Sammy Goldstein: 'So Far It's Wonderful'

Derek became an acclaimed concert pianist by the age of 10. His longtime piano teacher, Adam Ockelford, explains his student’s unique relationship to music. Adam encouraged his obvious musical interest and ability, although it was obviously natural. Adam gave him lesson as child understanding

Her father played piano, guitar, and harmonica; her mother played piano and sang. Her brothers and sisters all played piano and sang in the church choir, gospel groups, glee clubs and social events. She started learning music the natural way by watching her family. The Waymon’s owned a pedal organ, and by the time Eunice was tall enough to climb on the stool and sit on the keyboard, she had musical talent.

Born near the beachy shores of South Carolina, Trevor Hall grew up listening to the melodious tunes of his father’s harmonica and drum set (Rosenfield, 2012). Throughout his young life, inspired by his father, Hall would constantly be glued to a notepad writing music; following his dreams, at 16, Hall recorded and released his very first record. With all of the joy found in writing and releasing

The Piano Lesson by August Wilson is not only a captivating play, but it also encompasses a deeper truth. The play tells the story of how a piano holds a family’s past, and because of it, creates conflict. Berniece, a pivotal character in the work begins as a person who puts all of her feelings and history behind her, but in the end learns to embrace her past to move onto the future. August Wilson uses the growth of the character Berniece throughout the play to convey his central message of, you cannot move forward until you accept the past, otherwise it will burden you.

George Gershwin is one of the greatest influences to American music in the 20th century. His compositions can be found throughout the entertainment world, ranging from Broadway to motion pictures. Though he had a short career, George Gershwin's music continues to bring inspiration and delight almost sixty years later.

began to play the piano as a child his mom played that piano as well.

The narrator, a teacher in Harlem, has escaped the ghetto, creating a stable and secure life for himself despite the destructive pressures that he sees destroying so many young blacks. He sees African American adolescents discovering the limits placed on them by a racist society at the very moment when they are discovering their abilities. He tells the story of his relationship with his younger brother, Sonny. That relationship has moved through phases of separation and return. After their parents’ deaths, he tried and failed to be a father to Sonny. For a while, he believed that Sonny had succumbed to the destructive influences of Harlem life. Finally, however, they achieved a reconciliation in which the narrator came to understand the value and the importance of Sonny’s need to be a jazz pianist.

Sammy Goldstein was a pianist, actor, and a singer. He was from Paris, TN. He acted in several movies. Then he sang and played at lobbies and bars. Sammy is an inspiration to almost all parisians.

Aaron Copland was born November 14th 1900 in Brooklyn, New York. He is the youngest of five children to Sarah Mittenthal, his mother and Harris Copland, his father. He had two brothers, Ralph and Leon and two sisters Laurine and Josephine. As early as the age of nine, he began making up songs on the piano and two years later, his older sister Laurine began giving him piano lessons. In 1914, Copland began studying with his first professional piano teacher, Ludwig Wolfsohn in Brooklyn, New York. His first public performance as a pianist was in 1917, one year before his graduation from high school in Brooklyn. Upon it’s grand opening in 1921, Copland attended the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau, a music conservatory designed to

did not always like the piano. When he was a small boy he liked the drums, his father

The musical legend was born William Martin Joel on May 9, 1949 to Howard and Rosalind Joel. He grew up in the suburb of Hicksville, New York, in a rather musical home. His father was a classically trained pianist while his mother would sing along to songs. Billy tried his luck with the piano too, pounding on the keys at a very young age until his mother took him to take piano lessons at age 4. It wasn’t long before he took to it, and eventually he became so skilled that he could have been considered a professional by the time he was a teenager.

Most of Gershwin's early childhood was spent playing sports, which he was good at, and it interested him. It wasn't until Gershwin was 12

“Billy initiates the music in his life. He has the potential to triumph over his environment. The lyrics of the soundtrack are also noteworthy, as they imply that Billy is a born dancer.” (Lancioni, 2006, 718)

Through three decades, Mr. Holland is closer to students at John F. Kennedy High School than he is to his own son. He addresses a series of challenges created by people who are either skeptical of -- or hostile towards -- the idea of musical excellence within the walls of a typical middle-class American high school. He inspires many students and but never has private time for himself or his family, forever delaying the composition of his own orchestral composition. Ultimately, he reaches an age when it is too late to realistically find financial backing or ever have it performed.

With his first piano lessons, his teachers discovered his unusual talent of ‘playing out of the boundaries.’ After his dream, becoming a piano virtuoso sink, he leaned more on to his composing skills.