Page McConnell
Page McConnell |
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Page Samuel McConnell (born May 17, 1963 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a pianist/organist/keyboardist most noted for his work with the rock band Phish.
Background
His father, Dr. Jack McConnell worked at McNeil and helped to develop Tylenol. The elder McConnell then started a free health clinic that was staffed by retired health workers in Hilton Head, South Carolina.
McConnell spent a year at Gill St. Bernards High School, in Gladstone, NJ before moving away. McConnell spent his senior year of high school at Lawrence Academy at Groton, in Groton, Massachusetts, and then attended Southern Methodist University from Fall 1982 to Spring 1984 were he was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order. McConnell transferred to Goddard College that fall where he would graduate in December 1987. This is where he met his mentor, Karl Boyle, and wrote his senior study "The Art of Improvisation" under Boyle's guidance.
McConnell joined Phish in 1985 and played his first official show on September 25 of that year. McConnell wrote four Phish originals — "Cars Trucks Buses," "Magilla," "Army of One" and "In a Hole" — and coauthored 11 Phish tracks. [1]
Other musical projects
In 2001, McConnell appeared on Tenacious D's debut album. That fall, he joined the band on stage at their concert at Higher Ground in Winooski, Vermont.
With Oteil Burbridge and Russell Batiste, McConnell was a founding member of Vida Blue.
After a two-year hiatus from the music industry following the breakup of Phish, McConnell returned as a solo artist, recording an album of all new material in 2006.
Instruments
Page McConnell plays a Hammond B3 with a Leslie 122 speaker, a Fender Rhodes, a Yamaha C7 "baby grand" (7'6") piano, a Hohner D6 Clavinet, a Moog Source, Alesis Andromeda A6 and a Yamaha CS50 polyphonic synthesizer. He also plays the theremin.