The Piano Guys
The Piano Guys is an American musical group consisting of pianist Jon Schmidt and cellist Steven Sharp Nelson, along with videographer and editor Paul Anderson and studio and sound engineer Al van der Beek. They became known for their videos posted on the video portal YouTube featuring classically-influenced variations on popular songs accompanied by professional videos. Their first album was released in December 2011.
History
Paul Anderson, the owner of "The Piano Guys" piano store in St. George, Utah, meets musician Jon Schmidt when he enters the store and asks if he can practice for an upcoming concert. The two begin recording music and producing videos together. Video artist Tel Stewart and Al van der Beek, responsible for the group's studio work, support the formation. But it wasn't until cellist Steven Sharp Nelson joined the group that they had their breakthrough with a cover of One Direction's "What Makes You Beautiful", in which the five members played the same piano at the same time. The Piano Guys publish their videos, produced in Al van der Beek's music studio, on the video portal YouTube. Some of their videos now have over 50 million views, the "cover" of Christina Perry's "A Thousand Years" has over 187 million views. The Piano Guys have played in many unusual places: on the Great Wall of China, in the middle of the desert, or in front of the statue of Christ in Rio de Janeiro. Their goal is to produce music videos of all the locations of the Seven Wonders of the World.
On January 25, 2013, their debut album was released as a CD/DVD via Sony Classical. In 2014 they held their first European tour through Germany, Austria and Switzerland, which also took them to Hamburg, the birthplace of Jon Schmidt's parents.
On January 20, 2017, The Piano Guys performed at Donald Trump's inauguration at the "Make America Great Again Welcome Celebration." On their blog, they defended themselves in the face of protests from their fans.
Music
Jon Schmidt plays the grand piano, Steven Sharp Nelson the cello, both classical, i.e. acoustic, and e-cello. In most of their music pieces, several (up to 100) separately recorded audio tracks are compiled.
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