New Age News: Chad Beall ...

BIG NEWS FROM A GUY WE LOVE, CHAD BEALL:

"I have the honor to open for internationally recognized, Grammy-nominated solo pianist David Lanz. David is well known for his masterful compositions and was a pioneer in bringing audience interaction with 'solo pianists.' I have been influenced by David's life and music and am blessed to have the opportunity to play a few songs before he plays! Many Thanks to Bob Baker and David for this opportunity!"

Some deets from the Chad Beall site:

DAVID LANZ FEATURING SPECIAL GUEST CHAD BEALL

7 p.m. Oct. 3, 2009
Baker’s Piano Center
2670 E. County Line Road, Suite A, Highlands Ranch
Box Office: 303-730-7779

As I mentioned, we had a bunch of staffers pick Local Music CDs and write brief reviews. A few days ago I got one from Gail Broyles on Chad Beall:

Original and soothing piano melodies with several guest vocals make this a great choice ... for life.

Chad Beall, I should note, was the first to perform in Parker Library's Live Local Music Series. In fact we owe it to Chad Beall for starting the series, because he approached us -- me and Allison Lyons, a hipster librarian who was my Local Music partner-in-crime until she up and decided to move to New Zealand.

Side note: Did you know you can actually have a piano moved just for one performance? (Yeah. Uh-huh. Me, too!)

Anyway, it was a great night, and I think we had about 50 people. One of my colleagues, Linda Vincent, came and really enjoyed it. She ended up purchasing Chad's first CD, Dedications, at the show. (See, you can also sell CDs at the show if you perform in our series!)

Another side note is that I had no idea what all New Age* represented as a genre. I thought it was the music massage therapists play in the background when they are not playing classical. It can be that, but it can also be contemporary and romantic piano. That's Chad Beall: original contemporary and romantic piano.

We did not end up moving a piano in the library -- we had the performance at the University Center at Chaparral, which has an awesome concert piano that the nice folks that make up the Douglas-Elbert Music Teachers Association let us use. They had just purchased it and those nice folks let us use their shiny new piano for, um, a song.

(Were the cliche police looking the other way? Whew! ;)

So ... what Chad Beall is up to, straight from the horse:

Album: It is still in the adding instrumentation phase. It will probably be there this whole month of September. Cross your fingers and send good wishes that I can complete everything with enough gusto to ensure that my new CD releases before Christmas! Worst case scenario: Valentine's Day 2010.

Thank you all for your continued support and don't forget to spread the word about my music. I'm looking forward to sharing the updated website functionality and new CD with you in the near future!

* Here's Wikipedia on New Age music: New Age music is defined more by the effect or feeling it produces rather than the devices used in its creation; it may be electronic or acoustic, or a mixture of both. New Age artists range from solo or ensemble performances using instruments such as Westernpiano, acoustic guitar, flutes, harps and many others, to electronic musical instruments, and Eastern instruments such as sitar, tamboura, tabla; and instruments from all other parts of the world, the ... singing in languages from all around the world.

(Can you tell I'm SO not one of those librarians that can't see any role for Wikipedia.)