Tori Amos, Goddess of Rock and Roll, and the piano. The girl who has been through so much, but still lives to tell about it and share all of her life experiences through her songs. Her life is almost like a song itself, with all of the trials and tribulations one can imagine. Amos, who was born in Newton, North Carolina on August 22nd, 1963 wasn’t originally called Tori. Her given name was Myra Ellen. The change of her name came later in her career. Right from the beginning, her talents on the piano were recognized. At the young age of three, before her legs were even long enough to reach the pedals, she was climbing up to the piano bench to play a song. By the age of five, she was the youngest student to ever be accepted to the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. She stayed at the Conservatory for several years, but by the age of eleven she was asked to leave because she didn’t want to play the music that was required of her. She once stated in an interview on the Rosie O’Donnell Show, “Those guys are dead, why do I want to play that crap! I want to be a composer...don’t we all...but I did.” After getting kicked out of the school she began playing at piano bars. Her father always was tagging along, because she wasn’t old enough to go alone. She played at the bars, in addition to a Marriot hotel, until she graduated from high school. Sometime after that Ellen, as she was called, changed her name. One of Tori’s sisters brought her boyfriend to one of Tori’s shows one night to see her play. After the show the boyfriend told Amos that she indeed was not an Ellen. She looked like a Tori, and that is how it all began. After high school, she joined a band called Y Kant Tori Read. The band signed to the Atlantic record label, and worked on the release of their first album. Their CD release flopped, and the band broke up. When their CD was first released, not many people wanted it. Amazingly enough, the CD now goes for around one hundred dollars as a Tori collectors item. During this time, Tori was still doing little gigs here and there. One night after a show, something happened that changed her life dramatically. Tori offered a member of the audience a ride home after the show, and he raped her in the back of the car with a gun to her head.
neighborhood. She lived with this family for a long time, and during this time she learned
never go to school. All of this was taken away from her at such a young age, when she
charmed Life", and launched this band right into the hands of Elektra Records. The group
Florence Beatrice Smith Price was born April 9, 1887 in Little Rock, Arkansas to James and Florence Smith. Her father was a dentist and her mother had numerous careers working as a piano teacher, school teacher, and businesswoman. She had two siblings who both knew how to play the piano. Florence as well as her siblings, received music lessons from her mother who published some of her musical works. Price gave her first piano performance at the very young age of four. However, she did not write her first published composition until the age eleven; the other com positions were published while in high school. She graduated as valedictorian at the age of 14 from Capitol High School in 1903. She followed the footsteps of her mother and went on study at The New England Conservatory of Music, where she was only allowed to attend because she could pass as a Mexican. Despite racial issues Smith was able to forge all the right friendships with other African American composers who led her to the best of the best mentors. She was mentored by George Whitefield Chadwick and Fredrick Converse. There she earned and received her degree as an organist and a piano teacher in 1906.
some problems existed, only one song was recorded and she had to deal with racism, not only
had already taken the name Mighty Joe Young. After about a month the band came
Alicia Keys was born in 1981, in New York. From the young age of 7 years old, she began piano lessons. After graduating from the Professional Performance Arts School, she signed a deal with Clive Davis, the head of Arista Records. Davis left Arista to start J Records and Alicia Keys followed. Her album Songs in A Minor released in 2001, and went platinum five times over and earned her five Grammys. She followed up with hit albums such as The Diary of Alicia Keys released in 2003, As I Am in 2007 and Girl on Fire in 2009, all of which won the her Grammys.
1993 was a very busy year. They got a contract from Trent Reznor's new own label Nothing and got a spot on NIN's 94 tour. The making of their first album, "Portrait of an American Family", was underway. Trent Reznor was the producer of the album.
they began recording as a backing band. After meeting their future manager Brian Epstein, “The
From his experience, he taught his two oldest children, A.B. III and Suzette, how to play the instruments. A.B. III learned how to play the bass guitar and Suzette played the drums. As Selena saw how attached Abraham was with A.B. III and Suzette, she became jealous and asked her father why she couldn’t learn how to play an instrument. He told her she was too young, so she started to sing.
in New York. She made a tour of several cities from Boston to Chicago. A testimonial
There are so many young stars in the world who’s talent and life has been taken from them, Selena Perez is one of them.Selena was born with talent. This star started a band at age ten, called “Selena y Los Dinos”(pg.23)
Doris Horton Thurston, my seventy-five year old grandmother, has always had a song in her heart and on the edge of her tongue, waiting to flow over in a cascade of expression. She sees music as a connection to the world, a form that lets her reach outside of everyday life to different people, different cultures and different times. From generations before her and for generations to follow, from the memory of her mother's piano playing and her father's voice as a child to the orchestra concerts of her youngest grandchildren, she holds the connection to music close to her heart.
After attending high school away from home she graduated at the age of 16 and returned back to St. Petersburg whe...
It was in high school that he met the girl of his dreams. They dated through college, off