My first piano concert

About 20 years ago I thought it would be really cool to play piano in a concert.  But, I didn't feel that I was good enough for anybody to want to listen to me play piano!  In spite of having played piano at church for decades I still did not think anybody would want to hear me play anything at all.  I used to sit and watch youtube videos of Evgeny Kissin play Beethoven and Mozart and Rachmaninoff and I would feel sooooo jealous because people wanted to see him play those songs.  So, I printed out a Rachmaninoff sheet music that I heard Evgeny play and I slowly started learning how to play it.  I still can't play the 2nd and 3 pages but I can definitely play the first page with all the bombastic chords and minor haunting harmonies.  It took me a few weeks to carefully pick out those chords.  The hardest part has been remembering what to play after what I just played.  I try to memorize the notes and they just seem to go in one ear and out the other, never staying in my head.  So, I need the sheet music.  That seems like a crutch and it became a hinderance and an excuse for to assume that "nobody wants to hear me play piano".  

Well, in October 2022 I was talking to my friend Chris Maberry about Evgeny Kissin and other piano stuff.  I told him how jealous I felt that he could fill arenas with people who want to hear him play piano.  Then I told him how someday I wanted to play piano and have people come to hear me play.  You see, it's not the same as playing a piano solo at church.  People at church come to church to worship Jesus Christ, not to hear somebody play piano.  SO, when you play a solo at church you're playing for an audience who was there by default and you just happened to be playing a solo that day.  But, when you host a concert, people come specifically to hear you play music.  They make a choice to hear and see you.  SO, I wanted to do that but I doubted myself at every turn.

After months of me talking to Chris about that he said, ""you know what Geof? I think you should book the big concert hall here in town and advertise a concert where you are the featured pianist. If people come, great! But if nobody shows up we'll have fun anyway . you play the piano, your friends and family will show up and we'll clap and enjoy the moment with you""..... That got me started.  I went to the concert hall and paid the money to book the date.

I began to practice the piano a lot more.  It made me happy! Everyday I would take a moment to play at least one song.  Someday, however, I was too busy to sit at the piano at all.  It was a real struggle at times!  But, I did it.  

Two weeks before the concert I just didn't feel comfortable hosting the concert in that giant hall.  The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to make the concert happen in my studio where I could have a giant greenscreen and create video of the concert with all the cool backgrounds and perfect audio that I had dreamed of for years.  So, I emailed the concert hall and told them I wanted to cancel the concert.  I had expected them to keep my deposit money.  Less than 10 minutes after I sent the email, the deposit money was returned to my bank account!  I was shocked.  That was a blessing though.  

I opened up facebook messenger and message my virtual set designer.  I told him what I wanted my concert set to look like and he got to work.  It took almost an entire week for him to design and work out all the bugs with the set.  The reason was because i don't own a $308,000 piano in the studio but I wanted my virtual set to look like I was playing a $308,000 FAZIOLI concert grand piano.  SO, Jaime Cuellar set to work and built that piano into the set. It took him days.  We had to figure out how to delete the virtual keys from the virtual piano and replace them with my real keys from my Yamaha Modx8 keyboard.  We measured the distance from the camera to the piano, measured the angles, measured everything we could think of.  In the end, it worked!  I got to play the $308,000 FAZIOLI piano and lots of people thought it was a real piano too!  Plus, I got to have giant LED screens on stage that play christmas scenes with snow falling everywhere.  It was magical for me.  In the studio I just sat in front of a huge greenscreen.  The studio audience could see the TV showing the virtual set though.  They said it was pretty cool.

Prior to the concert I spent two months having rehearsals with Tammy Vogt.  I had never heard of her until I saw her sing at a funeral.  After the funeral I asked if she would like to sing in my concert.  She instantly agreed.  That was a lot of work and I think I wore her out, clear into burnout.  She sang and sang and sang and I kept making the same mistakes on the piano every single time.  It made me crazy and embarrassed because my fingers just couldn't find the keys for some weird reasons.  At one point she said, ""I'm really worried that this isn't going to work Geof. Youre really having trouble with those notes!""...   So, I reassured her, ""God never leaves me alone.  IT will be great at the concert".... so we continued practicing together.

On concert day I felt like I had met the Zen master himself.  I sat at the piano and started playing notes.  Out came a haunting song filled with sadness and forlorn.  it just came out of me.  I LOVE that sound!  It's beautiful.  Playing that sound got my fingers loose and we had a great concert.  

Please enjoy this concert here.  I did.  It means a lot to me to be able to do this after sooooo many decades telling myself that nobody would want to listen to me play piano....But people did want to listen.  They showed up to the studio and sat there smiling and singing and clapping for evrey single song.  I am soooooooooooo thankful for everybody who attended the concert.  Thank you!