Brian Marsella

Brian Marsella is an American improvisational musician who learned music by ear at the age of three listening to his father, a jazz musician, play the saxophone and vibraphone. Marsella began to study piano formally at age five, and by age eleven, performed as a paid musician for the first time. Bassist Lance Walker, who worked with Patti LaBelle, Harold Melvin, and the Blue Notes, introduced Marsella to R&B, funk, and blues music as a teenager, all the while Marsella kept training as a classical pianist. Marsella went on to study composition at the Westminster Choir College, as well as piano performance at the Juilliard School and the Peabody Conservatory. He also received his BFA in jazz performance from the New School Jazz and Contemporary Music Festival. Marsella is currently a performing and recording artist, playing with percussionist Cyro Baptista’s band Beat the Donkey since 2004. He also currently tours with his group BRiAN MARSELLA’S iMAGiNARiUM, which explores ideas of time and space musically, inspired by the theory that 2012 was going to be the end of the world. In 2013, Marsella performed at The Kitchen in “Synth Nights: Curated by Laurie Anderson.” For more information, visit http://www.brianmarsella.com/.