(John chatters) (object clacking) (John chatters) (Lucas chatters) - I was originally born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

We moved when I was four years old to Wisconsin.

And so, then I started to take more of an interest in music.

I started with classical piano lessons.

Classical gave me a solid foundation with my technique and reading music and music theory, which I am so thankful for now.

(lively keyboard music) I switched over to jazz when I was in middle school, and I actually switched over because I had joined the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra.

I had joined the jazz groups there, and I loved jazz more than I loved classical, so I chose jazz.

I'm currently at the Berkeley College of Music.

I just finished my freshman year there.

I'm a R&B neo soul, I guess contemporary, modern jazz pianist, if you will.

(sweet keyboard music) My mom, she's from Peru, so I've had a lot of influences growing up.

My mom, I mean, obviously, played Latin music and Peruvian music around the house, but she also loved R&B and all like jazz, gospel, all of that stuff and she would play it all around the house when I was younger.

So, I was exposed to a lot of like Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Frank Sinatra, Frankie Ruiz, just literally everyone you could think of growing up.

And so, I just loved music before I even played music.

♪ You're here to stay ♪ ♪ Thank God you looked my way ♪ ♪ You looked my way ♪ ♪ I'm so glad you came ♪ - The Milwaukee music scene is unique.

I feel like there's a sense of like, comradery and brotherhood here that you don't really have in other cities.

I noticed that Milwaukee, while it's still somewhat of a smaller music scene, there's a ton of musicians here.

And every day, I'm discovering new musicians who live here, who are really good at what they do.

And so, one thing I noticed is that everyone here is kind of here for each other.

It's a very tight knit community and welcoming.

If you don't know somebody, you know somebody who knows somebody, and then they know somebody, and it's just a big network of people.

So, I really love the fact that Milwaukee is super connected with the music scene and it's super talented and super unique.

(tender keyboard music) I think I found my sound before I even started playing the instrument.

I think I found what I liked and I decided to play what I liked.

That, to me, is the most important thing, is if you want to play something with your heart, you have to truly enjoy it.

(tender keyboard music continues) I, for all my life, since I've heard it, since I was a baby around the house, I've loved like R&B music, I've loved Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder.

Earth, Wind & Fire, you name it.

And so, that's my sound.

Hearing that stuff has determined my sound, and I've taken parts of the songs that I like or maybe certain things that the keyboard player has played in some of those songs, and I just use them because I like it.

I like the sound of it so much that I use it and figure it out every key and figure out how to put it in every tune that I can.

And to me that's just my sound.

My sound is not even associated with the instrument, it's just what I like.

(lively keyboard music) I truly want the audience to have the same sense of excitement I have when I sit down and play the keyboard.

Every time I sit down or even see a keyboard, I'm excited to play something or play something that I've worked out or I heard or I just like to hear.

(lively keyboard music continues) To me it's exciting because you never know what's going to happen next when you're improvising.

And I hope that people feel that same sense of excitement and, you know, they like the sounds that I'm playing.

♪ And I'm so glad you looked my way ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ (tender keyboard music) - My passion lies in creating.

I like creating something new, something that really hasn't existed before.

I just do everything when it comes to music.

I arrange, I produce, I play, I perform.

I've always loved to learn how things work and why they work, and then be able to like apply it myself.

And so, I think that's where my passion with music comes from.

And just creating in general, you know, producing music and coming up with my own original music.

I just love doing something that nobody has done before.

And I love learning from people that have done it before and then taking it another step.

I try to learn everything that it comes to music because I just love music.

♪ My way ♪ (keyboard music continues) (keyboard music continues)