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Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Off Topic Post, Forgive Me, About My Son: Koji Attwood: Wonderful Pianist and Person


The most famous Attwood in my family is my son, Koji. He is an extraordinary pianist (and also a good person). He was accepted into Curtis when he was 16 (Daddy brag here: acceptance rate at Harvard is 6 percent; acceptance rate at Curtis is 3.5 percent). I remember hugging a street sign post outside the Curtis building near Rittenhouse Square in Philly while he was auditioning. He is a remarkable artist and also student of the piano art and repertoire. His PhD is from Juilliard. He often plays little-known composers worthy of hearing, many of them Russian. He transcribes pieces for piano from guitar and quartets and symphony scores. He was Baryshnikov's accompanist for that great dancer's solo tour. He played the Chopin Concerto for two seasons in a performance at the American Ballet Theatre.  Here is the YouTube url for many of his performances in noted halls and just fooling around. His stuff has been viewed more than 250,000 times. You can find him on Facebook and see even more. I remember when he was 8 years old that he got up at 5 a.m. to practice and I shortly after him to work on "The 41st Sermon." It was a productive time for both of us. And, of late, he's become a hell of a chef.


6 comments:

  1. Wow, impressive! I love the Russian composers - Dimitri Kabalevski (I might have spelled that wrong) is one of my favorites. He tends to write in minor keys, and they're beautiful to listen to and fun to play (I used to play, but was never very good). I will definitely go to check out his YouTube performances when I have a chance; hubby is sleeping right now and I need to finish my e-mail and return to editing...

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  2. Phenomenal pianist and amazing transcriber. I've been very proud to be able call him a friend for years.

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  3. Max, Thank you so much for such a kind comment.

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  4. Randy--I was at school--Juilliard--with your son. I think he is just the best. And your revival of that printing press is very impressive. Not just nostalgia! Maybe some transcriptions of Koji's can be printed that way. Cheers!!

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    1. Lloyd, thanks for introducing yourself. Koji did a kickstarter project to publish a nice book of his transcriptions. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1498481190/typeset-my-transcriptions?ref=live

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