If you can believe it, Maurine and I first met Jon Schmidt more than 30 years ago and we invited him to come to our home and play for the evening as we had an open house for one of our Light series books! We knew his music well, we knew his unique and unorthodox performing style and he did not disappoint! He was amazing then and even more amazing now. Jon has added some remarkable people to the team over the years so that he could use the word Guys in plural.

I love what they say about themselves on their official website: “What do you get when you mix up a marketing genius that does video, a studio engineer that writes music, a pianist that had a successful solo career, and a cellist that does pretty much everything? The Piano Guys: a miraculous meeting of “guys” with the same intrinsic purpose – to make a positive impact in the lives of people all over the world through music videos.

Steven Sharp Nelson is not really a piano guy per se, but since Jon was first, they called themselves The Piano Guys. Steve plays a wicked cello and adds humor and emotion to the mix.

Add Paul Anderson, an extremely talented producer and videographer and then Al Van Der Beek, a music producer and songwriter and you have four team members extraordinaire!

I love their written list of beliefs for The Piano Guys:

OUR BELIEFS

  • We believe the purpose of life is to be happy.
  • We believe the best way to be happy is to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and to love others more than yourself.
  • We believe family is most important.
  • We believe we are all children of a God who loves us dearly.
  • We believe that good music can be a source of joy, inspiration, and fulfillment.
  • We believe as Bobby McFerrin once said, listening to only one kind of music is like insisting on living in only one room of your home your entire life.
  • We believe in as much laughter in life as possible.
  • We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I could have chosen any of dozens of music videos to share (and we will share more over time), but I decided on one to cap our Christmas holidays that is just so creative, festive and fun. It’s called: Angels We Have Heard on High (Christmas w/ 32 fingers and 8 thumbs). This has captured 24 million views. Give yourself a break and enjoy this!