Hi! I've played piano for 25 years, professionally for 15. I interact with an audience and entertain. Music I am familiar with, I can fake. I learn specific requests with relative ease, sight-reading sheet music and lead sheets, along with strong aural skills. My repertoire includes heavy classical, jazz/blues, swing, Broadway, popular music, spiritual, film score.
Russell Gates
P.S. PAST. Degree in performance/comp. Stowaway Piano, Cruise-ship Theater show band, personal concerts, dance studio, accompanist, churches, choirs (60-piece), jazz combos, big band (18-piece), rock band keys, professional musical theater/auditions, transcriptions, finale, recording, composer, film scoring.
Russell did an amazing job and was very helpful with things that we needed. He even provided accompaniment before and after service took place. It was great!
Russell was fantastic! Very professional but fun and so versatile. Looked nice and presented well. Played some requests from guests annd also from the list I had sent. We could not be happier! On time, and prepared! Great communication. We would have him back for sure, and guests were impressed as well, lots of fellow musicians present and were impressed. Bravo!
Song selection was fun with current tunes and some classics. His set up is very professional and he clearly enjoys playing. Highly recommend Russell!
To bring in the new year(2023), I attended a piano concert featuring Chopin by Russell Gates. As a musician, I was impressed. Following the program I booked Russell for the 22nd annual Smith Memorial Benefit Concert at Tibbits, Coldwater, Michigan. When I requested a concert that featured American composers, I had no idea what Russell would produce. I say produce because he put together more than a concert on the Tibbits Opera House stage; it was a production! There was much to enjoy for those lucky enough to attend this performance. He delivered complicated passages with skill and an energy that was equal to an athlete running a marathon. With his honed abilities he used all 88 keys to bring scenes, stories and our senses to a full living technicolor experience. More than an accomplished pianist, he is a one man show. His performance included unconventional ways to engage the listener through lengthy compositions. He connects with the audience on a personal level when he speaks, changes attire midway into a concerto, and engages his fans with his dry wit. Russell is a musician par excellence, an entertainer with pizzaz and a performance package for all music lovers.
Russell was entertaining, engaging, and very popular among patrons.
Russell is a talented pianist with broad experience and a wonderful sense of musicality.. We will definitely hire him again.
We hired Russell to come and play at a small family gathering. He was able to play ALL of our requests and we had a blast singing along too. He is great with the kids and grandparents alike. It was so much fun! Hope to have him back next year.
Working with Russell pleasant and fruitful. He demonstrated his experience skillfully weaving together lounge and jazz standards accented with audience requests and transitioning into more upbeat tunes as the night progressed. For our relatively formal wedding reception, he understood the mood to set, and came prepared with additional equipment to add additional instrument voices, which he did with fluidity and tact.
I would thoroughly recommend Russell for a wedding reception, but it's clear he is a versatile enough musician to accompany a great variety of occasions.
Photos from this event
Russell was astonishing. World class, book him if you can get on his calendar. We host private events at the house often with live music. Russell showed up early, performed beautiful background music, and had the versatility to transform into the ringmaster for an on demand sing along. He brought his own equipment in addition to using our piano. I’m so glad we found him and am looking for an excuse to host another event just so we can hire him!
Russell was early, his timing was perfect, his playing added so much to our mother's memorial, especially as we had such a short timeframe to find someone. Could not be more pleased. Thank you again!
Everything we were looking for.
Played for black tie gala VIP and cocktail receptions. Wonderful!!
We had the pleasure of being entertained by Russell Gates at our company Christmas party. Russell is an amazing pianist/keyboard musician. He is an equally outstanding entertainer. We managed to coax an encore performance that was fabulous. If you get the opportunity to enjoy one of his performances, grab it. He is surely destined to go far.
We hired Russell to play at the beginning of our extended family Christmas party. Russell is very creative, professional and easy to work with. His talent on the piano is like no other and completely entertained our guests. He did an awesome job of reading the crowd. We will defiantly hire Russell again in the future.
I've engaged Russell to perform at the American Cancer Societie's Relay for Life Fundraiser and was completely captivated by his command of the piano. His artistic approach is off the charts. He is a consumate professional in every aspect of his work. I've known Russell for several years and have the utmost respect for him. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend him for any audience.
I had a restaurant featuring live entertainment, and Russ would come in frequently and wow our audiences. I also had him record some accompaniment tracks for me on occasion, which he did with professional quality and unexpected fullness. I am consistently amazed at his musical genius and I cannot possibly overstate his abilities.
Price Range: Contact for rates
Gig Length: 30 - 240 minutes
Languages: English
Intimate evening of music; interaction with the piano player through a variety of music and acts, duets, ect.
In 2001, Russell's composition Moment Of Triumph (dedicated to Olympic gymnast Elise Ray) won the Kalamazoo Symphony's Youth Composition Contest, orchestrated by Harrison Orr and performed in multiple venues by the KSO and the MESA SO. While attending Hillsdale College, he accompanied modern dance studio classes, was recorded on the HC Big Band CD Opus One, the jazz combo album New Music, performed with the Jackson SO, at the Music School of Prague, and Loyola University for the 16th New Orleans Classical Piano Institute. Following graduation in 2005 with a B.S. in Music, he performed in show bands on worldwide tours with Holland America Line, Regent Seven Seas, and Royal Caribbean International/Celebrity Cruises, covering such artists as: the Temptations Tribute, violinist Beverly Davison, oboist Salima Wazir, dulcimer player Penxuin Xui, singer Sinead Blachfield, impressionist Sean O'Shea, comedian/actor Marty Allen, visual sensationalist Yacov Noy, Sesame Street musical director Marty Henn, and Hollywood film pianist Pearl Kaufman. Russell has appeared regularly at Tibbits Opera House, Grand Rapids Art Prize, and Play Me I'm Yours, and given benefit concerts for Free Health Clinics and ACS's Relay For Life. Off stage, he scores/edits/directs short films and documentaries, some of which played at events featuring best-selling authors and presidential nominees.
Acoustic or digital piano on-site? If so, what is it? Number of guests? Room size? Dress of event? Specific song requests?
| December 15, 2024 • 11:00am - 1:00pm | Worship Service |
| November 17, 2024 • 11:00am - 1:00pm | Worship Service |
| October 20, 2024–October 21, 2024 • 11:00pm - 1:00am | Worship Service |
| September 15, 2024 • 11:00am - 1:00pm | Worship Service |
| July 26, 2024 • 6:00pm - 10:00pm | Birthday Party |
| December 31, 2023 • 11:00am - 2:00pm | New Year's Party |
| September 10, 2023 • 12:00pm - 3:30pm | Cultural Event |
| December 17, 2022 • 1:00pm - 4:00pm | Wedding Ceremony |
| December 08, 2022 • 6:00pm - 7:30pm | Cocktail Party |
| December 04, 2021 • 7:00pm - 11:00pm | Christmas Party |
| November 27, 2021 • 3:00pm - 7:00pm | Wedding Reception |
| July 21, 2019 • 12:30pm - 2:30pm | Funeral/Memorial Service |
| October 12, 2018 • 4:30pm - 7:30pm | Cocktail Party |
| August 16, 2014 • 2:00pm - 2:30pm | Wedding Ceremony |
Classical, Jazz, Film Score, New Age, Rock, Pop.
Bruce Hornsby, Elton John, Chick Corea, Oscar Peterson, Jim Brickman.
Whether or not location has piano.
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