Micah McLaurin Liberace for the Millennial Generation
Micah McLaurin is the Liberace of the Millennial generation. He started playing the piano at the age of eight and spent much of his childhood studying under some of America’s most notable classical pianists, including Enrique Graf and Gary Graffman. When he was nineteen, he attended the Curtis Institute of Music, one of the most selective music schools in the country, before attending The Juilliard School for his master’s degree. When McLaurin was just fourteen years old, he played his first performance with the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, then as a soloist for the Cleveland Orchestra when he turned sixteen. Since then, he’s played all over the world at music festivals and top-level concert halls including Lincoln Center. He’s also played with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Orquestra Filarmónica de Montevideo. Micah’s won numerous awards including the Gilmore Young Artist award that picks two of the nation’s most talented up-and-coming musicians every year.
Zaldy Goco
Micah’s performances infuse two of his passions, the piano and high fashion. To watch Micah perform is like observing a rare flower bloom. Behind each performance is the amalgamation of flawless piano skills that took 20 years for Micah to curate through painstaking and relentless practice. Layered on top of Micah’s primary passion is his obsession with fashion. His Instagram account, which boasts 117k followers, features his favorite costumes and outfits, some of which were designed by Zaldy, the world-renowned designer who’s worked with Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Katy Perry and RuPaul. Zaldy and Micah’s collaborations have resulted in some unique and elegant creations, including their royal Covid mask with gold-encrusted diamonds hanging off both sides. Micah wore the powder blue Covid mask with a matching suit for his first post-Covid performance at the High Line Nine. Micah also worked with Zaldy on a musical arrangement of Lady Gaga’s songs “Bad Romance” and “Paparazzi” that has just been released on YouTube.
Instagram & YouTube
The 27-year-old has been playing since he was an eight-year-old wunderkind. From the time he first laid his fingers on the piano it became an infatuation. He remembers being consumed with piano through his childhood, never focused on school or other jobs because he knew he was destined to become a pianist. As he grew up, he continued to nurture his piano skills, before attending one of the most exclusive music schools in the country, the Curtis Institute of Music. “Curtis was definitely harder than Juilliard,” Micah told PARK, “I remember playing all day every day.” Micah’s education at Curtis also unlocked a newfound love for fashion. “I only wore hand-me-down clothes; I never had the chance to go shopping until I went to Curtis. I saw things with crystals, and it really caught my eye. It really developed my taste for fashion,” Micah said. After Curtis, Micah attended Juilliard, where he was able to spread his wings in New York.
Today, Micah is in peak physical shape and boasts a cultivated sense of high fashion, and two decades of experience as a master pianist. His Instagram features his style and his peerless piano playing. Through social media, Micah is revamping a national appreciation for classical music. “It’s interesting how Chopin has millions of monthly listeners on Spotify,” Micah said, “Even some pop artists don’t have that.”
Q & A – what are the questions?
‘Teach Yourself How to Play Piano’
My mom got a book called Teach Yourself How to Play Piano and tried to sit us all down and teach us. When she gave up, I started going through it on my own and figured things out for myself. I was the 3rd of 7 children: 3 boys, 4 girls. It was pretty crazy; I shared a room with my two brothers for most of my life growing up, and I mean it was always fun because there was always someone to talk to. I grew up in a Catholic family. Very Catholic. I went to a Catholic school at one point and dropped out. I wanted to be homeschooled because I wanted to play piano; I really didn’t like school because I was too obsessed with piano to care.
Horses & Cars
Before piano I was obsessed with horses and then cars, there was always some passion for something, then I found the real thing. I knew that I wasn’t going to go to school for anything academic, I had to focus on piano. There was never a question about it; I was so passionate about it with full force, and I really wanted to be a concert pianist from the very beginning. My parents never questioned it.
Why Piano?
When I first started, I remember vividly how much I loved the sound. It’s so powerful, it’s so beautiful. It encompasses so many emotions, you play the whole piece – the melody, the bass, the accompaniment – you experience the whole work and the whole emotion. With the piano it’s complete, you have all the parts in one place. It can pretty much do anything; it almost has no limits, other than you can’t sustain a note- it will die out.
When Did You Come Out?
When I was eleven. I felt like something was wrong with me, so I had to tell my parents. I told them. Then I went to gay conversion treatment.
Conversion Therapy
I was eleven, it was a one-day event. From that day on I was a different person because you’re trying to change yourself at that age and you reject everything you know and every part of yourself, so it really shut me down. It took a long time; the damage is permanent. I feel that music saved my life. It gave me something to hold on to; it gave me something to love, something to express myself with. I couldn’t express myself in any other way, so that was the only way really.
Fashion & Performance
I think that performances and concerts should be a celebration; it shouldn’t feel like you’re a servant or in a museum. I think that anything that allows people to connect more is great. I don’t find my costumes distracting. I think it supports the music. It’s not every day you go on stage, so when you do it’s supposed to be a performance and take you away from every day.
The Pandemic
Since Covid I really had to sit down with myself and ask myself, What am I doing? I had to reassess my goals because everything stopped. My performances stopped and I had a big debut coming up in Charleston. It was a loss but also an opportunity. My boyfriend is really good with social media, so he pushed me to pursue social media and post more videos and gain a following on Instagram and TikTok. That was a lot of work that kept me really busy, recording and making videos and putting together looks. I recorded an album.
Write Your Own Music
I really tried to explore the creative side rather than the interpretive side. When I’m improvising sometimes I’ll press the record on my phone and sometimes, I get a few good things, sometimes I don’t. I have a couple of things I want to make real pieces.
Lady Gaga & Italian Tour
The most recent project is my music video Lady Gaga Medley, an arrangement of Lady Gaga songs. It’s a medley of “Bad Romance” and “Paparazzi”. I worked with a great designer, Zaldy. He’s dressed many stars including Michael Jackson and Katy Perry. He designed all the costumes. Last year I was invited to an art gallery to perform on a piano that was wrapped in a floral vinyl print and I didn’t want to play all classical because I thought that the space was asking for something more than that. I wanted to make a pop arrangement and since I love Lady Gaga so much I tried to do “Bad Romance” note for note in the same tempo, but it doesn’t sound good on the piano like that, so then I slowed it down and made it more of a ballad and made it a little more sad, a little more painful. Then I wanted something more energy and added “Paparazzi”. People loved the arrangement, so then I wanted to do a video for it.
This summer I’m playing a tour in Italy with the cellist Ludovica Lana and we’re playing all Chopin. I’m playing in Germany, Bohemian Rhapsody in Blue. It’s going to be the world premiere.
Favorite Piano & Piece
I have a Steinway model 8 special edition, and my favorite piece to play is Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff.
