YAMAHA PIANIST LISA LAUREN HAS HER OWN "TWIST"

—Independent Singer-Songwriter Plays Grand Pianos—

BUENA PARK, CA (March 21, 2003)—Yamaha artist Lisa Lauren takes pride in having an interesting "twist" and an amazing group of musicians in her artfully blended mix of pop, jazz, and folk-influenced recordings, all of which have a dash or two of country and worldbeat.

Lisa Lauren

A talented, multi-faceted musician from Chicago, Lauren has received glowing reviews and an unprecedented amount of airplay for her CDs, the 1998 debut release What Comes Around and the 2001 release My Own Twist—especially for an independent artist.

Lauren is as proud of the instrument she plays on as the musicians she plays with. Lauren likes to give credit where credit is due, which is why the singer-songwriter—who performs and records on a Yamaha—believes her cool, bluesy melodies sound so good precisely for that reason.

"At home I play on a Yamaha G3, but I am thrilled that I now have a C7 conservatory grand piano in the studio I record in," says Lauren. "Yamaha pianos—without question—provide a bright, sweet and warm quality and a silky touch that I've never found in any other instrument."

Lauren has been tickling the ivories since she was a toddler, later studying with Alan Swain, a well-known jazz piano teacher in Chicago. "It was Alan who advised me to give up teaching, which I was doing to earn a living like lots of musicians starting out," says Lauren. "He told me to follow my heart into performing. I've never looked back."

In addition to appearing at the South By Southwest festival in Austin, TX this year, Lauren has completed her latest album, due out sometime this year. "This third CD, which is still untitled, will feature a lot of world class musicians that I recorded with on My Own Twist, says Lauren, "like GRAMMY® award winning saxophonist David Sanborn, saxophonist Jim Gailloreto, fellow Chicagoan Fareed Haque on guitar, and Steve Rodby on bass. We tried to sidestep the usual, slick, overproduced clichés of the genre, and I believe we were very successful in doing that in this latest effort. It's also a real honor to work with musicians of this caliber."

For more information, contact Yamaha Corporation of America, Piano Divisions, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622, telephone 714-522-9011, email infostation@yamaha.com or visit www.yamaha.com.