PERSONALITIES: Glastonbury musician is in the groove
Sep. 3—GLASTONBURY — Local musician James Norkawich first started playing the piano at the age of 3, and has since had a long journey of enhancing his musicianship, leading up to new projects of honoring the past while looking to the future of music.
JAMES NORKAWICH
wHO HE IS: Pianist, composer, arranger; creates classical crossover albums.
WHAT IT IS: Music that has strong classical influences and appeal to a wide audience.
WEBSITE: jamesanorkawich.com
A native of Bridgeport, Norkawich said he had an ideal childhood.
"Music was played throughout the house," he said. "My grandfather lived a few houses down. He had 13 organs in his house. He was an aficionado. At a young age I was exposed to the organ, then the piano, and then back to the organ."
Norkawich started taking piano lessons at the age of 5.
"She was a tough old lady," he said of his piano teacher.
Music became an integral part of Norkawich's life, he said, from the standards that his grandparents listened to, to the contemporary pop hits of his childhood by Earth, Wind and Fire, Tower of Power, Michael Jackson, and others.
"We really had the best music," he said. "I'm very blessed at the fact that music, whether through the radio, putting vinyl on, cassettes, it was a pivotal part of my growing up. It was second nature. If you don't have music playing there's something wrong."
After a few starts and stops studying piano, he said it was in his sophomore year of high school when he found purpose playing piano when he joined a music program at the University of Bridgeport.
"It was part of your high school day," he said. "It was one of those things you had to audition for. It was a labor intensive deal, and you earned college credits on top of that. These professors ... that I studied under, they were amazing. Without them, I wouldn't be where I am today."
After high school, Norkawich continued studying at the University of Bridgeport, receiving a bachelor's of arts degree in film scoring and jazz studies, and then received a master's of fine arts in jazz studies.
After graduating from college, he said, he moved to Manhattan where he worked as a radio DJ for various stations for about five years, including at WQHT-FM97 (Hot 97), WHTZ-FM100.3 (Z100), and CD-FM101.9.
While in New York, Norkawich started doing studio sessions at Carriage House Studios in Stamford, and gigging throughout the area.
"I was in a few wedding bands," he said, "playing with a lot of local bands that were decent at the time. It was your regular Connecticut bands. After I graduated, I got a call from my professor that Spirogyra's (a British folk rock/progressive band) got a gig open. So I did a whole Northeast tour with them. These guys were next level."
He said he moved back to Connecticut in 2000, commuting and working at the radio stations, while also gigging around Connecticut and New York. But he grew tired of the commute and 14-hour workdays, so quit the DJ gigs in 2002.
In 2018, he started writing more intensely.
"Last year I put an album together," he said. "It was songs from the Great American Songbook. That album is called 'Yesterday.' The picture on the album is my grandfather, my dad's dad, in his World War I uniform. There's a lot of history, a lot of meaning behind those songs. That blended the whole entire family in that album."
When Russia invaded the Ukraine on Feb. 24, he created a video, scoring footage to Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah."
"I put it on Twitter," he said. "A Welsh soprano saw it. She sent me a DM (direct message) and said, 'This is incredible.'"
The singer was classical crossover artist Ellen Williams.
"We had a quick Zoom conversation," he said, and "12 hours later, she put her personal stamp on it. Her voice perfectly layered it."
The collaboration brought them to use the song to raise money for World Central Kitchen, which provides meals and humanitarian aid for people in Ukraine.
"Here's a tragedy," he said, "but we're hoping to make a difference."
When the Uvalde mass shooting happened in Texas on May 24, he created a new project, this time with classical crossover tenor Tyrone Piper, with an arrangement of Queen's "Who Wants to Live Forever."
"He did the recording," he said. "It asked that question, who wants to live forever? Do we want to live forever in this kind of environment if we can't change things? What can we do to change things?"
The classical crossover theme has become Norkawich's current niche, melding a classical style with pop songs.
"It adds something different to it," he said.
His latest release is a tribute to Bobby Rydell.
"I met him, Fankie Avalon, and Fabian in '09," he said. "Bobby was the most real."
After Rydell died this past April, he decided to do a tribute song to Rydell, recording a jazz arrangement of his song "Volare," infusing it with clips from Rydell and Dick Clark.
His current project is a gospel/classical fusion album, working with former "The Voice" contestant Michelle Brooks-Thompson, and jazz vocalist Aggeliki Psoni.
He is also working on a follow-up to "Yesterday" called "Today."
"These are all songs from the unspoken American Songbook," he said. "Songs from 1950 to now. Songs that have become staples from different genres of music, from Stevie Wonder to Journey, but it's a piano interpretation with some original material."
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