Bio & Resume from Old Web Site (1986-2004)
| Bio and Resume | |||||||
John Sawoski was born in 1962 in Philadelphia, the second of 3 children of Polish-American bio-medical engineer Edward J. Sawoski, and his Italian-American wife Mary. Sawoski grew up in Southern New Jersey, studying piano with Molly Biernat, Steven Romanio, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Vita Zuponzic, Dorothy Taubman, and others. His first public performance was on Philadelphia’s WPVI-TV at the age of 11, playing Durand’s Grande Valse Brilliante on Al Alberts’ Showcase. While still attending Washington Township High School, he accompanied and recorded with the All South Jersey Chorus, and was selected to perform with New Jersey’s All-State Jazz Band, Band, and Orchestra. His solo concert career began to blossom when he played Rachmaninoff’s Polichinelle at the Garden State Arts Center’s 1977 Talent Expo, performed a complete solo recital program at Glassboro State College at the age of 16, and then performed Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A Minor with orchestra at Glassboro’s summer music camp. He was a finalist (one of the top 6 in the nation) at the 1979 Chopin Young Pianists Competition in Buffalo, NY, and won First Place in the New Jersey MTNA Student Auditions and Drexel University Music Awards in 1980. Throughout this period, Sawoski also played in his high school jazz band and accompanied school choirs and musicals, performing at various festivals on the East Coast. Just before Sawoski’s senior year of high school, the Sawoski family relocated to Thousand Oaks, California, where John continued studying piano with studio pianist Lincoln Mayorga, played for Thousand Oaks High School’s jazz band, and won a National Association of Jazz Educators award for Best Jazz Pianist at the 1981 Chaffey College Jazz Festival. He also played in various local jazz and pop groups, doing some recording, arranging, and night club performances, as well as accompanying for various local theatre productions. Sawoski then received many scholarships to attend Stanford University, including one to study piano with the late Adolph Baller. Taking a variety of courses ranging from orchestration with Art Barnes, to history classes with Gordon Craig and Barton Bernstein, to Phil Zimbardo’s The Psychology of Mind Control, to Urban Plunge: A Study of Poverty in the Inner City, Sawoski earned a B.A. in music and a B.A. in history. In his sophomore year, he composed, arranged, orchestrated and conducted an original musical co-written with lyricist and book-writer Michael Weiss, called How to Become A Legend in Your Own Mind. He later also composed, arranged, and orchestrated several pieces for two productions of Stanford’s Big Game Gaieties, an annual musical extravaganza performed in anticipation of the Stanford-Cal football game. One big production number composed by Sawoski, Trains, Jewels, Death, and Schools, was reprised for a special performance at Stanford’s 100th anniversary celebration. Sawoski also accompanied and musical directed several other musicals at Stanford. In addition, he gave many piano performances including a concerto with the Stanford Symphony, and was awarded the 1983 Blew-Culley-La Follette Prize in piano. After graduating from Stanford in 1985, Sawoski relocated to Los Angeles, where he continued his education and has based his career as a freelance pianist, keyboardist, composer, music producer and conductor. While studying song-writing, record production, film-scoring, and orchestration at UCLA Extension with Don Ray, Charles Bernstein, Joey Rand, Gerald Fried, and others, he earned his living by accompanying and arranging for unknown singers, and playing solo piano jobs at venues such as The Regency Club (where he had the privilege of entertaining former President Nixon, meeting Henry Mancini, and entertaining Prince Rainier and the Princely Family of Monaco, Mr. Blackwell, Jimmy Stewart, Charleton Heston, Frank Sinatra, Liza Minnelli, Roger Moore, Pierre Cardin, Zsa-zsa and Eva Gabor, and Kenny Rogers), The Beverly Wilshire, and The Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel. He traveled back and forth from Los Angeles to Acapulco as musical director for Sitmar Cruises FairSea (later taken over by Princess), playing two variety shows a night and leading the band from the piano for a group of musical theatre singer/dancers and various guest artists such as the tap-dancing vibraphonist Jack Imel (formerly of the Lawrence Welk Show). After his contract ended, Sawoski was called to fly back immediately to Acapulco and rejoin the same ship in order to substitute for the pianist in the lounge band. The band members were from Italy and only spoke a few words of English. Because all musical terms are in Italian, it didn’t matter. The lounge band job was far less demanding that the show band he had just worked for, so Sawoski was able to enjoy some of the pleasures of traveling in Mexico: water-skiing, parasailing, and relaxing on the warm sands. Since traveling work appealed to him, Sawoski was quite excited to hear from members of the lounge band about an agent who could book Sawoski to play in Swiss ski resorts. Within a few months, Sawoski headed off to Geneva, Mt. Pelerin-sur-Vevey, and Badrutt’s Palace Hotel in St. Moritz, where he was able not only to earn a relatively high income playing piano, but travel to many other European cities, socialize with interesting people such as the former Prince Khan of Afghanistan, and practice his French, German, and Romansch. When he returned to Los Angeles in 1988, Sawoski resumed his education, studying orchestration with Albert Harris, taking conducting lessons with U.S.C.’s William Schaefer, and studying orchestration and film-scoring with Michael Patterson. He played piano at Mason’s Restaurant in Brentwood where he was heckled by the late Harry Nilsson, who ended up being a good friend. Living in Hollywood, Sawoski met a variety of people in the entertainment industry and worked on many of their projects. He played on several film scores, including Hard Rock Nightmare (1988); musical directed and played piano for Mable King’s Christmas TV Special and other television projects; composed and produced Quake Rap (aired on KRTH-101); appeared in several television commercials as pianist, including one produced by Ridley Scott; arranged and played keyboards on the pop album Van Nuys Blvd., by The Adam Yurman Project (Crown Records, Tokyo) – sort of Japan’s greatest hits, American-style; and composed, arranged, played keyboards, and produced two children’s Christian rock albums for Resource Publications. It was also during this period that Sawoski got his first call to compose a film score: Hearing the Call, an industrial film for The United Way. In 1992, Sawoski had co-written, arranged, played, sung, and produced a semi-autobiographical comedy rap song with his former Stanford music professor Paul Nahay, called White Boys from New Jersey, which has been played numerous times over the years on the Dr. Demento radio program. The song won Grand Prize in the 1993 Virginia Organization of Composers and Lyricists Song Contest, and Third Place in the 1992 Mid-Atlantic Song Contest in New York, which later inspired Sawoski and Nahay to complete a four-song EP in the same style, including what may be the world’s only rap waltz, White Boys Got Rhythm. During 1993, Nahay hired Sawoski to substitute for him occasionally as keyboardist on the first national tour of the Broadway musical The Secret Garden. Eventually both the other keyboardist and the conductor called Sawoski to sub on the tour, and eventually, when Nahay quit, Sawoski was hired to play for the rest of the tour, which took him to many American cities, as well as Tokyo, Kyoto, and Nagoya, Japan. After Sawoski again returned to Los Angeles in 1994, one of the conductors of The Secret Garden called him to work as rehearsal pianist and sub for the first keyboardist for Disney’s Beauty and the Beast at Los Angeles’s Schubert Theatre. One thing led to another, and Sawoski was soon playing for Les Miserables (National Tour), A Chorus Line (with Donna McKechnie), and Cathy Rigby’s productions of Peter Pan, Annie Get Your Gun, and Once on This Island. Sawoski was also appointed Assistant Musical Director of the Los Angeles production of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular starring the Rockettes, and played and conducted for Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins (Los Angeles Theater Center); Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah; Both Barrels: A Salvo of John Forster Songs; and Funny, You Don’t Look Like A Grandmother at the Santa Monica Playhouse. In 1997, while in Washington, D.C. to play in the orchestra of a Santa Monica College production of Once on This Island at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, Sawoski met his wife Perviz, who was directing the show. They were married in 1999, and have two children, Sophia (born in 2000) and Isabella (born in 2002). Perviz Sawoski is now a full professor and Chair of Theatre Arts at Santa Monica College. Beginning in 1997, Sawoski’s freelance career became a whirlwind of endless opportunities. He recorded with Saylor Shin (Korean vocalist and #1 hit songwriter). He worked as keyboardist/assistant conductor for the legendary Peruvian operatic jazz singer Yma Sumac, playing her concerts at the Montreal Jazz Festival, San Francisco, and the House of Blues in Los Angeles. He played piano for Tom Poston on the Oscar Mayer Free Fat-Free Ham radio commercial. He composed, arranged, and recorded for numerous film and TV scores including ShowBoy, Winning Ugly: Twenty Years Later (for the Chicago White Sox), The Woman Chaser, and Day of Atonement. He has appeared as a musician on camera on many TV shows, including Frasier, Will & Grace, Veronica’s Closet, JAG, Family Matters, Las Vegas, Big Shots. He has also played on camera on the films Walk Hard, Rumor Has It, LA Confidential, The Wedding Singer, Frasier, Man on the Moon, and HBO’s Live From Baghdad. Sawoski has had the honor of accompanying tenor Dennis McNeil at President George W. Bush’s 2001 Presidential Inaugural, and at a special performance honoring President Ford. He has also accompanied Frank Sinatra Jr., Michael Feinstein, Michael Crawford, Dale Kristien, Rachel York, Lisa Vroman, Sam Harris, Lucie Arnaz, Jim Carrey, Seth MacFarlane, Mable King, 3-time Tony winner Audra McDonald, Regis Philbin, Susan Lucci, The Fifth Dimension, and many others. While further studying arranging with the late Nick Perito, Mr. Sawoski has created hundreds of orchestrations and arrangements for other singers for whom he has accompanied and music directed, including The Leading Ladies, Gregg Marx, Leslie Zemeckis, Dennis McNeil, Rodney Gilfry, and Marnie Breckenridge. His orchestration of Danny Boy has been performed by several American orchestras, as well as the Irish opera singer Sam McElroy. Sawoski has played for the Los Angeles Music Center Spotlight Awards (televised on KCET) for the last 2 years, for Avenue Q at the Ahmanson, and for Disney’s Candlelight Concert for several years. Sawoski recorded every note of the Bosendorfer, Steinway, and Bechstein piano samples included in the East West Quantum Leap Pianos (virtual instrument library for composers and keyboardists). Sawoski played for Robert Drasnin’s 2007 album Voodoo II (Dionysus Records). He recently played piano, edited, and did some arranging on Peter Sheridan’s album Flute Colors, due to be released soon by Move Records (Australia). Since 2004, Sawoski has served as piano accompanist for renowned Catholic composer Christopher Walker’s Caritas Choir at St. Paul the Apostle Church in Westwood, who have also performed Sawoski’s music. Sawoski has also accompanied High Holy Days services at Temple Isaiah, as well as a concert of the Rutter Requiem under the direction of Hollywood conductor/orchestrator Jeffrey Schindler. In early 2008 Sawoski was hired to orchestrate for an upcoming project for a company called WebOnly Piano, which produces and distributes PianoDisk and Disklavier recordings with orchestra. Sawoski’s first two arrangements, Here’s That Rainy Day and From A Distance, were recorded January 4 at Capitol Studios in Hollywood. Sawoski currently serves as principal keyboardist for The Riverside County Philharmonic and The Capistrano Valley Symphony (for which he is also assistant conductor). He has also performed with The Pasadena Pops, The Long Beach Symphony, The San Bernardino Symphony, The Redlands Symphony, The California Pops, The Beverly Hills Pops Orchestra, and The Orange County Four Seasons Orchestra. In May 2008 Sawoski performed with The Pasadena Pops, and began playing two different keyboard parts for A Chorus Line at the Ahmanson Theatre. Throughout the summer he played first keyboard on the Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach, as well as playing occasional recording sessions, including a scoring session for USA Network’s The Starter Wife, starring Debra Messing. In September he will musical direct Kodak’s Image Awards for Emmy-nominated cinematographers, as he has done for the last several years (also for Oscar-nominated cinematographers). Other upcoming work includes Capistrano Valley Symphony concerts and The Color Purple at Orange County Performing Arts Center. Services and EquipmentServices: Keyboard & piano playing, composing, arranging, orchestrating, music direction, music production & recording, and accompanying. EducationComposing for Film and Television with Michael Patterson at Cal State LA 1981-1985 Stanford University, Stanford, California 1970-1985 Private piano lessons with Lincoln Mayorga, Adolph Baller, Molly Biernat, Veda Zuponzic, Yoheved Kaplinsky, & Steven Romanio; jazz and musical workshops with top musicians, conductors, and band leaders on both coasts of the U.S., including Stan Kenton, Maynard Ferguson, and Dorothy Taubman. 2000-2010 – See Press Releases. Other highlights: 2005 – Orchestrator, The Claflin Hill Symphony Orchestra 2005 – Arranger/Producer, songs and recordings for Blood Wedding, Santa Monica College 2004 – John Sawoski’s arrangements for The Leading Ladies were featured at the Help is on the Way X 10th Anniversary Gala, The Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA. 2001 Keyboardist on camera, The Big Time (TNT/Warner Brothers TV Movie) 2000 Musical Director/Pianist, Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah, Los Angeles 1998-2004 Pianist/Keyboardist, The Orange County Four Seasons Orchestra, with conductors Roger Hickman and Dov Scharf, moderator John Santana, and numerous guest artists.
1998 Pianist on camera, Man on the Moon (Jim Carrey movie), Universal Pictures
1998 Audition Accompanist, Aw George, a new musical
1998 Rehearsal Pianist, Love 40 (new musical) 1998 Dramatic Composer, Act Without Words, by Samuel Becket, Long Beach City College 1997 Pianist, Guys and Dolls, Burbank Civic Light Opera 1997 Composer/Music Supervisor, What’s Shakin’? (children’s variety TV show pilot) 1994 Arranger, The Kevin McGuire Show, New York 1993 Pianist/Hand Model J.C. Penney Men’s Classics TV Commercial, Other Piano Performance Highlights1996 Solo Pianist, The Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel
1997 President, Stanford Alumni in Entertainment (SAE) * Member, American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Professional Musicians Local 47, Los Angeles (and Local 7, Orange County), Recording Musicians Association (RMA), National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS), American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers (ASMAC), American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), Society of Composers & Lyricists (SCL) * Los Angeles Composers Guild (LACG), National Academy of Songwriters (NAS) * Owner, Million Oaks Music (ASCAP), publisher
Honors and AwardsGrand Prize Winner, First Place Winner Virginia Organization of Composers and Lyricists 1993 Song Contest Third Place, Mid-Atlantic Song Contest, New York (1992) NAJE award for Best Jazz Pianist, Chaffey College Jazz Festival (1981) Music Guild Scholarship, Stanford University (1981-85) Blew-Culley-La Follette Prize in Piano at Stanford (1983) Finalist (top 6 in nation), Chopin Young Pianists Competition, Buffalo, NY (1979) First Place, MTNA Student Auditions, New Jersey (1980) New Jersey All-State Jazz Band, Band, and Orchestra (1980) First Place, Drexel Music Awards (1979)
(Other references available upon request)“… Very entertaining…” “… FABULOUS … JOHN SAWOSKI is a superb keyboard artist…” “A phenomenal find.” “Your own arrangements and treatment of those (Japanese) songs made them more contemporary and interesting. I like what you did…” “great accompaniment” “An excellent pianist and accompanist, and amazingly versatile as well.” “Should do a solo piano album…” “Fantastic pianist. Sensitive, subtle… perfect for the room.” – Harry Nilsson “Really blew the people away… audience [is] still talking about the [celebrity benefit] show.” “He not only looks like a dream, but he plays like a dream, which is rare – let’s face it…” “A talented keyboard stylist… Classically trained, [he] is also great with Broadway show tunes as well as pop and rock selections.” – Wally Cedar, Editor, The Regency Report Need more information?
Please click here to request more information or a price quote. Copyright 2004 John Sawoski, PO Box 7060, Beverly Hills, CA 90212. (310) 590-6000. All rights reserved | |||||||
