PRESS About Steven Schoenberg
WHAT'S GOING ON? PRESS & REVIEWS
“Pianist Steven Schoenberg, more than any other similar player, creates improvised interpretations of known music in such a way as to inform the listener while never falling into rote technical performance. He always provides something to listen for in old melodies…”
AN IMPROVISATIONAL JOURNEY PRESS & REVIEWS
“What pianist and spontaneous composer Steven Schoenberg does in his own ‘interactive’ An Improvisational Journey, is start a piece with an eye blink, a deep breath, and a long, integral, creative exhalation with a beginning, a middle and an end.”
“He dodges. He weaves. He’s playful. He’s dissonant. He evokes a range of American piano music and pianists, from Fess to Fats. He plays stride. He plays blues…”
“Mixing cerebral, near-classical passages with forays into Broadway, jazz, blues and boogie, Schoenberg never stops thinking, as one idea swiftly leads him to another.”
“Steven Schoenberg gives you everything you ask for in a solo, improvisational jazz piano album – music with passion, fury, creativity, imagination, and heart.”
“Schoenberg remembers the grace of timing, rhythm, and most of all melody. He can go off on a tangent without forgetting a song’s underlying theme. Schoenberg may have entered this concert not knowing where he was going, but he packed the essentials for the journey.”
“Live performances always have a life of their own, an aura of awe or waves of raw energy. In my experience so far, that’s hard to capture on CD or DVD. But, it was accomplished for me on Steven Schoenberg’s release, Live: An Improvisational Journey. These songs, all improvised in concert, still feel as if they are coming to life for the first time no matter how many times you listen to them.”
PIANOWORKS PRESS & REVIEWS
“I think Steven’s music is some of the most incomparably beautiful music I’ve ever heard.”
“Schoenberg is a bright young composer, and his sparkling album Pianoworks is 45 minutes of solo improvisations.”
“Once in a very great while we at Hearts of Space have the experience of hearing a tape someone sent us and being totally blown away. Such was the case with Steven Schoenberg… At the end of Pianoworks the audience explodes into applause. We bet you’ll do the same…Schoenberg is a master improviser, with a gift for deftly interlocking melodies, magically transmuted themes, sudden but smooth shifts in tempo and emotion—all polished, sophisticated, impeccable.”
“Steven Schoenberg’s kaleidoscopic piano speaks with a uniquely American voice.”
CHRISTMAS REIMAGINED PRESS & REVIEWS
“Schoenberg takes on a repertoire so intolerant of poor presentation that lesser talents have clotted cut-out bins with their bathetic and often wholly contrived recordings. Not so with this recording. What Schoenberg has accomplishes with Christmas Reimagined is a finely crafted history of piano performance using a sturdy, if unforgiving, body of songs as his vehicle.”
MY BODYWORKS PRESS & REVIEWS
“My Bodyworks makes learning about the human body fun!”
“This simple introduction in song to the parts of the body is outstanding in both its scientific accuracy and its usefulness in the elementary classroom. “
“A splendid book for all the senses. The illustrations are lively and delightful.” – Eric Carle
“This gem gets the kids hooked with good songwriting and music production and slips in the educational values. . .”
“What a delicious combination of talents: lyrics, music, and facts all together.”
“My Bodyworks is one of the most clever and entertaining concept albums ever written for children.”
“My Bodyworks is a terrific book-CD combination that succeeds in being entertaining first and informative second…”
