Arts in the Afternoon: Pianist Maxwell Talai

On Sunday July 24th from 4-5pm, the Lakeway Arts Committee present Maxwell Talai, a talented classical pianist and composer who is the youngest in a family of famous and accomplished musicians. This free concert will be held at the Lakeway Activity Center, 105 Cross Creek in Lakeway.

Maxwell Milliano Talai Jr. is an American composer/pianist born 1996 in San Gabriel, California to a Creole/African American mother and Persian father. He comes from a long line of famous and accomplished musicians, including Larry Graham, a living legend of the funk genre who is known as the father of bass-thumping, Geno Delafosse, Chris Ardoin and Sean Ardoin, Legendary zydeco artist Amedee Ardoin, and a very infamous rapper known as Drake (Audery Drake Graham).

Maxwell grew up in the suburbs of San Rafael in Pasadena, California. His journey into music began when his mother; who was aware of her family’s musical background, got six year old Maxwell to play on a little keyboard at RadioShack to see if he shared the family musical talent. He did! Although, Maxwell was not interested enough to pursue lessons at the time, Maxwell’s mom kept in mind what she saw that day. It would be the key to Maxwell fulfilling his musical destiny.

Fourteen years ago, at the age of twelve, Maxwell’s mom purchased a keyboard and encouraged him to take piano lessons again. Maxwell’s piano teacher, who was a nun, was amazed that he could form coherent piano pieces after just two weeks of lessons. He had his first recital at thirteen when the nun gathered all of her students and their families to the Church to hear him perform. At the age of fourteen, Mr. David Parker of Sonatasia, a musical group that combines the thrilling mix of music, dance, theater and architecture, heard Maxwell playing piano in a piano store and invited him to join his group. Because of this experience, Maxwell has performed numerous works of his own throughout California as well as at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles.

He describes his compositions as modern, contemporary, classical, romantic, and new age. Maxwell plans a career as a composer, scoring for film, television, and commercials.