My name is John Carey; I'm a pianist, composer, and avid listener to any music I can get my hands on. I've been "seriously" playing and composing for about ten years at this point, though I've definitely had the most success with my musical endeavors ever since I began my studies The Hartt School of Music three years ago.
So, my background... I grew up in a very artistically oriented household; my mother was a professional opera singer for about 20 years. After performing extensively in Europe, particularly Germany, she returned to the United States and started vocal coaching with the man who (in two years) would be my father. My mother was still very focused on her performing career when I was conceived, so I was exposed to a massive amount of wonderful music even prior to my birth! For the first five years of my life, I traveled across the country with my mother and had the opportunity to see her perform in a large variety of different operas. However, she put an end to her career as a singer when I got terribly sick on one particular trip. As a result, my family decided to move from California to New Hampshire in order to establish a vocal studio and settle down for the sake of my upbringing.
Certainly, my exposure to opera in my early childhood benefitted me greatly when I finally discovered my own love for music, which ironically didn't happen until I was about twelve years old. It was the piano sonatas of Beethoven that inspired me to become a pianist, which quickly sparked my interest in composing my own music. I decided that I wanted to start taking piano lessons, but I was entirely self taught as a composer until I went to college. Ever since I began my musical journey, I've gone through a multitude of musical obsessions, devouring the works of a variety of different composers (Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Mahler, Sorabji...), and then eventually moving on to jazz, rock, metal, electronic music, and whatever else I could find.
Anyway, enough with my ramblings. I'm really excited to be here. I've lurked on this forum here and there for a few years but finally decided to join because it seems to be a really great community. I'll post a topic regarding my own compositions within the next couple days. For anyone who is interested, my music can be found on the following page: is
www.johncareycomposer.com/Recordings.html I look forward to getting to know everyone!