Allow me to introduce myself...

[johncarey]

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!

[mc ukrneal]

Welcome! What a great story, and so many interesting experiences! Enjoy!

[Lisztianwagner]

Welcome, hope you will enjoy the forum!
I really love Beethoven, Rachmaninov and Mahler, and I'm a pianist too, I think we may get on well.

Ilaria

[madaboutmahler]

Welcome, John!
I am sure you will enjoy the forum very much.

I am very glad to see you have Mahler as one of your favourites. As you can guess, Mahler is my absolute favourite!

I am also a composer, at the moment I am studying at the Junior Department of the Royal Academy of Music. It is my ambition to be a composer and conductor.

There are many other great composers on the forum as well, Karl and Greg for example. We have our threads on the composing section of the forum, hopefully you'll have a look there soon.

Look forward to conversing more with you here on GMG! Considering our similarities (composing, Mahler etc) we should get on well!

Best Wishes,
Daniel

[North Star]

Welcome to the forum, John.
Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Mahler... I think we will get along just fine

[knight66]

Another welcome John. As you will have gathered there are members here who will be well able to share with you on composition.

I look forward to your posts.

Mike

[bhodges]

Welcome, John! A very interesting story indeed, and I hope you enjoy yourself here.

--Bruce

[johncarey]

Hi everyone, and thank you all for such a warm welcome! I'm very excited to be a member of this forum, there seems to be a lot less drama here than I'm generally accustomed to in other similar communities. It's also nice to see that I'm in good company as far as musical taste goes.

[Ataraxia]

Welcome.

[Hollywood]

Hi there John. Greetings from Beethoven's Heiligenstadt. Welcome to the forum.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Welcome, John. And thank you for filling in your very interesting background. You have wide-ranging tastes (did you ever come across the man who is my avatar?), and we certainly have a few favourites in common. You mentioned Sorabji - if you can play his music, you must have a very good technique...

[TheGSMoeller]

Greetings, and welcome! 

[SonicMan46]

Hello John - welcome to the forum! 

Enjoyed reading your introduction & perusing your website - will take a listen to several of your compositions later -

[david johnson]

hi! 

[johncarey]

(did you ever come across the man who is my avatar?)

I certainly have! The Gothic is among my favorite works, though I haven't yet gotten around to delving deep into his many other symphonies. I've heard a few of them once or twice, and they were certainly spectacular, but I don't remember much about them at this point. Which of his symphonies would you recommend I listen to next?

You mentioned Sorabji - if you can play his music, you must have a very good technique...

I've learned a few of his shorter works as well as the Fantaisie Espagnole, and one of my dreams is to learn one of the "big" works (such as Opus Clavicembalisticum) some day, but I'm not sure if I'll ever have the patience to invest that much time and effort into one work, particularly one that I may never get the opportunity to perform.

Here's a recording of a performance of Sorabji's Two Pieces ("In the Hothouse" and "Toccata") that I gave a couple years ago, if you're interested. It's a really nice little set that is pretty accessible for most audiences.

In the Hothouse

Toccata