Billy Mayerl
Billy Mayerl ( born May 31, 1902 in England; † March 25, 1959 ) was an English pianist and composer who in his concert career, he was known primarily as a music master of Light. His music style is characterized by novel syncopated piano solos. He composed over 300 piano pieces, many of which were named after flowers and trees, as well as his best-known composition, Marigold (1927 ).
Life
Mayerl was born into a musical family in London's Tottenham Court Road, near the West End theater district. He began very early with piano lessons and studied with 7 years at the Trinity College of Music. As a teenager, he completed his studies with accompanying silent movies and playing of dance music.
In 1927, he joined a music group hotel in Southampton with and dealt with American popular music. Eventually, he became a part of Savoy Savanna Band in London, with which he became famous.
In 1926 he left the Savoy band and founded his school of syncopation, which specialized in the teaching of modern music styles such as ragtime and stride piano. This led to the creation of the correspondence course How to play like Billy Mayerl. During this time he wrote his most famous solo piece Marigold. In the late 30s his correspondence school to have had more than 100 employees and 30,000 students. The school was closed in 1957.
Mayerl was the solo pianist for the premiere of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue in London.
In the 30s Mayerl has written works for the musical theater, for example, Sporting Love, which debuted at London's Gaiety Theatre in 1934, or Twenty to One ( 1935) and Over She Goes (1936).
Mayerl was a prolific pianist in radio broadcasts and recordings.
He died in 1959 of a heart attack.