it into English, it would sound a little weird,” Goff said.
Drannon, who plays piano and keyboards for Ensemble Roar, said he knew Goff from when
he was a professor at the University of Memphis. Drannon said he and Goff had always wanted
to put together an ensemble that is half concerto and half rock band. It all became a matter of
finding instruments that would be a good fit. Drannon said he knew that Piazza was versatile
and found that Nicholson had been writing his own music for a long time. What was produced,
Drannon said, was an analog-electro version of a rock band. “It is still kind of a fledgling thing; we are still just kind of experimenting with stuff,”
Drannon said.
The members of Ensemble Roar all come from musical families. Nicholson said his entire
family is involved in music in some way. Nicholson started playing piano as a kid and would
spend hours playing it. He explained that he decided around the sixth grade to play percussion,
but he still writes on the piano when he composes.
Piazza said his father plays piano as a church musician. Piazza plays the trombone and bass
across several genres, including jazz, classical, rock, funk and blues.
As for Drannon, his mother played piano and his father played guitar. Drannon said he
started playing piano when he was 7-years-old at the urging of his parents and went through a
period where he did not like the piano.
“I would be like ‘I hate this, I’m not getting any better,’ but my parents pushed me through
it,” Drannon said. “I eventually discovered how music portrays different emotions, and I wanted
to learn how to communicate that.”