Ed Bazel Honored with Lifetime Achievement Award
Ed Bazel’s ‘long and winding road’ has taken him from solo pianist, celebrity agent and concert booker, to entrepreneur and composer, most recently to London’s Abbey Road Studios.
Ed Bazel, an award-winning contemporary pianist and founder of The River of Calm - Music To Soothe Your Soul™, was honored with a 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award at Miller Piano Specialists’ annual MPS Awards show on Thursday, October 27.
In presenting Ed Bazel with this award, Sherry Smith of Miller Piano Specialists said, “This man is a genius. He worked with major acts: Jay Leno, Little Big Town, many others. Any corporate request, he made it happen.
Much of what we do at Miller Piano is because of him. He has encouraged and funneled many people through our doors. What he’s doing with The River of Calm is awesome. In recent years, he’s been livestreaming concerts, giving opportunities to rising artists, young and old, right here in Nashville.
He’s provided headphones with healing music to people in middle Tennessee undergoing chemotherapy treatment. He’s composed music to Vanderbilt’s SENSE Theater helping autistic children and adults to find their singing voice. He has done so much for others; he doesn’t look at himself.
“Ed, we appreciate what you do so much. For this, we are recognizing you with the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award – our highest award.”
Bazel’s lifetime of achievement began in his childhood in Huntington, West Virginia, when his parents forced him “kicking and screaming” to take piano lessons for 11 years. Today, he credits his parents for the best gift they could have ever given him.
Always musically inclined, forming garage bands with his friends throughout school and college, Bazel obtained degrees in business and computer science all the while honing his craft in Huntington, then Lexington, KY. After a few years, he sought opportunities in Los Angeles, where he became a solo pianist at celebrity venues including the Beverly Hills Country Club and the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel. He was named “Best Pianist in Downtown L.A.”
Working among celebrities, Bazel became a talent agent; his entrepreneurial drive eventually led him to launch The Bazel Group, a corporate entertainment booking agency located in Nashville once on Music Row.
In 2019, his desire to help people find peace in an increasingly chaotic world led him to launch
The River of Calm - Music To Soothe Your Soul™, an online music channel reaching listeners worldwide and promoting hundreds of independent pianists, vocalists, guitarists and more playing soulful music.
In the past decade, Bazel has returned to composing music. With compositions that are thoughtful, romantic, melodic and sometimes haunting, Bazel’s previous releases include Bella Piano (2013) and
Homecoming (2021). His latest is The London Sessions: Reflections From Studio 2
(rel. Oct. 7, 2022), recorded in June 2022 in Abbey Road Studios. The result: Twelve soothing, romantic melodies that reflect on his life’s influences, including two cover renditions by The Beatles: “In My Life” and “Yesterday.”
On receiving the 2022 MPS Lifetime Achievement Award, Bazel said, “This award means so much. I thank Miller Piano Specialists for years of support, and also the artists and musicians here tonight. I thank parents of
aspiring children everywhere – especially mine who forced me into piano. I have had an amazing career. Booking from the Great Wall of China to the U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican in Rome. Foreigner. Bad Company. Huey Lewis & The News and it goes on and on and on. And now it’s really cool to
be back at the piano, my first love.”
The MPS Awards show featured several special guests, including Leng Tshua of Pearl River Piano Group and Dr. Caio Pagano, an internationally renowned concert pianist, teacher and scholar.
For more information on Miller Piano Specialists’ annual MPS Awards, visit https://millerps.com/mps-awards-show-2022/
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