Jordan Rudess, far right,
with other members of
Dream Theater, from
left, John Myung, John
Petrucci, James LaBrie
and Jewish drummer
Mike Portnoy

musical abilities, Rudess' mother wast-
ed no time in buying a piano and hir-
ing a teacher for her son. When that
teacher eventually stopped charging
for his time, Rudess' mother knew it
was time for a change. She found a
Hungarian piano teacher whose own
son had left [New York's] Juilliard
School, "so she was on a mission to
turn me into a classical pianist, to ful-
fill her son's destiny," laughs Rudess.
And so she did. Two years later, at
the age of 9, Rudess entered Juilliard,
where he studied until he was 18,
when he had to re-audition for the
school's college division. Accepted, his
teachers told his parents he was going
to be the next young classical pianist
on the scene, and he attended for one
year.
"I was losing interest," he says. "I
was led astray."
Listening to bands like Emerson,
Lake & Palmer, Yes and Genesis, he
was becoming more interested in rock.
Then, he says, "I discovered the Mini
Moog [synthesizer]. It's got a keyboard
on it and a bunch of knobs and
switches.
"The piano is one instrument where
the sound is static; you can't bend the
note, like you can on a guitar string,
for example. But the Mini Moog lets
you do it. Essentially, I was no longer
limited to one sound quality on the
piano, even though I love that, but I
could create and shape and manipu-
late my sounds and pitch. It changed
my life."
It was a decision that was difficult
for Rudess' parents to understand: "It's
one thing for your child to get into
another kind of music; it's another
entirely for him to leave college,"
Rudess sympathizes.
As it turns out, though, he's doing
pretty well — and yes, his mom is
very proud. Still a maestro and virtu-
LYNNE KONSTANTIN
oso, but on his own terms, the 48-
year-old Rudess juggles a bounty of
Contributing Arts Editor
long-term projects simultaneously.
hen Jordan Rudess was 7
Among them is Dream Theater, which
years old, he liked to sit
visits Metro Detroit on Aug. 10, as
down at the upright piano
the band headlines, with Megadeth
in his second-grade classroom on
(see related story), at the Gigantour
Long Island, New York, and accompa- music festival at the DTE Energy
ny his classmates while they sang. One Music Theatre near Clarkston.
day, his teacher called Jordan's mother,
heaping glowing praise on the boy's
Importance Of Judaism
beautiful piano playing.
Mrs. Rudess' response: "What? We
Dream Theater, a mixture between
don't even have a piano!"
progressive rock and metal, "with a lot
"I would just poke out a couple
of virtuosity thrown in," is a self-
notes," says Rudess, "and eventually
described musical chameleon. "Some
just figured out the songs by ear."
of our music is very melodic and
Surprised as she was to have a musi-
cal prodigy in a family lacking in
ROCK VIRTUOSO on page 36

Rock Virtuoso W

Classically trained keyboardist
Jordan Rudess is a musical chameleon.

8/ 4
2005

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