Benjamin Belew will be performing LIVE on November 13 at the Christian Church of Santa Clara – 1821 Bowers Ave. Santa Clara, CA 95051.
Benjamin will be performing pieces from Beethoven, Bach, Scarlatti and others as well as his own original compositions.
See you there.
Benjamin Belew LIVE Piano Recital - Beethoven, Bach and original compositions
This is a classical piano improvisation of the hymn ‘Holy Holy Holy‘ by San Jose Bay Area pianist Benjamin Belew
It was played at the Christian Church of Santa Clara during the prelude to morning worship.
‘Holy Holy Holy‘ is a pillar song in almost any hymn book.
The Words to ‘Holy Holy Holy‘ were written by Reginald Heber in 1826. Heber wrote the hymn for Trinity Sunday (one week after Pentecost) when he was the Vicar of Hodnet, Shropshire in England.
The original music was written by John B. Dykes in Hymns Ancient and Modern in 1861.
This video is an improvised version with a classical influence.
Benjamin Belew is influenced by Beethoven, Brahms and Bach…the B’s.. And not a few other classical musicians of that era.
Benjamin Belew plays the piano every Sunday at the Christian Church of Santa Clara.
He also performs concerts from time to time and accompanies other musicians when called upon.
Piano Concert by Benjamin Akira Sakaguchi Belew
and accompanies other musicians when called upon:
What do you get when you cross an old hymn – “Revive Us Again” with Boogie Woogie?
The worship team at Christian Church of Santa Clara was practicing like they always do for an upcoming worship service, when Benjamin Belew, a classical pianist living in the Bay Area of San Jose broke into an inspired Boogie Woogie improvisation.
Inspired by the Spirit? Who knows? But the team decided to incorporate the Boogie Woogie version of the hymn into their Sunday service.
It almost worked.
Benjamin Belew, the classical pianist could keep up, lead? But the singers struggled a bit.
Nevertheless, by the time the end of the 3rd verse came around the singers almost caught up.
The congregation responded with a spontaneous applause. Yeah..and that doesn’t happen very often.
When was the last time you heard an old classical hymn improvised to a modern-day (is Boogie Woogie modern?) beat.
Boogies Woogie can be found in an old Beethoven piece.
I will have to ask Benjamin to dig that out and play it sometime.
Here’s the video.
This is my first attempt at Sebastian’s tocatta and fuge.
This was played on a pipe organ in Rising Sun, IN.
I wish you had been there.