David Lanz has got to be one of the greatest modern composers of piano music. I discovered him earlier this year by accident. Here's a sample of his awesome music
He composes in the "New Age" genre. He says his pieces are supposed to make people enlightened, but I hate to it break it to him that I don't feel enlightened, though I do enjoy playing and listening to his music.
I love his style, I'd call it "Ornately Simple." The pieces are complex, yet there not. They also are very attainable in playability. The sound absolutely fabulous and impressive, and are rather simple for a player of modern attainments. I recommend every pianist to have "Dark Horse" in their repertoire. It knocks peoples socks off, and flows very nicely, easy to learn and memorize, I had it pretty much perfect in a little over a week. As long as you can play comfortably in octaves, it's easy.
The simplicity aspect of his pieces is lovely. It gets the point across, and emotions are protrayed clearly. It touches the soul and impresses the listener, but in a subtle way, unlike some pieces that try to knock you over the head and say "look at me! I'm trying to be impressive and emotional."
He composes in a variety of styles, from more "classical" sounding to jazz and blues. His pieces are very creative, and many of them are a type of tone poem. I'm blown away by the fact that he composed an entire album (Skyline Firedance), and almost every song was entirely triplets, but they all sounded completely different! Now that's skill.
I strongly encourage you to check him out, and as a pianist to learn some of his pieces (if any one is interested, I have the sheets for the songs above,and many more that I could make a copy of). He truly is a great composer, though he really needs to do something about his hair.
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