Bill Niemi, musician, teacher, and engineer

Here's a brief discription of my experience as a music teacher,  professional musician, and recording engineer.

I've been actively involved in music as a student, music teacher, professional performer, and composer/arranger for 51 years.  I played full time as a professional musician in a major market (Twin Cities)  for 12 years,  chalking up about 15,000 hours on stage.  My resume could be rather long.  I've played all styles of pop music from the 1930s through the 60s and 80s.  As an entertainer, I have played for tables and chairs in an empty night club and also have brought a crowd of 18,000 people to their feet with my version of "Orange Blossom Special".  And everywhere in between.

I'll just give you the short version here.  If you'd like more detail about my musical resume, I'll be happy to discuss it with you in person. 

When I moved to this part of the world it was work-related.  I came up from Dallas to work for a systems integrator, and have done electrical engineering work in a number of local manufacturing facilities including Oral-B, PMX, Cedar River Paper, Amana, General Mills, and others.  Primarily I was working on machine control programs and data acquisition and operator interface software.  During my engineering career I always found some time for practice and composing, as well as plenty of critical listening.  

Since retiring from electrical engineering, I have accepted a half time position at Coe College in Cedar Rapids as Technical Director for the Music Department.  I am responsible for training, staffing, and tech support for Music Department events at Sinclair and D-K auditoriums on the Coe campus.  I report to the Chairman of the Music Department and work with the faculty and students on a daily basis.  This is a very enjoyable position and it has the fringe benefit of being able to hear a wonderful variety of concerts and recitals.  I consider this to be a service function, and it's my way of helping tomorrow's music teachers and musicians by enriching their performance and concert-going experiences.

Living in a small town is realization of my "American Dream".  I grew up in a small town, and although I enjoyed my years in Minneapolis and the musical opportunites in the Twin Cities, I love the atmosphere and people of this area.  I have the recording and video studio I always dreamed of having, and am now able to find time for the music activities I truly enjoy... teaching and recording.  Lori and I also enjoy our neighbors and friends and hosting visits from our 3 grandkids whenever possible.  We look forward to sweet corn season and hope the winters aren't too bad.  I guess that's what most other folks around here do, too.    

Quick musical resume

•  Both my parents were musicians and music teachers.  My dad taught strings at the local public school system in my little home town and my mom taught private piano lessons... lots and lots of them.  We had 4 pianos in our house and they got plenty of use.  My dad also tuned pianos.  All the kids in our family played at least one musical instrument.
•  I started study of piano at age 5 and violin at 9, which means I have played piano for 51 years and violin for 47 years.  In 8th grade I started french horn in band and in 9th grade I began playing guitar and bass guitar. While in high school, I was active in numerous instrumental and vocal ensembles and taught piano and violin.  I was concertmaster of both my high school and college orchestras.  I also played brass, mallet, and fretted instruments.  The first time at college I was a double major on piano and violin.  I left college after 2 years to play music professionally. 
•  I enjoyed a nice 12 year career in Minneapolis playing, teaching, studying, and doing studio session work before deciding to to leave music performance and get a "real" job.  At the peak, my teaching studio had 28 students.  My bands played 4, 5, 6, and even 7 nights a week for 12 years. (That's a LOT of gigs.)  We were so busy it was hard to schedule a vacation. 
•  Euphonic Studio started in 1979 as a personal studio with a Tascam 234 4-track and is now equipped with state-of-the-art digital recording equipment featuring Sonar 5, DirectPro 24/96 AD/DA, and world-class keyboard instruments, my Mason and Hamlin A grand and Hammond A-100 organ.  To my knowledge I have the best piano and organ studio in the area. 
•  Career change.... I have always been interested in science and electronics and I tapped into this interest in 1986 by changing careers to engineering.  I graduated in 1988 from Texas State Technical College with a degree in Automation and Robotics and began working in industry that year.  After a few years, I went back to school and I graduated summa cum laude in 1995 from Texas A&M with a degree in the engineering areas of industrial controls and software.  I was employed in this field from 1988 through 2007.  I've never forgotten about music, though, as I remained active in performance, composition, and recording through those years.  I retired from engineering in 2007 and am now back to musical activities full time, including my position as Music Department Technical Director at Coe College.

High points of my performance and music career:

•  My band played in Europe for 3 months in 1981, playing gigs at American and Canadian airbases, the US Embassy in Bonn, and hotels and clubs in Oslo, Norway
•  I arranged a charity music festival for African drought relief that included 16 bands and acts from the Minneapolis area.  I got everyone to donate their time.
•  My bands played numerous warmup gigs for national acts that came through the Twin Cities
•  Lots of work as a session player at better studios such as Creation Audio and Sound 80
•  Years of songwriting and recording with two partners at my studio in south Texas

These days, I am dividing my musical energies into  4 general areas.  First, I continue personal development on my primary instruments (piano, violin, and guitar).  Second, I am busy with composition and recording.  Third, I'm learning (with the help of my mentor) how to tune and maintain pianos. 

Last and not least, I am enjoying working with my students.  I enjoy teaching immensely and you will find that I am truly dedicated to helping you learn to play and get the best value for your money that I can deliver.  I think about each of my students daily as I practice and strive to create lessons that are useful, enjoyable, and hopefully inspirational. 

I will always find time for your recording session or music lesson!