User:Troyci

'''Michele de Wilton New Age/Neo-Classical Piano Composer & Performer'''

Michele de Wilton seeks to transport the listener by bringing classic stories of love, yearning and adventure to life through piano composition and performance.

Discography:

Day of Myth - 2000  (Demo - Limited Run)

Myths & Legends - 2008 (Available on iTunes (US, Japan, Europe, Australia), Amazon, Rhapsody)

The Ice Maiden (live) - Three track "single" - January 2009 (recently announced via artist website)

Videos:

The Ice Maiden - January 2009 (recently announced via artist website - currently in post-production)

Official Artist Website:

www.micheledewilton.com

Professional Associations

Michele de Wilton worked with a team of well established artists to achieve the designs for her album and interactive website. These include Chicago fashion designer Maria Pinto (known for designing clothes for Michelle Obama), New York fashion photographer Bill Diodato, and Chicago-based interactive designer Lauren Sheehan at Merge Design & Interactive.

Influences

Michele de Wilton states she was influenced by classical composers, new age greats and some of the finest composers of stage and film scores. These include: Classical composers: Frédéric Chopin, Felix Mendelssohn, Sergei Rachmaninov, Bedrich Smetana. Contemporary composers: Kitaro, Ennio Morricone, Michael Nyman, Vangelis, George Winston, Hans Zimmer. Michele de Wilton states that she "will never forget the first time I saw Gone with the Wind and, hearing the intermission music, realized that the essence of the story was woven through Max Steiner’s score."

Biography: The Early Years to Release of First Album

Michele de Wilton is a piano composer and performer. She began composing for the piano when she was eleven years old while going to school at St. Margaret's school outside London, England. She performed her first original composition for piano accompanied by flute and violin for an audience of parents at St. Margaret's in 1983. Michele continued to compose throughout high school, college and early adulthood despite making "safer" education and employment choices focusing on journalism and marketing. Michele de Wilton gained three degrees at Northwestern University.

Composing and playing was a very private part of her life providing an "escape" from the stress of her rigorous education, professional and family obligations. In January 2000 her husband surprised her with a recording session at the Chicago Recording Company for her birthday. At that time she recoded a demo album of five songs. Word quickly reached Chicago-based jazz pianist Ramsay Lewis who reached out to Michele and was extremely supportive and encouraging of her work. He also introduced her to the A&R executives at Narada. While they found Michele's music both beautiful and relaxing, they were unsure whether it belonged in the New Age or in the Classical section of the music stores and ultimately passed on offering her a recording contract. Michele continued to compose and released "Myths & Legends" in 2008.

Early Childhood

Michele de Wilton was born in Cape Town, South Africa on January 30, 1972. At age three Michele immigrated to Evanston, Illinois in the United States with her parents. Her father had received a scholarship to pursue his Ph.D in Finance at Northwestern University. Michele's parents took the opportunity to leave their country becuase they strongly disagreed with the Apartied system and anticipated the political unrest that followed. Moving from Cape Town with its temperate climate to Evanston, Illinois, known for its severe winter weather, was a difficult transition for Michele and her family. This is when Michele started to become facinated with classic myths and legends. These stories, in particular, provided an escape for her during this transition. Michele started reading at the age of three and retreated often into books on mythology and fantasy. By age seven, Michele started piano lessons because she "was facinated by using her fingers to express her emotions."