PROFESSIONAL BIO of Dave Pickell, musician
Trained as a classical pianist, Dave has been working extensively in the international pop music recording industry since 1980, first as a session keyboard player, then as a producer, writer, and arranger.
SHOW CREDITS and COMMERCIALS
Dave has written music for corporate presentations by Mutual of New York, Mitsubishi, Jim Pattison, Concord Pacific, Uniglobe Travel, General Paint, and others. He scored the Microsoft AGM in 1997, and performed for the event on site in Orlando, Florida. He has written commercials for a long list of clients which includes Mattel, McDonalds, General Motors, Silverwing Holidays ("I Need A Vacation"), Tabasco, and Health and Welfare Canada, and has recently composed scores for The Learning Channel and Life Network. Dave's the creator of the theme and all the incidental music in the HGTV series 'Love it or Lose it", and the theme music for the series "UberGuide".
SONGWRITING CREDITS
His songs have been performed on record by the West End Girls, Boulevard, Shari Ulrich , Nancy Martinez, Carole Medina, VIP , Sanne Salomonsen , Little Wolf (with Jim Wilson), Michael Burgess, TULKU, Lara Fabian , Anne Murray , Aaron Neville, Amy Sky , Dan Hill , Jacky Cheung , Olivia Newton-John, Patti LaBelle, Angel Chan, Mink, Sun, Sammi Cheng and Robbie Robertson , among others. A Dave Pickell song is used in Oliver Stone's movie "Any Given Sunday" (starring Al Pacino) and in "Flight of the Unicorn" (starring Beau Bridges). Many of his titles have been released internationally, both in English and in translation. Many of his copyrights are administered by Warner Chappell Music . His two co-writes with Vougeot garnered, among other awards, the overall grand prize in the Great American Song Contest in both 2003 and 2005. He also had a #1 hit (Billboard Hits of the World) in August 2000 with "Only Love" (sung by Jackie Cheung).
RECORDING HIGHLIGHTS
Major recording credits include Rita MacNeil, Bryan Adams, Loverboy, Glass Tiger, Amy Sky, Lara Fabian, Carly Simon, Joan Jett, Robbie Robertson , Dan Hill , and John Denver .
NEWS
Dave's "Coyote Dance" was performed by Robbie
Robertson during the opening of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt
Lake City, USA and appeared behind the TV trailer for the Nicholas Cage
movie "Windtalkers". At the Turin Olympics in 2006, the bronze medal
winning ice dancing team skated to "Adagio" (his co-arrangement/production
recorded by Lara Fabian).
His song "Over My Head" (co-written with Bryan Adams) is featured on
the compilation "Women and Song 7", recorded by Sherrie Lea. "Fame
Academy" (German equivalent of American Idol) has recorded "This Time"
which is a co-write with Davor Vulama. Dave produced "The One" with
Vanessa Olivarez (American Idol contestant): the song was a co-write with
Vanessa and James Collins, and charted as of Jan 2004. Dave is the
co-writer and producer of many of James Collins' releases, including "Good
Enough (to Love)", which hit the charts summer 05.
Fall 05 featured a release by Olivia Newton-John (and other artist
guests) of the Amy Sky/Maya Angelou/Dave Pickell co-write "Phenomenal Woman".
Dave's the composer of the theme music for the cable series "UberGuide",
after doing "Love It Or Lose It" for 2 seasons, and his arrangement work
will be featured on Rita MacNeil's upcoming release.
A summer 2006 highlight was a single release by the artist MINK on
AVEX in Japan, of "Hold On To A Dream", a co-write with Rupert Gayle.
In between composition and production assignments, his small but lively
(and award winning) group of piano and composition students has him working
hard to keep up.
updated Sept 1 2006