← Steinway.com ← Boston Pianos ← In the News ← Fall/Winter 2008 Boston Newsletter
Cherchez la musique
Johann Cornu Le Vern composes, sings, plays and records with the help of his Boston grand piano.
Father, indeed, knows best. That’s why Dominique Cornu’s talented son has a Steinway-designed Boston grand piano in the studio of his home in Saint Saens, Normandy, France.
After all, Dominique is sales manager for Pianos Hanlet, the exclusive dealer for the family of Steinway-designed pianos in France, and he made sure that his son learned to play… an opportunity he never had as a child.
Johann Cornu Le Vern began piano lessons when he was 8 years old, about the time his father started working at Pianos Hanlet in Vélizy outside of Paris.
“My father asked me if I wanted to play,” reflects the pianist-singer-composer-arranger, “and I’ve never stopped.” Now 30 years old and married with two small children, Mr. Cornu Le Vern says he had come to a point in his music career when he needed a high-quality piano. Naturally he consulted his father and ultimately made the two-hour trip to Vélizy, where he helped him select a 5-foot-8-inch Boston grand piano (GP-163).
Mr. Cornu Le Vern chose this Steinway-designed instrument for “the bright sounds, precise touch and power,” he says. “It also is the perfect size for my recording studio” in his home where he composes, sings, plays and records original compositions while pursuing a pop-music career.
Classically trained in piano at the Conservatoire de Rouen for 10 years, he earned a university degree and became a teacher.
“To pay for my university studies, I taught piano, guitar and music theory to young children as private students,” Mr. Cornu Le Vern explains. “I also played the piano in a French bar.”
Currently, he teaches handicapped children in a public school to support his family, of course, but also to finance his musical aspirations. His quest began at 14 years old when he met French composer Franck Langolff, who wrote hits for Vanessa Paradis (American actor Johnny Depp’s significant other) and other French performers.
“I discovered show business when I was with him in his studio,” says Mr. Cornu Le Vern. “I always wanted to compose music, so he showed me how he worked.”
Recently, the chanteur recorded what he hopes will be his first hit, La dernière heure, at Studio de Meudon, where he accompanied himself on a Steinway D grand piano.
While he waits for a producer to help launch him to fame and fortune, Mr. Cornu Le Vern is hard at work on a new show, composing songs on his Boston grand piano.
“Just me and my piano on stage” is all he’ll reveal about the new work. In the meantime, he has posted his recording of La dernière heure and a few other songs on the Internet at http://www.myspace.com/johanncornulevern.
“I love to play music,” he beams, confiding that his home in the pretty little town of Saint Saens, built in 1860 of brique de saint-Jean, a rare and fragile orange brick, is quite secluded with no neighbors to disturb him… and vice versa. “So I can play music any time,” he laughs.
Well, almost any time. Mr. Cornu Le Vern and his wife, Gwenaelle, recently welcomed a baby daughter, Philomène, who joins their two-year-old son, Simon. “This is the perfect setting,” he says, “to raise a family, compose music and build my music career.”