Internet Sensation The Piano Guys to Play the Palace This September

The Piano Guys became an internet sensation by way of their immensely successful series of strikingly original, self-made music videos that showcase their highly innovative blending of classical and pop. They've created more than 35 since joining forces in early 2011, including an innovative, 10-handed version of One Direction's "What Makes You Beautiful" that became an internet phenomenon. This led to the release of their self-titled debut album in 2012, followed by The Piano Guys 2 (2013), A Family Christmas (2013), Wonders (2014), and The Piano Guys Live! (2015).

CAPA presents The Piano Guys at the Palace Theatre (34 W. Broad St.) on Wednesday, September 14, at 8 pm. Tickets are $35-$128 (VIP) at the CAPA Ticket Center (39 E. State St.), all Ticketmaster outlets, and www.ticketmaster.com. To purchase tickets by phone, please call (614) 469-0939 or (800) 745-3000.

Hailing from Utah, The Piano Guys have performed everywhere from "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" to "The Today Show" and have been featured in The New York Times, Fast Company, Buzzfeed, People Magazine, Mashable, and more.

But just who are The Piano Guys? Actually, there's only one piano player, Jon Schmidt, and one other instrumentalist, Steven Sharp Nelson, on cello. Yet the other two, Paul Anderson and Al van der Beek, are equally significant members of the group. Their name comes from Anderson's piano store in St. George, Utah, which was called The Piano Guys. Looking for an alternative to low-yield conventional advertising, Anderson devised a Facebook page and YouTube channel featuring the most famous pianist he could find-local piano guy Jon Schmidt.

A self-described "New Age Classical" player, Schmidt was indeed well-established locally, thanks to eight albums and seven piano books of his song transcriptions. He also performed concerts throughout Utah, one of which featured the young guest artist Steven Sharp Nelson, who adventurously combined traditional cello playing with percussion effects.

When Nelson moved from Salt Lake City to the suburb of Sandy, providence intervened. Al van der Beek, who came from a musical family and played several instruments and sang, lived down the street from Nelson's new place and helped him move. "I suggested we 'collaborate' sometime and he hesitated because I think he didn't want to disappoint me if I was horrible!" says van der Beek, laughing. "But," says Nelson, "I checked out his home studio and started playing some of my unfinished songs, and he told me what the titles should be and their meaning - and finished them on the spot! The guy is music incarnate!" In The Piano Guys, then, van der Beek is charged with studio operations, as well as co-writing and some vocal texturing, music arranging, and percussion work.

Anderson was so taken by the music of Schmidt and Nelson that he closed his store at the end of 2011 in order to devote himself to the group, which only became a full-time operation in February 2012. "I had to let the piano store go!" he says, laughing. "Some of the pianos are still in storage and have been used in the videos."

The spectacular The Piano Guys videos, which have so far netted more than 800 million YouTube views and more than 4.5 million subscribers, are essentially divined by Anderson. "Jon had built up a fan base for 20 years, and we used that as a springboard for getting exposure," Anderson notes. "But it's all about the merits of the videos, and share-ability. People see them and then share them with their friends on Facebook, and before you know it, they can take off."

And sure enough, The Piano Guys have more than 1.4 million Facebook fans who have shared videos like "Michael Meets Mozart," which features in excess of 100 tracks of cello textures, including a deep bass drum sound created by tapping on the cello body; a shaker sound made by Nelson rubbing rosin on his bow; and a record-scratch noise caused by his scraping a quarter on the strings. "Cello Wars," the ambitious video which resulted from a six-month production required to realize its Star Wars-inspired light saber/cello bow concept, has since been rewarded with more than 30 million YouTube views.

"We try to put a 'wow factor' in every video," says Anderson, promising that future videos for The Piano Guys tracks will likewise factor in plenty of wow. This certainly is true for "Peponi (Paradise)," the Guys' African spin on Coldplay's "Paradise," for which the group, hours after coming up with the concept, helicoptered a grand piano onto The Edge of a 1,000-foot cliff, where stellar African guest vocalist Alex Boyé sang the translated words. Same with "Code Name Vivaldi," which blends The Bourne Identity soundtrack riff with a similarly intense Vivaldi cello concerto in a breathless video culminating with Schmidt and Nelson, who was originally swayed into classical music by the Vivaldi piece, performing on a flatcar on a high-speed train. "Titanium/Pavane" is a mash-up of French classical composer Gabriel Fauré's "Pavane" with David Guetta's "Titanium."

With van der Beek's studio prowess together with the inventive cinematography of Anderson, Schmidt and Nelson have forged a fresh approach to the growing classical crossover fusion of classical and pop music that in their case has connected quietly but emotionally with a massive audience.

For more about the group, visit ThePianoGuys.com.

Owner/operator of downtown Columbus' magnificent historic theatres (Ohio Theatre, Palace Theatre, Southern Theatre) and manager of the Riffe Center Theatre Complex, Lincoln Theatre, and the Shubert Theater (New Haven, CT), CAPA is a non-profit, award-winning presenter of national and international performing arts and entertainment. For more information, visit www.capa.com.

Photo Courtesy ICM