The Piano Guys
Taking YouTube by storm, The Piano Guys shot to popularity with their unique take on several familiar songs. With Jon Schmidt on the piano and Steven Sharp Nelson playing the cello, the duo recreates a variety of music into catchy mashups, from the hymnbook to the radio. The Piano Guys don’t shy away from combining any types of music, even if that means incorporating Mozart into Michael Jackson. To sum it up: The Piano Guys can do it all.
The Piano Guys have gained momentum through countless media venues, including The Today Show, The Tonight Show, Katie Couric, Fox News, YouTube, Facebook, and the list goes on. Why do they have such a loyal following? Watch their videos, listen to their albums, or see them perform live. You will definitely understand. Their creativity knows no bounds. They shoot their music videos with a grand piano and cello in extremely dangerous locations at times, such as on a cliff. That’s the fun part. You never know what is coming up next.
Before there were The Piano Guys, Jon Schmidt performed original compositions as a breakout pianist. After collaborating with Steven Sharp Nelson on the cello, they soon became known as The Piano Guys, which includes Al van der Beek as their producer, and Paul Anderson as the cinematographer.
In describing their genrebending sound, Steven Sharp Nelson calls it “familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.” Al van der Beek says, “There’s no rulebook, there’s no specific music theory that we stick to.” Jon Schmidt simply states, “We just know when it feels right, you know?”
With 4.8 million followers on YouTube and an average of 5,000 new subscribers every day, The Piano Guys play to a global audience from a global stage. Their music videos take them from the cliffs of the Grand Canyon to the Great Wall of China. In 2012, The Piano Guys signed a record deal with Sony.
However, they stay close to their faith and their families by recording in the basement of a home in Salt Lake City, Utah. Steven Sharp Nelson commented, “There is an understanding that family will always come first. We’re dads first and foremost, and that’s been a very important thing for us, and it’s kept us alive, it’s kept us inspired, and kept us doing what we’re doing.”
Apart from releasing frequent music videos, The Piano Guys released 5 CDs: ThePianoGuys, ThePianoGuys 2, The Piano Guys Wonders, The Piano Guys A Family Christmas, and The Piano Guys Live!
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