Matthew Shell is a musician, composer and producer whose work has appeared on The Static Dive numerous times over the past two years. Regular readers will recognize his name from the our monthly features on the progress of his work with the Smooth Jazz group, The Groove Project.
Today, we share Mr. Shell’s personal and moving tribute to a fallen friend. “Tribute to Anne-Marie King,” is a beautiful solo piano instrumental featuring Vahagn Stepanyan.
This tribute goes out to Anne-Marie King and all of the loved ones lost in these crazy times. In my thoughts, Anne-Marie’s friendship will never be forgotten. She always loved Vahagn Stepanyan’s piano playing, so I wanted to arrange this and enlist Vahagn to play piano to show my appreciation Anne-Marie’s life. The love that Anne-Marie imparted to her daughter Sinéad and all of her family and friends will be remembered and cherished forever.
– Matthew Shell
About Vahagn Stepanyan
Vahagn Stepanyan is an Armenian classically trained keyboard player, songwriter, composer, arranger, and producer specializing in jazz, R&B, funk, fusion, pop, gospel, and film score. Throughout his career he has collaborated and performed with a wide variety of artists including some Grammy winners and industry notables. In 2020, Vahagn will be the featured pianist on Matthew Shell’s album “Towards New Beginnings”, as well as play on two songs for The Groove Project’s album “Flights of Fantasy”. Vahagn has been featured on all of MTS Music Productions and Matthew Shell’s album releases since their first song collaboration with Trey Eley in 2011 titled “Beauty In Freedom”. Vahagn owns and operates a professional recording studio in Armenia.