Exit Reality

“One Life, One Love.” This song – track 8 on my first release entitled EXIT REALITY – started it all for me. It is a piano quintet (piano + string quartet) that I composed as a wedding gift for my wife. My plan was to take a surprise detour to the grand piano in the church just prior to the vow part. My wife had no idea (nor did anyone else, for that matter).

I had hired a string quartet to play the standard string quartet wedding stuff, which they did quite beautifully, I might add. However, when I detoured to the piano, they then took out sheet music that I painstakingly (with some help) created so they could all play the string parts that I composed to accompany the piano composition I wrote for my almost-wife.

So, my wedding ceremony was my first public performance on piano – with a string quartet, no less. My nerves were shot – double shot (wedding plus performance…what was I thinking?). I had a great time, my almost-wife loved it and we were able to drop the “almost” a few minutes afterwards. Whew (literally).

Things started moving fast after this (with my music, I mean). Turns out the string quartet I hired was through a company that was run by Julie Metz – when she wasn’t touring with Yanni or the Pacific Symphony Orchestra. She encouraged me to orchestrate (with strings) many of the solo piano compositions I had written over the previous few years. After several recording sessions with Julie on violin/viola and Andrew Honea (Pacific Symphony Orchestra) on cello, EXIT REALITY was born.

I set off to promote my debut CD and successfully introduced it to Borders Books and Music where it was carried in nearly every store nationwide (many other boutique stores also carried it). From there I signed a publishing deal with Peer Music before EXIT REALITY was released commercially in Taiwan by High Hit Music. Funny thing, they spelled my name “Jhon” on the cover. Probably a typo, but I like to tell myself that this is how “John” is spelled in Chinese. Makes me feel a little better.

BUY DIGITAL ALBUM OR TRACKS