e.g. Wikipedia and IMDb, some emphasizing my career as a filmmaker, some as a concert pianist, and some as an electrical engineer.
Here I focus on my career as a concert pianist, since on November 4, 2007, it ended. Following successful solo performances with the Diablo Symphony Orchestra in October and the Castro Valley Chamber Orchestra in November, I announced my long-planned retirement from 20 years of classical concert piano performance in order to keep my life under control and focus better on my other careers, especially filmmaking.
It didn't take long into my retirement before winemaker and guitarist Karl Wente (of Wente Vineyards, California's oldest continuously family owned and operated winery), who I've known since elementary school, approached me to start the band, "The Front Porch". I saw this as an opportunity to not only stay retired from my classical concert piano career but also expand my musical horizons into the equally complex genre of jazz and the crazy unpredictable world of improv jamming.
As for the classical world, I am trying to give back to it. Currently, I am promoting/representing the following exceptional pianists, so please still contact me regarding performance opportunities:
Ratko Delorko
You may have already heard of him. A master of many genres with a strong and daring personal style, Ratko Delorko of Austria is the consummate pianist, composer and conductor who has performed worldwide in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, Holland, Romania, Cyprus, Israel, Russia, the United States, Argentina, China, and Malaysia. Check out his website.
Christine Yu
A rival pianist (in the friendliest way, of course) while we were both students at Stanford, the superb pianist Christine recently just moved back to the Bay Area after completing her Doctorate of Musical Arts at USC's Thornton School of Music. Here's a performance from six years ago when Christine performed Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Oakland East Bay Symphony (Michael Morgan, conductor) as a result of winning their concerto competition.
Emil Gilliam
A young version of Ratko Delorko, the amazingly talented piano virtuoso Emil graduated from Stanford with Electrical Engineering degree shortly after I finished the same program. All my life, I thought I was the best I knew when it came to playing movie, TV show, and video game theme music by ear; that is of course, until I met Emil.
Prachi Kale
Prachi is a child prodigy who I have the privilege to teach once a month. She has learned more in a shorter period of time with better training than I ever had at her age of 10. Prachi recently won 3rd Place at the United States Open Music Competition.
If you're still reading, here are some completely useless facts about my piano career.
Below is a picture of my band "The Front Porch". Click here for info on our charity concert.
From left to right: Karl Wente, Megan Bradford, Dave Habermen, Brandon Olivo, Dusty Boyle, Chad Welchoff, Jonny Williams, Jim Hurley, Ray Arthur Wang performing at the Wild Vine on January 11, 2008.
