Okay, so I know that his Prelude in C Sharp minor is one of the most hackneyed piece in classical music. However, when you really put things into perspective, 99.7% of the population does not even know he exists.

I made an interesting connection between an awful rap song (Double platinum with over 50 million views) called "Rack City." Rack City has greatly influenced the youth with lyrics like: Rack city bi*** rack city bi***, ten ten twenties on your ti**ies bi*** (and thats just the chorus). The versus are even worse. Anyways the instrumental uses the same introductory motif that Rach wrote over a hundred years ago. I doubt it was intentional, however the connection stands.

I'd like to open up some discussion on the lack of change from the classical music industry in regards to these "Masterpieces," which we as pianist should not touch. I decided to shorten Rach's prelude and connected it to this rap song so when young people search for "Rack City" - some will find "Rack City vs. Rachmaninoff." Somewhat of a red herring, I am hoping that my project opens up the door for other (much better) musicians to adopt a similar marketing technique which enables people who most likely will never get the chance to experience classical music - to experience classical music via mainstream connections. Now I shortened it because the attention spans of the youth are abysmal - from experience I doubt any young kid is going to listen through a 4-5 minute prelude. Which is a shame because that agitato section is remarkably inspiring - regardless how many times I hear it.

It was actually that section of music which inspired me to start playing piano 3 years ago, when I was losing my mind in undergrad as a biology major. Anyways, I am really looking for your feedback - I know my voicing, phrasing, and overall playing needs much work - but I hope you can find some sympathy in regards to how long I have been playing - and rather focus on the concept and how we can bring this idea to more classical musicians.

Another quick example is just doing covers of popular music on your channel which consists of classical music. We need to start adapting to the current times or I believe all hope will be lost.

Rack City vs. Rachmaninoff
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLWrjNEaz3E

P.S Rachmaninoff already had a certain distaste for this piece because of its unusual popularity - however, I believe that if he heard Rack City and this other crap that is on the radio - he would be glad that at least somewhere out there his music is still being heard...

Thoughts, comments, criticisms are much appreciated as your time is.

Thank you,
Daniel
www.Danielinnovate.com