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 Dennis Lewin - born on August 15th 1959 in Cleveland
Ohio began piano
at the age of 4 with his grandfather the late great concert pianist Joseph Lewin.
At age
6, Dennis began studying classical piano with Margaret Heller, an Alumni
teacher from The Cleveland Institute of Music. After Miss Heller’s retirement 4 years
later, Dennis auditioned for concert pianist and teacher Dr. Andrius Kuprevicius
at The Cleveland Music School
Settlement. He remained with Dr. Kuprevicious for 9
years. When Kuprevicious became the head of the piano
department at
Cleveland State University, Dennis followed and also majored in musical theory
with Dr Heywood Alexander. It was during college that Dennis began playing in
many local rock bands including This, The Mirrors (with Chris Cuda on guitar) Rhapsody (with Gary Braden, Ron Puzzitiello, Robby Bell and Gus Oswald)
and Lazar.This was also when he began experimenting with original music and
over the next few years he
would score much success in the field of writing.
In 1983 Dennis joined the very popular local group Jonah
Koslen and the Heroes.
The Heroes received a great deal of local success and recorded 1 album called "Aces".
After
the Heroes disbanded, Dennis teamed up with singers Frank and Tommy Amato and bassist Bill March to put
together
the very successful Cleveland band, Beau Coup. A large number of talented musicians played with Beau
Coup during its
career including:
At the age of 24 Dennis signed his first recording
contract with Scotti Bros. / CBS records for the album
“Beau Coup” for which Dennis wrote all songs
and lyrics. Two years later after struggling with the
record label, Dennis and Beau Coup signed another recording
contract with Amherst / A&M records. It was under
this label that “Beau Coup” released the
album
“Born and Raised on Rock and Roll" which proved a great success. Other than the song “Hold on Me” Dennis wrote all of the songs
and lyrics for the album.
The song “Sweet Rachel” reached #53 on the “Billboard Hot 100” singles
chart and received much radio and video play all over
the world. Songs “Still in my Heart”, “Somewhere
Out in the Night” and “Born and Raised on
Rock and Roll” were all picked by Billboard as
“Hot Picks”.
After the band officially disbanded, Dennis went on
to open his own very successful piano studio where
he teaches more than 35 students weekly.
Another one of Dennis’s passions, is his very successful
radio program called “The Dennis Lewin Radio Program” that was heard on "A.M. 1420 WHK" Cleveland radio for 2 1/2 years. It can now be heard on "F.M. 104.9 WCLV"
Lorain - Cleveland - Sunday afternoons from 1:00
PM - 3:00 PM and on Sunday mornings from 9:00 A.M. to 11:00 A.M.
on "F.M. 101.5 WXGR" New Hampshire. During the program Dennis gives an in-depth view of the lives and music of the greatest composers,
conductors and musicians of all time; including Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Copland, Stravinsky,
Gershwin and
more.
In the last few years, Dennis has received much acclaim
for his solo piano CD called “Crossing Chagrin” which
contains the music of J.S. Bach, Scarlatti, Debussy, Satie, Andrew Lloyd Weber and more. He also scored the
soundtrack
to the independent film called “Filmic Achievement” written and directed by Kevin Kerwin. The film won “Best
Director”
at The Stratford-Upon-Avon International Film Festival and “Best Feature Film”
at The Nolita Film Festival
in New York City. “Filmic
Achievement” was also featured in 12 other international
film festivals including
The Cleveland International
Film Festival.
Dennis is also featured as a character in 2 of author Les Roberts’ Cleveland-based books “Indian
Sign”
and “The Best Kept Secret”. He was also interviewed by Randolph Michaels for his
brand new international
book “Flashbacks to Happiness": "Eighties Music Revisited” and "Deanna Adams for her book
“Rock & Rock and the Cleveland
Connection”.
Over the years, Dennis has also written and produced much music
for artists, radio and television companies.
Some of his clients include WGCL Radio, WMMS Radio, WHTT Radio, WERE Radio,
Carmen Policy, Cleveland Browns,
Ted Henry’s News Channel 5 “Home for the Holidays” Christmas
Special, Signature Event Centers,
Marcus Thomas Advertising, The National Rib Cook Off, The World Series of Ribs,
21st Century Leasing,
Heights Auto Clinic and more.
In addition to performing with bands, teaching, writing
music, and hosting his radio program, Dennis is a very
successful solo pianist and performs virtually everywhere including
Night Town in Cleveland Hts. Ohio.
He also has a duo with his sister Debbie - one of Cleveland's premier vocalists.
Dennis also donates his time as a regular pianist for 1100 A.M. WTAM's "Mike Trivisonno's" "Coats for Kid's Concert"
that has raised hundred's of thousands of dollars for the poor children of Northeastern Ohio over the last several years.
When Dennis performs, people from all over Northeastern Ohio come to hear him play and during the evening, he creates a soiree’ salon type atmosphere
and takes the crowd through 30 decades of music,
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