Piano Man

Rob Satori conducts his life like a sheet of music.

While the score shows passages of presto and of adagio, Satori’s passion for music remains his reprise.

“When I was a young kid, about 7 years old, I had just started playing piano,” Satori says. “I said to my mom, ‘I want to be a great composer like Bach, Beethoven or Mozart.’ But, I added: I want to be a living one, not a dead one. That cracked my parents up.”

At 55, Satori’s aspirations haven’t changed, but most of his other musical endeavors — leading the music program at Unity of Sarasota church and disc jockeying, for example — pay the bills.

But Satori’s compositional skills, in particular, have seen success in recent weeks. His classical piece, “Requiem for the Cherubim,” has landed at the top of the classical/romantic category chart on broadjam.com, a music publishing opportunity-site from which publishers seek material from musicians for radio, film and television.

Satori wrote the piece nearly 20 years ago, after learning about the Oklahoma City bombing in April 1995.

“It was like my hands rose on their own and went to the keyboard,” Satori recalls, adding he wrote the song in memory of the victims. “I went with it.”

He put the disc away but after finding it a few months ago he reworked the song using symphonic sounds on new equipment.

He hopes to have the piece scored for a full orchestra soon, in time for the 20th anniversary of the bombing that inspired it.

In the meantime, Satori, owner of Rob Satori Entertainment, continues along a musical path. He explains his work as a tree of music, with his passion for music as the tree’s trunk and his musical ventures as its branches: piano lessons, songwriting, leading a church music program and even playing piano at assisted-living facilities — a business he developed after visiting his father, who had Alzheimer’s disease, in one and playing piano for him as a way to communicate.

“I get to do what I love to do; it’s nice,” Satori says. “It’s a lot of work.”

But writing music remains Satori’s utmost passion.

“I made a commitment to myself this year to write daily,” he says. “If I had my druthers, I’d write music all day.”

“I write whatever I feel led to write, which is quite diverse,” he adds.

His song list spans genres, from classical/romantic to pop to patriotic to country. The pieces published on Broadjam, for example, can be selected for soundtracks, commercials, movies or purchased just for listening.

Satori says he’ll keep writing until his lifelong goal is fulfilled.

“When you represent the God idea — the creative idea to its finest — you have to carve it, cut it and scrape it and build it,” Satori says. “Once it’s just right, you have to cook it again. That prods me to make the music better.”

“I still have yet to reach my millions of people,” he says. “But I’m not dead yet.”

Key notes
Rob Satori played for 17 years with the Omni Band at the Columbia Restaurant on St. Armands Circle before becoming music director of the Center for Positive Living in 1994. He is now beginning his fourth year as director of the music program at Unity Church of Sarasota.

On Longboat Key, Satori has been a regular performer, although he has scaled back on his night gigs.

You can still catch him occasionally at the Longboat Key Club’s Portofino Restaurant, the Lido Beach Resort and at weddings and other private events, such as Men Who Cook and The Friars Club.
 

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].