< About | General Info | Pianist | Vocalist | Songwriter | Producer | Live Sound Engineer
Early Childhood
At a very young age, Bryan Woolbert would spend time playing around with the multitude of instruments and sounds in a Casio synthesizer keyboard that had been left in the living room by his parents. In December of 2005, Woolbert's grandmother purchasd a Story & Clark baby grand piano from Pleasantville Music Shoppe as a late Christmas gift for his mother. However, young Woolbert simply could not resist experimenting with the instrument and listening to the beautiful sounds that it produced. Lo and behold, on February 14th, 2006, Woolbert began classical instruction with local piano virtusos Loretta Mento at age 7. As the two worked harmoniously together, the piano inevitably became his. This very piano can be seen in many of Woolbert's photos today.
The Chromesthetic Method of Learning Music
Woolbert would learn music by listening to and mimicking individual lines that the instructor would play using perfect pitch and Chromesthesia. He would then memorize these lines as chromesthetic color patterns. Gradually, he would mentally piece together these patterns to memorize a whole song. Woolbert has become far more efficient at doing it over the years and can typically learn new songs on his own. Thus, he still employs this same Chromesthetic Method to learn and add new music to his set lists today. Although he did learn how to read music during his collegiate studies, sight-reading (or reading music while playing it at the same time in order to learn it) was always extremely difficult for Woolbert due to his visual impairment. That said, next time you see Woolbert playing piano, know that it is all being performed completely by ear and memory.
Musical Style & Early Performances
Over the course of the next few years, Woolbert grew increasingly frustrated with the inability to express his own creative musical ideas while performing classical music by traditional composers. As he frequently listened to music that his parents give him on his iPod Nano (First Generation), Woolbert began to learn classic pop/rock tunes by artists like Billy Joel and Elton John. It was around this time when he began performing for The Lions Clubs of New Jersey on behalf of The Music Association for Visually Impaired Students of New Jersey (MAVIS). Woolbert would go on to perform at many of their events throughout the state, including two performances on the grand piano located on the 6th floor of Bally's Casino Resort in Atlantic City during New Jersey Lions State Conventions (check out the photo on the Homepage). Woolbert began attending Mission Point Church during 4th grade and subsequently started learning Christian praise & worship music. Soon after that, Woolbert gained some ragtime piano techniques from local pianist Alan Fisher. By 8th grade, he served as the student accompanist for the Alder Avenue Middle School choir.
CharterTech High School for the Performing Arts
From 2013-2017, Woolbert attended CharterTech High School for the Performing Arts. As an Instrumental Major, he learned the fundamentals of music theory and performed in bands of students at required school showcases. These public performances consisted of several different genres of music and were graded by instructors as part of the student's GPA. In tune with his music theory studies, Woolbert also began learning jazz standards by composers such as Charlie Parker and Morgan Lewis. In the summer of 2016, he began performing as a freelance musician on the Ocean City, New Jersey Boardwalk. He also competed and won awards in local talent competitions like Ocean City's Got Talent. Woolbert briefly worked with local piano instructor Rick Dekarski prior to graduation in preparation for his college entrance audition. Finally, Woolbert received a New Jersey Governor's Award in Arts Education before graduating as salutatorian in 2017 (check out the video of his graduation performance of his original song "Let Her Name Ring").
Cairn University
From the fall of 2017 through the spring of 2019, Woolbert studied Worship & Music at Cairn University. He acquired knowledge in both the classical and jazz sides of music theory. His piano instructor Graeme Burgan taught him several new jazz techniques and drastically improved Woolbert's performance posture by helping him to reduce the amount of tension in his shoulders while playing. Woolbert also performed in the university's jazz ensmelbe during this time and improved upon his improvisational style.
Rowan University & The 2022 NAMM Show
Woolbert then made a transfer to Rowan University in time for the fall 2019 semester where he became a Music Industry: Technology major. As such, he acquired considerable amounts of knowledge about the live sector, music marketing, and much more pertaining to the modern music business. This information has helped Woolbert to develop his own brand and to market his music. He graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science in Music Industry: Technology in May of 2022. Shortly after graduating, Woolbert attended the 2022 NAMM Show in Anaheim, CA where he performed at the Pearl River Piano booth.
Today
All in all, Woolbert has performed piano at dozens of venues throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania over the course of more than 15 years. He has also been recorded playing piano (and other instruments by using a MIDI keyboard) on many tracks (check out Bryan Woolbert's music releases). Today, Bryan Woolbert's piano playing can be heard live on the Ocean City, NJ Boardwalk during the summer, at Firewaters Saloon located in the downstairs Marketplace section of Tropicana Atlantic City, and perhaps at your venue or next event!
Quotes
"We 'gonna take a break from those vocals and do just a little piano for a while!"
-Bryan Woolbert
-Bryan Woolbert
"There's nothing more professional than putting forth your whole heart into what you're doing."
-Bryan Woolbert
-Bryan Woolbert
"Everyone's definition of the word crazy is a little different."
-Bryan Woolbert
-Bryan Woolbert