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The American pianist, Jack Richard Crossan, mounted a successful career without New York recitals, European tours or International Competitions. Raised on the West Coast, the Hollywood Bowl and NBC Radio co-sponsored the 19-year old pianist in a national broadcast of his live performance of Franck’s Symphonic Variations for Piano and Orchestra. A year later, while still a student at the University of Southern California, his first solo recordings were heard throughout Europe and Asia on the Armed Forces Radio Networks. Soon world-class artists (including John Charles Thomas and Igor Gorin) engaged Crossan to accompany them on their USA tours and led to Crossan’s solo appearances throughout the West.
After five successful seasons with Columbia Artists Management, Jack Richard Crossan became a Multiple Keyboard Artist with a repertoire from Bach to Lennon and signed with ABC-Dunhill. His first Westminster LP “Keyboard Kaleidoscope” made Billboard’s classical charts and helped launch the crossover music genre. His daring versatility on piano, clavichord, harpsichord and celeste led to a wild scene at California’s Chino State Prison. Wearing an elegant tux with a garish burgundy jacket, a pink ruffled shirt, black bow tie and sporting long blond hair plus gold rimmed glasses, he strode out on the Chino gym stage and bounced from keyboard to keyboard! Catcalls and screams from the all-male inmates threatened to knock him off the stage, but he persisted. “Bach Behind Bars” was released to huge airplay and publicity including an interview with Regis Philbin. Today, Crossan has returned to the piano, his musical instincts sharper than ever and is now turning out his finest interpretations in a series of Cambria CD;s. |
