Albert Syeles
My father, Albert "Arpad" Szeles (the NYC school system misspelled the name and it stuck) was born in Austria-Hungary and came to the USA as an infant before the Great War To End All Wars. I came along after the Second World War - yes, a Boomer. He taught me to love all things Viennese and Hungarian (old Magyar folk songs, Liszt, verbunkos, gypsy music...as well as Strauss, Brahms, sacre torte and of course wienerschnitzel).
I had some lessons on various instruments early in life, a few bands, and
music courses in college (Duquesne U.), then the business world for 35 years -
instruments, along with skills, gathering dust. Finally retired, I started
writing down many of the musical ideas swirling around in my head for decades.
While greasing up my rusty playing and composing skills, I discovered the new
stuff - electronic musical devices like synthesizers, workstations and
sequencers. I also recently acquired a Motif ES 8 to replace the apartment-size
grand that I gave up many years ago. What a piano! What a learning curve! But
what a blast!
In addition to some piano performances of known works recorded here, you can
find a few of my original compositions for piano in the Composing forum or at www.cscale.com.
Recordings