Peter Bence ( hu, Péter Bence; born 5 September 1991) is a Hungarian

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and

music producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

. He has gained considerable popularity with his piano arrangements of Despacito (Fonsi/Yankee/Ender),

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

and

Sia Sia Kate Isobelle Furler ( ; born 18 December 1975) is an Australian singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Adelaide, she started her career as a singer in the acid jazz band Crisp in the mid-1990s. In 1997, when Crisp disbanded, she rel ...

collecting over 500 million video hits and a popular following on his YouTube channel and Facebook page. His most viewed video of all time is his lively rendition of "Despacito." Bence holds a Master of Arts in Film Scoring and Electronic Production & Design from the

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level cours ...

(2010-2015). Between January 2012 and March 2017 he held the world record for most piano key hits in one minute (765) according to the

Guinness book of records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

Life

Peter Bence started playing the piano at an early age and finished his first original composition, at age 7, which was heavily influenced by the music of Mozart and Chopin. In 2002, at 11 he published his first solo piano album of his early compositions called ''Green Music''. In 2008 he released his second album ''Nightfall''. The sheet music for his composition ''Piano Piece Based on Fibonacci Sequence'', an audition piece performed in 2009, was requested by many pianists. He was considered a musical prodigy by teachers and peers, and was already accepted at Franz Liszt University of Music in Debrecen, while he was still enrolled at elementary school. In his teens, Peter started to show great interest in film music, especially the music of John Williams, which has opened up a new world for him and made him further explore himself musically. After his training in classical piano and composition in Hungary, he continued his studies as a scholar at Berklee College of Music in the United States as a film scoring and piano major. Even though he was taking in every genre of music possible, he found his biggest influence in Michael Jackson. In January 2012 he attained the Guinness World Record for the "most piano key hits in one minute" with 765 key hits, which he held until March 2017. Peter began uploading videos to YouTube while at Berklee and in 2015 with his arrangement of Michael Jackson's ‘Bad’ he quickly rose to fame, collecting 10 million views over a few days. Now he has over 500+ million cumulative video views on Facebook and YouTube combined. In the past two years alone he has performed for tens of thousands throughout 40 countries, opened BBC's Proms in the Park 2017, in Hyde Park, London for 50,000 people, and was featured on the Ellen DeGeneres Show's website, BBC, Buzzfeed, 9GAG, Classic FM, iHeart Radio and Billboard. He is currently finishing his debut album, which will feature some of his best covers and solo piano compositions. He won the 1st Prize InterArtia 2015 international competition in the category Pop Piano by the International Art Society in Volos, Greece.

Discography

* 2002: ''Green Music'' * 2008: ''Nightfall'' * 2020: ''The Awesome Piano''

References

External links

* *
This Michael Jackson Cover Is So 'Bad'
at EllenTV.com
Pianist Peter Bence on Breaking Sound Barriers
on Limelight
Peter Bence – The Fastest Pianist in the World
d on Fiestalonia.net
“We’d Like to Stick to the Point, Which, of Course, is Playing the Piano” – Interview with Hungarian Pianist Bence Péter
on Hungarytoday.hu

on The Sydney Morning Herald {{DEFAULTSORT:Bence, Peter 1991 births Living people Hungarian classical pianists Male classical pianists 21st-century classical pianists 21st-century Hungarian male musicians Berklee College of Music alumni