Jarrod Radnich

Jarrod Radnich is an American pianist, composer, arranger, producer, and music educator based in Joshua Tree, California. He is best known for his virtuosic solo piano arrangements of film scores and popular songs, which have collectively been viewed hundreds of millions of times on YouTube. Frequently compared in style to Franz Liszt, Radnich has been credited in music press with helping to popularize classical piano performance for a younger Internet-era audience.

He is the founder of Mastermind Studios, the first signature artist of Musicnotes, a recording and concert artist for Mason & Hamlin, and a recording artist for PianoDisc. Radnich also serves as President and Artistic Director of the Hi-Desert Cultural Center in Joshua Tree and as Maestro of the Joshua Tree Philharmonic, which he founded.

Early life

Radnich grew up in Joshua Tree, a small desert community in the Morongo Basin of Southern California, located north of Palm Springs. In InterViews, he has described his hometown as remote, with a population of fewer than 3,000 at the time, and credited the isolation and proximity to Joshua Tree National Park with giving him long stretches of uninterrupted time for practice and composition during his childhood.

Identified as a child prodigy at age 11, Radnich began professionally teaching piano while still in middle school. He later received a full scholarship to Berklee College of Music at age 14 and, subsequently, a full scholarship to the University of Redlands at age 16.

Early career

As a teenager, Radnich was the principal pianist for the Music Center's Spotlight Awards in Los Angeles and a member of the SoCal All-Star Jazz Band. He served as MusicAL Director for a production of Babes in Arms at the McCallum Theatre and headlined his own program, Jarrod in Concert, at the Annenberg Theater in Palm Springs. During this period he became the youngest recording artist signed by Yamaha Corporation, composed his first piano concerto, and wrote and produced an original orchestral score for The Silent Film Metropolis.

A planned appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno was cancelled when Radnich, before age 20, was diagnosed with a serious illness. During the years of his recovery he composed extensively and founded the Joshua Tree Philharmonic.

Virtuosic Piano Solo Series

After recovering, Radnich launched his Virtuosic Piano Solo Series, a catalogue of advanced solo piano arrangements of well-known film, television, and popular music. The series quickly developed a substantial online following, with arrangements such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Bohemian Rhapsody, and Don't Stop Believin' drawing tens of millions of views each.

In 2013, Radnich became the first Signature Artist for Musicnotes, the world's largest digital sheet music publisher, partnering with the company on a dedicated catalogue of his arrangements. His sheet music has been published internationally by Hal Leonard, and his arrangement of Star Wars reportedly sat at number two on Musicnotes' sheet music chart for several weeks, behind only Adele's "Hello".

His arrangements have been performed at venues including Lincoln Center in New York City and the Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda, Maryland. Several have been incorporated into collegiate-level music proficiency examinations, and selected works were adopted into the public school music curriculum in Sweden.

Disney Tomorrowland residency

For close to a decade, Radnich's medley arrangement of music from Pirates of the Caribbean was featured at Disneyland's Innoventions Dream Home (the "Dream Home of the Future") in Tomorrowland, where it played continuously on a reproducing piano for park visitors.

PianoTube LIVE! and remote performance

Radnich, working through his company Mastermind Studios, has been a pioneer in Internet-based long-distance piano performance and instruction. In a segment featured by NBC's Today, he coached Miss America contestant Anna Simpson from across the country using a PianoDisc iQ player system, with his keystrokes reproduced in real time on her piano.

He subsequently developed PianoTube LIVE!, a system that embeds encrypted control data into a YouTube video so that a viewer's PianoDisc-equipped piano plays in synchronization with the video being watched. The trade publication The Music Trades described the system as a notable innovation in player-piano technology.

Film scoring

Radnich has composed original film scores and theatrical music across a wide range of genres and ensembles, from minimalist arrangements to full symphony orchestras accompanied by African choirs. His music video set to themes from Game of Thrones was featured during the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2014.

His film score for the independent film Messages to Self, directed by Gordon J. Clark, has received numerous international accolades, including a Global Music Award, an Accolade Global Film Competition Award of Excellence, and top honors at the Williamsburg International Film & Music Competition and the Garden State Film Festival.

He was also recruited by composer and producer Paul O'Neill to perform with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and to collaborate on new musical projects, plans that were placed on hiatus following O'Neill's death in 2017.

Philanthropy and the Hi-Desert Cultural Center

Radnich is the volunteer President and Artistic Director of the Hi-Desert Cultural Center, a regional theater and arts venue in Joshua Tree. As Maestro of the Joshua Tree Philharmonic, he CREATES custom orchestral arrangements designed so that musicians of any skill level can perform alongside professionals without compromising the integrity of the work. He also writes original compositions and arrangements for the Center's live theatrical productions.

Style and influences

Radnich has cited Maurice Ravel, Hans Zimmer, and Sergei Rachmaninoff among his favorite composers, and his work has been described in music press as "Lisztian", cinematic, and virtuosic. His arrangements typically feature dense contrapuntal TEXtures, wide hand stretches, rapid octave passages, and orchestral-style voicing on a single piano.

Recognition

  • Ranked the most popular living independent classical/instrumental musician globally by ReverbNation.
  • First Signature Artist of Musicnotes (2013).
  • Concert Artist for Mason & Hamlin pianos.
  • Featured at the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards.
  • Global Music Award for Best Original Score / Soundtrack (Messages to Self).
  • Accolade Global Film Competition Award of Excellence.
  • Williamsburg International Film & Music Competition winner.
  • Garden State Film Festival winner.
  • Crystal Pine Horizon Award nominee, alongside John Williams.

Selected arrangements

  • Pirates of the Caribbean Medley
  • Star Wars Medley
  • Harry Potter Medley
  • Game of Thrones
  • Bohemian Rhapsody
  • Don't Stop Believin{{'}}
  • Cinderella
  • Beauty and the Beast
  • 21st Century Classics (forthcoming series for solo piano and orchestra)