I've been playing the piano since I was 7. I started studying with Marjorie Haimbach in Langhorne, PA and under her guidance, gave a solo debut recital at Weill Recital Hall in New York City. (back then it was called Carnegie Recital Hall)
My undergraduate years were spent at Eastman School of Music. There I studied with Artur Balsum and Frank Glazer. After 4 years at Eastman, I got my Masters in Music at the University of Notre Dame, then married and moved to Houston TX.
Computers facinated me at the time and after building my own homebrew computer, I decided to go back to school and get an engineering degree. So 5 years at the University of Houston, and I had my MSEE (Master of Science in Electrical Engineering).
My first job was at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Massachusetts. There I worked with a forward-looking digital signal processing group. Later, I moved to Allentown where I spent 8 years doing software development for computer-aided-design tools. After working in CAD, I jumped over to analog design and spent about 7 years working as an analog circuit designer for Modems, Multimedia, and High Speed Serializer/Deserializer chips. After several break-ups and re-organizations, I left Agere Systems and started pursuing interests in music and technology as well as performing and teaching at Muhlenberg College.
For the past 4 years I have been working in a company called "Mesh Semiconductor" developing a new multi-core processor. At Mesh, I was doing both C++ and hardware design.
I am in an unusual trio called "Crosswinds Trio". We have given concerts all throughout the country.
I am also the pianist for the Allentown Symphony Orchestra. I consider this opportunity to be extremely rare and valuable.
Recitals:
I do solo recitals locally and the Palmerton 2000 recital can be seen here.
Beethoven Bookends Recital done in 2002 is here
virtualpianist.com is like a marriage of my engineering and my music. I enjoy the software aspects, the synthesizer hardware, and the performing.
I hope that this provides you with a suitable alternative for an accompanist when you can not find one.
Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or comments.
610-797-8159
michael@virtualpianist.com