About Me
For as long as Kirk Dearman can remember, playing the piano has been his greatest passion. "The first time I ever saw a piano, I thought, 'I'm supposed to play that thing.'"After listening to his older sister practice her piano lessons for a while, five-year-old Kirk climbed up on the piano bench and began to play her repertoire - by ear - with near perfection.Soon after, Kirk took her place at the piano bench and he's never left.Kirk studied classical piano for eight years, and performed in annual recitals, as well as the National Piano Guild competitions. It was clear to Kirk’s teacher, a former concert pianist from New York, that Kirk had the potential for a career as a classical concert pianist and had big plans for him.Kirk, however, had his own plans. He remembers spending hours picking out, by ear, melodies he'd heard on his mom's records or on the radio. "As a piano student, I was always a bit of a rebel. I hated to practice my weekly lessons. All I wanted to do is to just sit and play songs by ear," Kirk remembers. "I never was particularly fond of classical music. I would listen to my mom's Roger Williams and Peter Nero records, then mimic their arrangements."In his eighth and final year of classical lessons, Kirk started working on his annual recital piece, the 35-page Mendelssohn's Capriccio Brilliante, which had to be memorized. "In my heart of hearts, all I wanted to do was quit and play pop songs. I finally decided I'd had enough and dropped the lessons, much to the disappointment to my teacher."Kirk remembers sitting alone for hours in the family's music room, playing all the popular songs from the radio and just 'making up' songs. "Playing the piano was how I expressed myself best," Kirk says, "and it brought me the greatest pleasure."Soon after quitting classical training, at age fourteen, Kirk got his first job playing the piano in a restaurant. From there, he started receiving invitations to play for various local events. At nineteen, he toured throughout the USA, Europe and the South Pacific, playing keyboards and singing with a Christian music group.Married at twenty and living in Dallas, TX, Kirk was the pianist for his church and soon caught the attention of the owner of a recording studio where he began doing session work.Over the years, Kirk has continued to do session work and has played in restaurants, as well as for various functions, including banquets, weddings, receptions, charity events, fundraisers, private parties, conferences, church events, and home concerts. He has also made a number of television appearances and even had his own radio program, playing the piano and singing.From 1984 until 1991, he and his wife, Deby, lived in Europe and performed music concerts in cathedrals throughout Southern Europe and the UK.Besides being an accomplished pianist, Kirk is also a singer/songwriter/composer. And because he's had such success in these areas, they've always been his primary focus. "Sometimes the most obvious path is obscured by the pressures of life and it takes years to find your way back to the place where inspiration falls like fresh rain,†said Kirk. "It's all coming full circle now and I'm realizing that my first love has always been the piano. And I want to get back to focusing on that."In light of this, he has just released his first piano instrumental, entitled The Calm.With a neoclassical/romantic piano style, Kirk is frequently compared to pianists Jim Brickman, George Winston, John Tesh and Yanni.Kirk and his wife Deby currently reside in Franklin, TN.
