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The Tennessee State Composer Laureate, Michael Kurek’s inspirational and hysterical presentation: How To Play Piano In 10 Easy Lessons And 1 Really Hard One!

Throughout his stylistic evolution from modernism to postmodernism to a fully narrative traditionalism, Michael Kurek’s ever-present integrity of craft and his music’s emotional power have steadily earned him both national and international recognition, with performances by symphony orchestras and chamber ensembles on five continents and downloads on six. He has received some of the nation’s most important composition awards and has enjoyed world-wide publication, recording, and broadcast of his works for the concert hall. His numerous prizes for composition include the prestigious Academy Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Academy’s highest annual “lifetime achievement” award in music (now called the Arts and Letters Award; the Academy had earlier also awarded him their Charles Ives Prize). His 2017 album, The Sea Knows, made its debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical chart and has enjoyed over a third of a million streams in over 100 countries on Spotify (to name just one online service featuring the album). On March 18, 2022, the governor of Tennessee signed into law a bill from the State House of Representatives and Senate naming Michael Kurek “Composer Laureate of the State of Tennessee.”