Robert Norman Costlow (born June 5, 1973), known professionally as Rob Costlow, is a contemporary American pianist. His first album Sophomore Jinx was released worldwide in 2005. INgrooves, Rob's Digital Distributor, licensed his song "Wood of Chaos" (the title track from his second album) to both Nokia and Conrad Hotels for worldwide distribution.
Biography
Rob was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. His father, Ronald Neal Costlow, is a partner for a large Certified Public Accountant firm. His mother Linda Lee Miller was a stay-at-home mom to Rob and his three brothers. Rob's mother was of German descent and his father is of Scottish-Irish ancestry.
At age eleven, Rob lost his mother to ovarian cancer. His stepmother (Sharon Gustavel) and two step brothers came into his life over a year later.
Rob received a Bachelors and Masters degree in Kinesiology from Indiana University, Bloomington (IU). Before transferring to IU as a junior, Rob began his college career as a Piano Performance and Composition major at Ball State University. He then changed majors to Kinesiology as a sophomore, giving an ironic twist to the meaning of Rob’s first album.
At IU, Rob was hit by a drunk driver and suffered injuries to both hands, resulting in a broken left hand and carpel tunnel syndrome in his right. Through surgery and physical therapy Rob has recovered, but still feels aching in his hands after any especially extensive piano performance.
While working on his Masters Degree at IU, Rob unofficially started his own record label, based on a business class project. In 2002, Rob released his first professional solo project, Sophomore Jinx (re-released 2005), containing all original music. In 2004, Rob officially founded Tourist Records. Through Tourist Records, Rob continues to create and license music. He hopes to inspire other artists to make their own impact in the world.
Rob recorded his first piano album in the spring of 1998. It was his demo album Broad Uncertainty. He has since improved upon, renamed and rerecorded many of the songs on his professional album releases.
Professionally, Rob has also spent the last decade working for influential Internet companies. He has worked for 4 dot com companies.
Personal life
Rob is married to Melissa Flint. He met her at the Indiana University Kappa Alpha Theta sorority house in 1995. Rob worked as a pot-washer and then a waiter at the sorority. They were engaged in Rome, Italy in the spring of 1999 and married in Indianapolis, IN on October 2, 1999.
They have two children: Madeline June (a.k.a. "Maddie", born January 19, 2007) and Eleanor Carol (a.k.a. "Ellie", born May 8, 2009).
Discography
* Sophomore Jinx (2005)
* Woods of Chaos (2005)
* Return - Remix EP (2006)
* Reconstruction (2008)
Awards
* Rob's song "Forbidden" was selected as a Song of the Year finalist in the 2009 8th Annual Independent Music Awards.
* Rob's song "Reflections" won for Best Music at the 2007 Shoot Out Boulder Filmmaking Festival.
* Rob’s albums Sophomore Jinx and Woods of Chaos were both nominated for the 2006 Independent Music Awards New Age Album of the Year.
*Rob is ranked number one Best Keyboards (acoustic, all-time)
* Best Potential Movie Soundtrack (acoustic, all-time)<ref name="garageband.com"/>
Biography
Rob was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. His father, Ronald Neal Costlow, is a partner for a large Certified Public Accountant firm. His mother Linda Lee Miller was a stay-at-home mom to Rob and his three brothers. Rob's mother was of German descent and his father is of Scottish-Irish ancestry.
At age eleven, Rob lost his mother to ovarian cancer. His stepmother (Sharon Gustavel) and two step brothers came into his life over a year later.
Rob received a Bachelors and Masters degree in Kinesiology from Indiana University, Bloomington (IU). Before transferring to IU as a junior, Rob began his college career as a Piano Performance and Composition major at Ball State University. He then changed majors to Kinesiology as a sophomore, giving an ironic twist to the meaning of Rob’s first album.
At IU, Rob was hit by a drunk driver and suffered injuries to both hands, resulting in a broken left hand and carpel tunnel syndrome in his right. Through surgery and physical therapy Rob has recovered, but still feels aching in his hands after any especially extensive piano performance.
While working on his Masters Degree at IU, Rob unofficially started his own record label, based on a business class project. In 2002, Rob released his first professional solo project, Sophomore Jinx (re-released 2005), containing all original music. In 2004, Rob officially founded Tourist Records. Through Tourist Records, Rob continues to create and license music. He hopes to inspire other artists to make their own impact in the world.
Rob recorded his first piano album in the spring of 1998. It was his demo album Broad Uncertainty. He has since improved upon, renamed and rerecorded many of the songs on his professional album releases.
Professionally, Rob has also spent the last decade working for influential Internet companies. He has worked for 4 dot com companies.
Personal life
Rob is married to Melissa Flint. He met her at the Indiana University Kappa Alpha Theta sorority house in 1995. Rob worked as a pot-washer and then a waiter at the sorority. They were engaged in Rome, Italy in the spring of 1999 and married in Indianapolis, IN on October 2, 1999.
They have two children: Madeline June (a.k.a. "Maddie", born January 19, 2007) and Eleanor Carol (a.k.a. "Ellie", born May 8, 2009).
Discography
* Sophomore Jinx (2005)
* Woods of Chaos (2005)
* Return - Remix EP (2006)
* Reconstruction (2008)
Awards
* Rob's song "Forbidden" was selected as a Song of the Year finalist in the 2009 8th Annual Independent Music Awards.
* Rob's song "Reflections" won for Best Music at the 2007 Shoot Out Boulder Filmmaking Festival.
* Rob’s albums Sophomore Jinx and Woods of Chaos were both nominated for the 2006 Independent Music Awards New Age Album of the Year.
*Rob is ranked number one Best Keyboards (acoustic, all-time)
* Best Potential Movie Soundtrack (acoustic, all-time)<ref name="garageband.com"/>
Johnny Prill (hometown Bad Axe, Michigan) is a singer-songwriter, accordionist, and the author of “A Song for Grandma and Grandpa,†the official song of the U.S. National Grandparents Day holiday. In a career that dates back to 1978, he has recorded 45-rpm records, four albums, and four compact discs; including polka, country, big band, and easy listening formats.
Jackson Sweeney (born in Melbourne, Australia, 1992) is a young, versatile Australian composer who writes in a contemporary classical style which combines elements of jazz, neo-romanticism and postmodernism, developed into a heavily chromatic harmonic language.
Career
Sweeney's major success as a young composer came with the chamber work Delusional Mind which won the secondary category of the prestigious Sibelius Music Young Composers Award (Australia) in 2008. The work, composed for bass clarinet, vibraphone, violin and cello, was described by the notable Australian composer Damien Ricketson as "a very sophisticated work for someone so young, incorporting an excellent sense of pacing, drama and textural variation" .
Sweeney continues to compose a wide range of music for various ensembles in his home city of Melbourne, where he lives with his family. His works have been performed both locally and overseas. Delusional Mind also enjoyed a national broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Classical FM.
Music
Much of Sweeney's music is characterised by a strong emphasis on rhythmic drive and displacement, combining chromatic harmony with a distinctive melodic vein which he finds in highly influential composers including Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Francaix, Dutilleux, Penderecki, and Robert Simpson.
Sweeney's three finest serious works come from a creative period of three months in 2008 - the aforementioned Delusional Mind, a piano trio titled Dyssomnia and a second book of exotic dances for saxophone and piano - Demented Dances: Book II. The three works are contrasting in character and style. Delusional Mind is a dark, dramatic work in a three part form, with a central allegro framed by two outer slow sections. Dyssomnia is a meditative work in one movement, profoundly reflective in character, and inspired by sleep. In contrast, the Demented Dances: Book II is a lively suite of four exotic dances characterised by jazzy syncopations and rapidly changing time signatures.
Sweeney has also composed a variety of other chamber works, including a wind quartet suite to be premiered in America later this year. He has written pieces for choir, as well as a symphony (subsequently withdrawn).
Works
Works with Opus Number
* Opus 1: Descent into Madness (2007) for flute, clarinet, vibraphone, violin and cello.
* Opus 2: Study Symphony (2007) for orchestra (Originally Symphony No. 1, later retitled)
* Opus 3: Demented Dances: Book I (2007) for alto saxophone and piano
* Opus 4: A Short and Jocular Suite (2008) for wind quartet
* Opus 5: Dyssomnia (2008) for violin, cello and piano
* Opus 6: Three Pieces for Music Homework (2008)
* Opus 7: Demented Dances: Book II (2008) for alto saxophone and piano
* Opus 8: Delusional Mind (2008) for bass clarinet, vibraphone, violin and cello
* Opus 9: Adagio (2009) for string quartet
Other Works without Opus Number
* Waltz (2007) for trumpet, alto saxophone and piano
* Perpetuum Irritatium (2008) for trumpet, alto saxophone and piano
* Symphony No. 2 (2008) for orchestra, abandoned
* Grunticulous Groontiferies: Fishfluxum You! (2008) for mixed voices
* Welcome to the Morning Giant Pelican (2009) for trumpet, alto saxophone and piano
Career
Sweeney's major success as a young composer came with the chamber work Delusional Mind which won the secondary category of the prestigious Sibelius Music Young Composers Award (Australia) in 2008. The work, composed for bass clarinet, vibraphone, violin and cello, was described by the notable Australian composer Damien Ricketson as "a very sophisticated work for someone so young, incorporting an excellent sense of pacing, drama and textural variation" .
Sweeney continues to compose a wide range of music for various ensembles in his home city of Melbourne, where he lives with his family. His works have been performed both locally and overseas. Delusional Mind also enjoyed a national broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Classical FM.
Music
Much of Sweeney's music is characterised by a strong emphasis on rhythmic drive and displacement, combining chromatic harmony with a distinctive melodic vein which he finds in highly influential composers including Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Francaix, Dutilleux, Penderecki, and Robert Simpson.
Sweeney's three finest serious works come from a creative period of three months in 2008 - the aforementioned Delusional Mind, a piano trio titled Dyssomnia and a second book of exotic dances for saxophone and piano - Demented Dances: Book II. The three works are contrasting in character and style. Delusional Mind is a dark, dramatic work in a three part form, with a central allegro framed by two outer slow sections. Dyssomnia is a meditative work in one movement, profoundly reflective in character, and inspired by sleep. In contrast, the Demented Dances: Book II is a lively suite of four exotic dances characterised by jazzy syncopations and rapidly changing time signatures.
Sweeney has also composed a variety of other chamber works, including a wind quartet suite to be premiered in America later this year. He has written pieces for choir, as well as a symphony (subsequently withdrawn).
Works
Works with Opus Number
* Opus 1: Descent into Madness (2007) for flute, clarinet, vibraphone, violin and cello.
* Opus 2: Study Symphony (2007) for orchestra (Originally Symphony No. 1, later retitled)
* Opus 3: Demented Dances: Book I (2007) for alto saxophone and piano
* Opus 4: A Short and Jocular Suite (2008) for wind quartet
* Opus 5: Dyssomnia (2008) for violin, cello and piano
* Opus 6: Three Pieces for Music Homework (2008)
* Opus 7: Demented Dances: Book II (2008) for alto saxophone and piano
* Opus 8: Delusional Mind (2008) for bass clarinet, vibraphone, violin and cello
* Opus 9: Adagio (2009) for string quartet
Other Works without Opus Number
* Waltz (2007) for trumpet, alto saxophone and piano
* Perpetuum Irritatium (2008) for trumpet, alto saxophone and piano
* Symphony No. 2 (2008) for orchestra, abandoned
* Grunticulous Groontiferies: Fishfluxum You! (2008) for mixed voices
* Welcome to the Morning Giant Pelican (2009) for trumpet, alto saxophone and piano
Chris Shoemaker is a Myrtle Beach, SC-based builder of custom motorcycles.
His company, Wicked Choppers, was officially born in 2002. Its first from-the-ground-up custom designed chopper, "Wicked Monster," caught the eye of Easyriders magazine and appeared on its cover, as did the "Wicked Warlock." Wicked Choppers has taken top honors at a number of bike shows. Most recently, the Wicked Warlock won at Easyriders' Louisville show, receiving 25 percent more votes than the next-nearest competitor.
The rapid growth and popularity of Chris Shoemaker and Wicked Choppers come from the one-on-one contact with Chris and his staff of some of the most talented fabricators and mechanics in the country. They are always accessible to their customers and fans. They spend hours sharing and listening to ideas from those who make a special trip to their Myrtle Beach manufacturing site/showroom or who come to see them at any one of the dozens of bike shows they attend across the country.
Shoemaker refuses to build the same bike twice. His patented in-tank gauges are only one of the attractions of his custom choppers. Clean lines and hidden lights and electronics always draw fans to ask, "How does that work?". Besides inseam and reach measurements, before building, Wicked Choppers asks its clients about a variety of things, including color, design, and graphics preferences.
Chris's one-off designs, along with the ability to ride his bikes on a daily basis, has attracted some highly recognizable clientele and escalated Wicked Choppers to that of one of the best custom bike builders in the country.
His company, Wicked Choppers, was officially born in 2002. Its first from-the-ground-up custom designed chopper, "Wicked Monster," caught the eye of Easyriders magazine and appeared on its cover, as did the "Wicked Warlock." Wicked Choppers has taken top honors at a number of bike shows. Most recently, the Wicked Warlock won at Easyriders' Louisville show, receiving 25 percent more votes than the next-nearest competitor.
The rapid growth and popularity of Chris Shoemaker and Wicked Choppers come from the one-on-one contact with Chris and his staff of some of the most talented fabricators and mechanics in the country. They are always accessible to their customers and fans. They spend hours sharing and listening to ideas from those who make a special trip to their Myrtle Beach manufacturing site/showroom or who come to see them at any one of the dozens of bike shows they attend across the country.
Shoemaker refuses to build the same bike twice. His patented in-tank gauges are only one of the attractions of his custom choppers. Clean lines and hidden lights and electronics always draw fans to ask, "How does that work?". Besides inseam and reach measurements, before building, Wicked Choppers asks its clients about a variety of things, including color, design, and graphics preferences.
Chris's one-off designs, along with the ability to ride his bikes on a daily basis, has attracted some highly recognizable clientele and escalated Wicked Choppers to that of one of the best custom bike builders in the country.