Jeffrey Biegel
Jeffrey Biegel is one of today’s most respected artists and has created a multi-faceted career as a pianist, composer and arranger. His electrifying technique and mesmerizing touch has won critical acclaim and garners praise throughout. The career of pianist Jeffrey Biegel has been marked by bold, creative achievements and highlighted by a series of firsts: He envisioned and performed the first live internet recitals in New York and Amsterdam in 1997 and 1998, enabling him to be seen and heard by a global audience. Until the age of 3, Mr. Biegel was unable to hear nor speak, until corrected by surgery. The ‘reverse Beethoven’ phenomenon can explain Mr. Biegel’s life in music, having heard only vibrations in his formative years. Born a second-generation American, Mr. Biegel’s roots are of Russian and Austrian heritage. A Russian cousin, pianist Herman Kosoff, emigrated to the United States in the early 20th century, and had been accepted into the class of the great Leopold Godowsky in Austria. Mr. Biegel’s grandmother’s cousin, Dr. Sonia Slatin,was a graduate of Columbia University who actively performed and also taught Schenkerian analysis at Brooklyn College. Among Biegel?s compositions of note is ‘Christmas In A Minute’, an SATB choral version of Chopin’s ‘Minute Waltz’ as well as his arrangement of ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ for SATB divisi a cappella choir. The orchestration for ‘Christmas In A Minute’ by Kermit Poling is available through MMB Music, which can be performed by soloist and orchestra, or with choir and orchestra. Mr. Biegel received a commission to compose a new work for SSA choir with the chosen text, ‘Hey Ho, The Wind and the Rain’ from William Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night’, and is published by the Hal Leonard Corporation. ‘Hey Ho, The Wind and the Rain’ is featured on a new cd recorded by Voci Nobili, the prize-winning Norwegian women’s choir conducted by Maria Helbekkmo. Voci Nobili also performed the work in New York’s Merkin Hall. His most recent choral compositions include ‘A Different Kind of Hero’, an arrangement of ‘The Christmas Song’ for SATB a cappella choir, and ‘Ho Ho Hanukah, Ho Ho Christmas’ which receives its premiere in 2006. Mr. Biegel presented the first American real audio/video cybercast piano recital in July 1997 from New York’s Steinway Hall (featured in The New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal Report syndicated TV feature, Voice of America, WNYC Public Radio). He subsequently performed the first European real audio/video cybercast piano recital from Amsterdam. The New York recital appeared on CD through Angelok1 and is now available for online download distribution. In keeping with technology in the early years of ringtones, Mr. Biegel has created over 400 downloadable ringtones for www.mobiletones.com based in the United Kingdom. The monophonic ringtones range from the Baroque Period through the 21st Century. He also created over 60 holiday ringtones for the company available during the holiday season. Mr. Biegel is currently on the piano faculty at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College, a City University of New York (CUNY), and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). He resides in New York with his wife, Sharon, and their sons Craig and Evan.