Award winning musician Jan Preston: My Life as a Piano

Award winning musician Jan Preston performs My Life as a Piano

Touring New Zealand in September & November

Show-stopping piano star JAN PRESTON – of Coup d’état fame – returns to New Zealand this September and November with a quirky new show ‘MY LIFE AS A PIANO’.

‘MY LIFE AS A PIANO’ is a toe-tapping, up beat boogie music show featuring songs and music, humour and a contemporary bent on the honky tonk piano tradition.

This show will be played in intimate venues throughout New Zealand and includes her unforgettable autobiographic stories, sometimes uproarious, sometimes poignant, interwoven with never before seen images.

Knockout boogie pianist/singer Jan Preston and her trio will take you from 1950s piano lessons to the über-cool ambience of dark and dingy jazz clubs, and then on to the sweaty raw energy of honky tonk houses around the world, playing the grooves of boogie, ragtime and more, revealing the unique world of Jan and her pianos.

‘MY LIFE AS A PIANO’ is about my lifelong obsession with pianos. Some people pick up stray cats, I pick up pianos. I just find them, or maybe they find me. I can’t remember your face but I’ll remember the piano I was playing when I met you,’ laughs Jan.

The show features a wonderful potted history of the piano, letting audiences in on some of the more unusual and quirky facts you probably won’t have heard before. Did you know that in 1895 New Zealand and Australia imported more pianos than the United States? And until the 1970’s, 1 in 4 homes in New Zealand and Australia had a piano.

A 90 minute show of stories interwoven with images, original songs and music, creating the cool ambience of jazz. Audiences will be moved and elated by Jan’s boogie journey and will leave changed forever, never looking at a piano in quite the same way again!

About Jan Preston
In Europe Jan is known as the knockout boogie pianist with the rich resonant voice, capturing audiences with her originality and energy.

From a background in classical music with a long-term interest in composition and song writing, Jan always knew her sound was somewhere in the boogie woogie/ honky-tonk piano style.

She has created her own style, not only through her piano playing but also her singing and song writing which now sees here shine as a truly Anitpodean original.

Jan had success with a number 1 single hit in New Zealand in 1981 called ‘Doctor I like your Medicine’ with Harry Lyon (Hello Sailor) and the band Coup d’état.

Winner of seven music awards, she has sold out concerts from the tip of Australia to the very South of New Zealand, in main centres and tiny regional towns. Jan composes for film and television and plays at festivals throughout NZ, Australia and Europe, and in 2012 played several concerts in China, one being at the famous Bird’s Nest in Beijing.

For seven consecutive years Jan has travelled to Europe to play and learn, in the music circles of ‘Boogieland’, eventually gaining spots in festivals and concerts, side by side with some of the greatest contemporary boogie piano players in the world.

MY LIFE AS A PIANO
Friday 13 September St Michaels and All Angels Church Christchurch. Bookings: www.janpreston.com or www.1-night.co.nz
Wednesday 25 September Mayfair Theatre. Dunedin Bookings: www.regenttheatre.co.nz Ph: 03 477 8597 and Ticketdirect
Friday 27 September The Boathouse Nelson. Bookings: Everyman Records www.Everyman.co.nz Ph: 03 548 3083
Saturday 28 September Baycourt Theatre Tauranga. Bookings: www.ticketek.co.nz Ph: 0800 Ticketek
Sunday 29 September Century Theatre Napier. Bookings: Ph: 06 835 7781
Sunday 3 November Circa One Theatre Wellington. Bookings: www.circa.co.nz Ph: 04 801 7992
Thursday 7 November Blue Baths Rotorua. Bookings: www.bluebaths.co.nz
Friday 8 November Clarence St Theatre Hamilton. Bookings: www.ticketek.co.nz Ph: 0800842534
Saturday 9 November The Pumphouse Theatre Takapuna. Bookings: www.pumphouse.co.nz Ph: 09 489 8360
Sunday 10 November Turner Centre Keri Keri. Bookings: www.turnercentre.co.nz Ph: 09 407 0260

www.janpreston.com

ENDS

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