The longer, more interesting version:

Aaron has been playing piano since he was 14 years old, ever since he first picked out the Flintstones theme by ear…in a Circuit City, just like Mozart!

Aaron first took private piano lessons from Mrs. Libby Tilson in Murfreesboro, NC, from the ages of 14 to 16 years old. Libby was the Organist and Music Director at the local Baptist Church as well as a full-time piano teacher.

He started on a 61-key non-weighted keyboard, but before long he was riding his bike over to the Music Department at Chowan College a few blocks away to sneak in after classes and practice on their early 1900’s Steinway 6’ Grand in the evening hours.

One night, a man knocked on the door to the practice room as Aaron was playing and scared him half to death! (he thought he was alone in the building!) The man smiled through the little square window in the door, turned the handle and walked right on into the tiny room occupied entirely by a large grand piano and a startled young teenager that wasn’t supposed to be there.

The man actually had something very nice to say about the Mozart piece Aaron was practicing, and the man asked him how long he had been playing and how old Aaron was. He told the man that he was 15 years old and had been playing piano about a year now. In conversation it came up that Aaron only had a little keyboard at home—a keyboard that didn’t even have enough keys to learn the piece he was just practicing. A few minutes later as the man was about to leave, he introduced himself as Dr. Rogers, the Director of the Music Department at Chowan College!

Dr. Rogers told Aaron that it was very nice to meet him and he was welcome to use the Music Department practice rooms any time! Aaron and Dr. Rogers quickly developed a good friendship. Dr. Rogers even taught him how to use the notation software in the MIDI computer lab at Chowan where Aaron arranged a version of one movement of a Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto for two flutes and piano, to be performed at Mrs. Tilson’s church. As it turned out, Dr. Rogers was also the director of the hand-bell choir at that very same Baptist church and it didn’t take much for him to convince Aaron to join the hand-bell choir, which turned out to be a lot of fun, and good sight-reading practice!

As it also turned out, Aaron had been Dr. Roger’s paperboy for about a year already. They had never previously met because Dr. Rogers was never home when Aaron knocked on the door for the monthly collections, Dr. Rogers was always working!

Aaron had this annoying habit of playing a piano whenever he saw one, so because of this—naturally people would hear him play—and soon he was being asked to perform for both the local Methodist and Baptist churches in Murfreesboro. Once they heard that he only had that little keyboard at home he was even entrusted with keys to both buildings so he could practice on their grand pianos! By this point, Aaron would ride his bicycle to one of the three different locations across town to practice for hours at a time, sometimes having to ride his bike home in the rain—in the dark—because he had been there so long.

After a couple of years delivering newspapers, and then a part-time job working at the local hardware store, Aaron had been setting some money aside when at the age of 16 his father presented him with a choice: “I’ll help you get a car, or a piano.” He knew he would only use the car to get to the pianos, so Aaron chose… the piano!

Now Aaron had an 88-key fully weighted Yamaha Clavinova at home to practice on! It was the price of a used car and had to be financed, so his father was instrumental in making this happen!

In 1997, Aaron performed in the recital following the National Piano Playing Auditions (known as Guild), where he played an unintentionally extended version of J.S. Bach’s 2-Part Invention in d minor from memory. Things were going just fine, when right near the very end, he completely blanked on the next notes…and started over at the very beginning—without missing a beat! (Thankfully, only he and his teacher Mrs. Tilson knew that it didn’t have a repeat!) The second time around, he made it to the finish line with his heart beating faster than the 16th notes on the score!

It was around this time at the age of 16 that Aaron performed Chopin’s Nocturne No. 1 at a Master Class held in the Recital Hall at Chowan College for all of the local piano teachers and their students. Dr. Kerry Carlin of East Carolina University was the visiting professor giving the Master Class, and Aaron really liked Dr. Carlin’s insights into piano technique and musical interpretation, as well as his kind demeanor and gentle temperament.

One day, out of the blue, Mrs. Tilson gave Aaron the highest possible complement from teacher to student and told him that the day had come where there was nothing more for her to teach him, and that he should start looking for a more advanced piano teacher.

Aaron knew who to call, and after some convincing, he was soon driving an hour and twenty minutes to Greenville to have hour-long lessons with Dr. Carlin in his studio at the ECU School of Music…while still in High School! After two years of study with Dr. Carlin, Aaron auditioned to ECU and was not only accepted, but also the recipient of the Henry Husted Wooten Keyboard Scholarship and attended ECU from 1999-2002 as a Piano Pedagogy Major where Dr. Carlin was still his piano teacher—though the commute was now only a short walk down a long hill and now Aaron had his choice of several concert grand 9’ Steinways to practice on! (They were much newer, too!)

Ironically, Aaron still had to “sneak” in to practice late at night…even though he was a student! Campus Security would physically lock the doors with a key at 10:00 PM, so Aaron always made sure to get in the building before they locked up so he could practice a couple more hours. There is nothing quite like practicing on a Recital Hall stage with all the stage lights on!

While studying at ECU, Aaron also performed at another Master Class during his freshman year—this time in front of his peers and professors at the collegiate level—for the Resident Visiting Professor and Van Cliburn Piano Competition 1981 Champion André-Michel Schub.

Starting in his Junior year, Aaron began taking lessons from Dr. Henry Doskey, ECU’s Piano Performance professor and later Chair of the ECU Keyboard Department. Dr. Doskey has performed all over the world, received numerous awards, and is a champion of the compositions of one of his many teachers, William Gillock.

Aaron was also both the Store Manager and Piano Teacher at PC Sound, a musical instrument and Professional Audio retail store in his current hometown of Greenville.

Aaron has now embarked upon a lifelong dream of having his own private piano studio based out of his home with the creation of the Green Room Piano Studio. He has also begun releasing YouTube videos of himself playing classical pieces—and intends to also release videos where he is playing compositions of his own! Aaron also thinks that it is quite strange indeed to write about oneself in the third person, but here we are, and he thanks you for reading until the very, very end.