David Bowie, Sting, No Doubt, Nine Inch Nails, The Smashing Pumpkins, Stanley Clarke, Mick Ronson, Alicia Keys, Gavin Rossdale, Seal, Trent Reznor, Gwen Stefani, Simon Le Bon, Adam Lambert, St. Vincent, Tony Hadley, Joe Elliott,Tom Chaplin, Corey Taylor, La Roux, Lulu, Billy Corgan, The Polyphonic Spree, Natalie Imbruglia, Living Colour, Jimmy Chamberlin, Darren Criss, Stan Getz, Kate Pierson, Perry Farrell....

What do these and other bands, artists, legends and superstars have in common?

Mike Garson.

The 2017 season of Arts Matter begins with pianist/composer, Mike Garson, coming to the Langley Fine Arts School for a public Performance at the Chief Sepass Theatre on Thursday, March 2.

The evening will feature student tributes to David Bowie, as well as several collaborations with Mike Garson. As a way to kick off Music Therapy Awareness Month in Canada, Mike and the Langley Fine Arts School Orchestra will perform music from Mike Garson’s Symphonic Suite for Healing, which was written in 2014 by Garson in collaboration with patients suffering from various disorders and ailments.

Perhaps best known for his relationship with David Bowie, Mike made his mark on numerous Bowie albums, including his much talked about masterly solo on the Aladdin Sane track. Garson was Bowie's longest and most frequent band member. They performed together for both David's first and last concerts in the United States as well as 1,000 concerts around the globe in between. Mikes unique talent, creativity and solid industry-wide reputation has ensured that he remains in high demand with musicians as diverse as The Smashing Pumpkins, No Doubt, Seal and Trent Reznor who featured Mike on several tracks of Nine Inch Nails The Fragile album and on the Grammy nominated score for the hit film Gone Girl on which they collaborated. Mike and Billy Corgan collaborated, co-composing the score of the film Stigmata, including the haunting hit Identify, performed by Natalie Imbruglia. It is this same unmatched prowess that led him to be cast to play the piano as Liberace in his biopic film.

Mike studied classical composition with Leonard Eisner of Juilliard and earned degrees in Music and Education from Brooklyn College. He also studied with Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, Hal Overton, Robert Starer and Lennie Tristano. He has played with other jazz giants including Stan Getz, Stanley Clarke, Freddie Hubbard, Elvin Jones, Dave Liebman, Lee Konitz and Joe La Barbara. Mike is also a member of Free Flight, a cutting-edge jazz and classical ensemble, who have performed at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Lincoln Center and four times on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

Garson premiered a new commissioned work in 2014, written in collaboration with patients with various disorders and ailments. This work, a set of movements of original music compositions, titled “Symphonic Healing Suite” continued with the National Sympony in 2016. Mike is the subject of the new international bestselling biography of his life, Bowies Piano Man - The Life of Mike Garson.

Garson is as comfortable in jazz, classical, pop and the rock arena and is considered one of the worlds best improvisers who has also composed over 5,000 pieces of music - half classical and the rest a mixture of every other imaginable style. Mike continues to be called into duty as the secret weapon behind Billboard topping, Grammy lauded albums, tours and longstanding artist success.