Michael Pinnella (born August 29, 1969, in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey, U.S.) is a keyboard player, most notably for the band Symphony X. He has also released a solo album: A mixture of classical and progressive styled music entitled Enter By the Twelfth Gate on the InsideOut Music label in 2004.
Biography
Pinnella was born on Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey and was encouraged since childhood to follow music. When he was 4 years old, he started taking piano lessons. He was heavily influenced by classic composers like Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, and Bach.When he was about 11 years old, he started to practice more seriously. Later in his youth, he was impressed by Yngwie Malmsteen and asked his parents to buy him a keyboard. When he got into college, he studied piano performance, theory and composition, and other musical courses. Other influences came from progressive/metal bands from the 70s (Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Deep Purple) and from the 80s (Black Sabbath, DIO, Ozzy Osbourne
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael Pinnella