING (Grammy Nominee for the Best Contemporary Jazz Album) but more amazingly, he was only 19 y.o. when he recorded this album. Check out his website www.eldarjazz.com, and there are some videos of his live performance on YouTube as well.

Ok, the link in my post didn't work (and I don't know how to fix it!) - www.eldarjazz.com

I like the music of Enya, although the importance of her piano/keyboard parts is 20% at most. Absolutely enjoy her careful self-overlaying: a choir of Enyas in harmony. Up to 80 I got from one source, 300 from another.

"October" is absolutely beautiful. I tried to order the sheet music for it, but that part of his website didn't seem to be working.

I've really enjoyed reading this thread. Most of the musicians mentioned are familiar to me. I like New Age piano music so much that a year or so ago, I set up a web-site which (as you are reading this thread) some of you might enjoy. The address is www.piano-heaven.co.uk I am a real novice at web-design (as you will see), but hopefully it's the content that is more importanty.
Someone mentioned Stephan Moccio. I agree, he is an exciting new pianist. I did an Interview with him a couple of months ago, and that is online (together with interviews with Wayne Gratz and Karen Marie Garrett). If push came to shove, I'd have to say Michael Jones is my absolute favourite. His music meanders and whilst I take the criticisms levelled at him, I think it is actually part of his music's beauty.
I've enjoyed finding this site, and hope to post again soon.

Hi everyone,

Great thread. I don't think there is a "best" New Age pianist so to speak but there is one I really love.

His name is John Herberman and he records for the Solitudes label. His CD "Forest Piano" is about as beautiful a music as you'll ever hear. And, if you don't mind nature sounds ... well worth a listen!

Edward Weiss
http://www.quiescencemusic.com

Greetings from Germany. Enough lurking, I'm jumping into this discussion. I have three solo piano recordings to my name, all of which have been categorized as New Age, because, frankly, "New Age" has become a catchall for music that doesn't fit neatly into other slots.

I have classical training, but grew up in a world of jazz musicians. I write songs with strong melodies and chord structures that extend beyond the expectations of pop music. I dig Carole King, Bill Evans, Prince, and Ravel. Go figure. My music contains lengthy improvised passages, but the compositions themselves are structured, with clear beginnings, middles, and ends.

My style comes from years of playing piano in cocktail bars and hotel lounges. Not willing to stick to the same-old same-old standards, and anxious to play my own compositions, I've learned to write and perform music that makes an impression without getting in the way. This has been my ongoing challenge—to compose pieces that suit the needs of my multi-faceted audiences without sacrificing my musical standards or dignity. What started as a way to keep my sanity landed me in a New Age swamp. But that's okay, it's all just music.

Hi Robin! I think your definition of new age is more accurate than any we've bandied about in this thread so far. But it also shows what's so frustrating about the new age label; it really does defy pinning down.

When you were dealing with the publishers of your albums, did they ask you what genre you wanted associated with your work? Or were you basically just told "we're sticking this in the new age bins"?