ABOUT STEPHEN

Stephen Wallack is a pianist and composer whose combination of formal and self-taught exploratory learning allows him to break free from the boundaries of genre stereotypes with a freshness and emotional integrity that hammers on the heartstrings of his listeners.

Wallack began life with music as an ever-present part of his upbringing. Raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota in a family in which all his older siblings were constantly listening to music, it was inevitable that he would find an affinity for it. Unlike his siblings, whose favorite bands were in the vein of REM and The Cure, Wallack found himself inexplicably drawn to instrumental music and at the young age of five years old began piano lessons. While Wallack had an affinity for the music, at that age he struggled greatly with performance anxiety. This anxiety eventually led to him ceasing lessons altogether; however, his curiosity regarding music could not be so easily silenced.

A substantial part of Wallack’s aforementioned affinity to music was his skilled abilities as a listener and auditory memory that enabled him to quickly learn music by ear. This skillset came to the fore when, at age twelve, he was introduced to George Winston’s album, December.  Wallack felt Winston’s music reverberate with him on a profound level and – armed with deep-seated determination, a tape recorder, and his ear – spent hours learning the entire album at his orange childhood piano. Through this process, Wallack’s technical skill, harmonic knowledge, and melodic imagination grew leaps and bounds and dug the foundation upon which the rest of his musical career would be built.

As Wallack’s abilities grew, so did his desire to learn. Still equipped with his same tools, Wallack set out to learn the music that enraptured his imagination and enthralled his senses: film music. Starting with Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, Wallack proceeded to take in, learn, and play out the music from a plethora of cinematic scores. The vast evocative soundscapes captivated both his mind and his emotions, and forever changed the way he thought about music. “When I write,” Wallack says, “I picture the music moving to film.”

At age fourteen, Wallack took a leap of faith: he stopped playing the music he was hearing and started playing the music he was imagining. Overflowing with ideas, emotions, and concepts, music became the natural manner Wallack expressed himself. Inspired by the grandiose feelings of George Winston’s music and the rich imagery within film scores, Wallack set out on his path as a writer – a path whose direction became clearer through the help of a friend named Mike McCready.

Mike McCready, better known as the guitarist for iconic ‘90s rock band Pearl Jam, became Wallack’s first guitar teacher, and gave him his first guitar. McCready’s influence led Wallack to expand his musical tastes, and as his sonic preferences widened to include artists like Soundgarden, Tom Petty, and Neil Young, his focus on his craftsmanship became more acute. “I’m beyond fortunate to have the friendship with [Mike] that I have,” Wallack says. “He really has inspired me to continue pursuing my passion for music.”

In recent years, Wallack has released Chapters, his debut album whose music captures and brings to life ten moments and memories that have defined him, inspired him, and stayed with him.  As natural successors to Chapters, Wallack is releasing Stories and Reflections, two full-length albums whose themes continue those established in his debut. Where Chapters drew inspiration from specific moments, Stories is a series of character pieces whose melodies, harmony, and rhythms work in tandem to paint images of specific people who have impacted Wallack. From its opening track Sunrise to its closing song Goodnight, Wallack’s Stories utilizes metaphorical imagery of a 24-hour day to express and experience this menagerie of memories.

Reflections, like Chapters and Stories, has strong links to memory, but instead of people or events, Reflections channels moments in time – specifically holidays – as its muse. Reflections acts as a window into Wallack’s mind as it expresses how he experiences holidays. Using subtle fragments of culturally familiar melodies, Reflections offers a new way to hear the iconic time-honored melodies of the Christmas season.

Stories and Reflections are available on all major streaming services, and for purchase on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play Music, and CDBaby.