Recording artist, teacher, and composer Victor Spiegel has a singular piano sound built of innovative harmonies and rhythms. His lyricism grows from both familiar and exotic soils, and has been influenced by music from around the world, including India, Japan, Indonesia, Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
Spiegel reflects this global approach to music with gusto. In a novel approach to composition, he incorporates both a written and improvised format to the overall structure of almost every piece. This brings his compositions to the precipice of the moment, and each performance and recording is unique to that time and place. He says that this keeps him “grounded in the here and now”.
Spiegel began studying piano repertoire at the age of 5, and began his concert career at age 6. In the 70's, he was composer for dance at UCLA, UCSC, UCB and other Los Angeles and Bay Area schools. In the 80's, he attended Mills College in Oakland to obtain his Master's Degree in Music Composition, studying with Lou Harrison and Terry Riley.
He continues to score for film, television, theater, dance and other media. His style incorporates an innovative blend of jazz, classical and the treasures of world music.
Carool Kersten, Rambles Magazine
Not only is he a pianist with astounding technical abilities, his interpretations are also highly original and sophisticated. Spiegel's versatility as a composer and arranger is further underscored by his apparent genius for incorporating a wide variety of musical styles from around the world. For Evocation he has borrowed from jazz, American folk, Turkish, Spanish, Jewish as well as mainstream western classical music traditions.
