June 8, 1997 - Syracuse Herald American

Westhill sophomore has a CD                                                                 
by Mark Bialczyk

Eddie Regner's cousin told him it was about time to find a job. "I thought it should be something you love to do. And the only thing I love to do is play the piano. So I thought I could make a CD. And I did," says Regner. So now, at the ripe old age of 16, the sophomore at Westhill High School has a collection of 12 original songs out on compact disc. It's called "Reality of a Dream."

Regner recorded the project at Eastwind Studios in East Syracuse. It was mastered at Todd Hobin Studios in Syracuse.

Regner began taking piano lessons at age 7. He gave them up a couple of years ago. "I thought I was at a pretty good level of performance," Regner says. But after that soul-searching chat with his cousin, Regner began writing songs. The disc features New Age music performed by Regner on digital keyboards.

The production of the CD has made Regner a bit of a star in school, where classmates are buying the disc and asking Regner to sign it. He hopes to place it in local music stores, too. After that, he'll think about performing at places like Borders Books and Music and Media Play, too.

Music, however, isn't his sole dream. Regner hopes to study medicine in college, and perhaps go into physical therapy.

August 1997 - hj Magazine

Westhill pianist pursues dream
by Michele Tan

In his khaki shorts, white T-shirt and backwards baseball cap, Eddie Regner looks like any other 16-year-old guy. But since the release of his CD, "Reality of a Dream," he has proven himself to be much more than an average teen. "Reality of a Dream," Regner's debut CD contains 12 original piano compositions. Since its release in May, more than 150 copies of the CD have been sold. "Dream" is available at The Wall, Media Play and Barnes & Noble. This Westhill junior never anticipated a life in music until last summer during a dinner conversation with his older brother, Rick, and Albert Huang, a cousin. Huang had made this point: "A job isn't all about the money. You can make a lot of money, but you may not enjoy your job. How much fun would that be?"

The statement motivated Regner to think about pursuing a profession on the one area he loves: playing the piano. Regner had taken six years of piano lessons from his elementary school music teacher, Joan Nowicki. Since he stopped his piano lessons at age 13, he has had no formal training in piano, music theory or composition. Last summer, Regner says, "I became a diehard composer." He composed his first song, "A Deep Breath," in one week. He went on to compose 24 other songs. He has memorized all 50 of his songs. "I don't sit down at the piano with a paper and a pencil and say "I'm going to write a song now. I sit, and I play music…what sounds good to me."

His parents agreed to pay for the production of the CD after Regner improved his compositions during the school year. He recorded 12 songs in two three-hour sessions at Eastwind Recording Studios in East Syracuse. His family and a friend accompanied him to both sessions to create the comfortable feeling of playing at home. Has the CD changed Eddie Regner, though? According to John Carpenter, a friend of four years, he is still the same. "He hasn't become this guy who goes around saying 'Hi, I have a CD out.'" To his friends, Regner is still the "Tiger" - the nickname given to him for his resemblance to Tiger Woods and love for golf. He still enjoys hanging out with his friends, playing the trumpet in Westhill's symphonic band and playing soccer for Westhill. Even with the success of his CD, Regner questions himself. He constantly asks, "Am I sure I want to do this?" and worries about public criticism. But he keeps in mind, "everyone has a dream. People shouldn't allow theirs to just sit there." Regner wants to complete another CD before graduating from high school. Yet he knows it will be difficult to break into the music industry. So in college, he plans to pursue physical therapy as a "safe backup" in continuing his "Dream." And how far does he really think his dream will carry him? "As far as it takes me."

Michele Tan on "Reality of a Dream": There's only one word to describe it: relaxing. The 12 tranquil piano compositions of Eddie Regner featured in his first CD, "Reality of a Dream," will ease anyone's tensions for the upcoming school year. For a 16-year-old junior, the songs possess a mature quality that resembles New Age artists such as Yanni. The CD includes Regner's first song, "A Deep Breath," named for the time of the song when all his friends took a deep breath before the faster section of the song. The CD is inspirational. The music provokes you to dream, and Regner is proof that dreams can become reality.

July 8, 1999 - The Post Standard

Tickling the Ivories: Local teen-ager releases second instrumental CD
by John Crisafulli

Imagine this: You log on to the Internet and decide to check out some music Web sites. Pretend you are a talented composer and pianist. You aren't looking for anything special, just browsing MIDI's (sound files that allow you to listen to music via computers) and listening to a few.

However, you discover that one of your songs is ranked higher than some by Yanni and Enya for the best New Age MIDI, and that you also are on Australia's Top 20 list for New Age songs.

A little surprising, isn't it?

That's exactly what happened for pianist Ed Regner.

The 1999 graduate of Westhill High School has been playing the piano since he was 7. He has two CDs that contain "easy listening/New Age" music.

The first CD, "Reality of a Dream," debuted in 1996. It contains "A Deep Breath," which Regner describes as the hardest song he has ever written.

"It's difficult because it's just so fast," he says. "By the end of the song it feels like my fingers are going to fall off. It's not technically hard, it's just so fast. Everything else I play is mellow and slow."

Regner has had great experiences with his first release. During a trip to the Philippines in 1996, he walked into a restaurant to meet his family for dinner. Like most restaurants, this one had music playing. But there was something familiar about the music. "I walked into the restaurant, and I was like, I know this music and I'm halfway across the world," he recalls. "I think my mom knew the DJ and set it up. It was cool that we were halfway around the world and people were hearing it."

The station played the 44-minute CD in its entirety and added a biography of Regner, who is Filipino. His parents, Lido and Rebecca Regner, have been pleasantly surprised.

"When he was 14 years old, he started playing his own and making his own music," says Rebecca. "I was very impressed because at one point he wanted to stop the lessons. He was tired of it."

She says the breakthrough came when Ed heard a Yanni song. Then went to the piano and played the Yanni song. "He just heard it once, and I was really impressed," says his mom.

His second CD hit stores recently and is titled "Painted Melodies."

Unlike his first release, "Painted Melodies" features more than just Regner. Jeff Sawyer added background music. Regner says he appreciates Sawyer's effort on the orchestration of seven songs. He says Sawyer's work gives the songs a "painted" image; it has more than one layer. "If it's just me and the piano, it's only one instrument," he explains. "A pencil drawing is only black and white, but if you add paint it brings everything more to life and makes it fuller. All the other instruments on this CD make it fuller."

Regner says one of his greatest accomplishments was helping write the piano and melody parts to "The Last Song," a tribute to Westhill chorus teacher William Black, who retired this school year. He and five other students – Matt Thornton, Erin Hogan, Jen Fetter, Cara Hart and Brian Dudiak – wrote the song. The 130-member chorus created this song and presented it without their teacher knowing.

Regner says it was the biggest hit at their concert and that he still watches the video of the concert almost daily. He says the performance is inspirational for him because of the hard work it took to develop it and its success. As for writing his music, Regner says it is simply improvisation. He sits down at the piano and just goes where his fingers take him. If it sounds good, he uses it.

"It feels great because you just realize that "I'm coming up with a new song,'" he says. "At first you kind of wonder if it's good enough to even bother working on it, or if it sounds really cool, you just keep going."

This fall Regner will attend the State University at Buffalo and major in physical therapy. He plans to write songs on the side and, hopefully, produce more CDs.

The young musician says he doesn't deserve all the compliments he receives. He says he's been amazed at what people have said about his music. He says the ultimate compliment was a classmate's autograph request after his first CD. He was selling it after school.

"A kid,came up and asked to buy the CD," he recalls. "Then he was, like, "But you have to sign it.' It was cool."
"He was an upperclassman, a popular kid, and he wouldn't leave until I signed it," he recalls. "It's kind of nice knowing that (my classmates) were serious about it and real supporters. It's a nice compliment.”

March 2002 - Filipinas Magazine

Eddie Regner: Keyed In to Music

Eddie Regner is only 20 years old, but he has already released two CDs and topped New York's New Age charts with the single "On Mother's Day” from his second album "Painted Melodies.” The song, a duet between a piano and an accompanying violin track, also landed no. 9 in the U.S. on mp3.com's New Age chart.

"I began playing the piano at the age of seven under the encouragement of my parents,” says Regner. He continued playing until he discovered New Age music via "Reflections of Passions” by Yanni when he was 14.

"After hearing that song, I was very hooked on the piano and began playing extremely high levels of piano music. From there, my teacher allowed me to go on my own to explore my own interests on the piano.”

A year later, Regner composed his first song, "A Deep Breath” which was featured on his debut album, "Reality of a Dream,” released in 1997. "To date, it is my most difficult composition,” he says.

The album has 12 original compositions by Regner and immediately became a success around the Syracuse, New York area. That same year, he entered and won first place in the Westhill High School Talent Show, and hosted a solo concert at Wall to Wall Sound and Music, and Bett's Branch Library.

His second album followed in 1999. In the summer of 2000, he held a promotional concert at Borders Books and Music where he got the attention of Tazzar Studio promoter Ernesto Cortazar Jr. By December of that year, he signed on with the studio.

Influenced by New Age artists Yanni, Jim Brickman, George Winston, Giovanni and Ernesto Cortazar, Regner is ready to release a third CD. He also plans on featuring a personal rendition of a traditional Filipino song. His last two performances were for the Filipino American Student Association at the University of Buffalo and the Filipino American Association for Central New York Christmas Formal.

A physical therapy major at the University of Buffalo, Regner proudly says that his parents and older brother support his musical aspirations. He says, "My only goal is to share my music and my thoughts with the rest of the world while staying true to my heritage.”

July 1, 2003 - The Evening Tribune (Hornell, NY)
by Robert J. Roberts

Music that heals: Eddie Regner's a physical therapist-in-training by day, accomplished musician the rest of the time.

The music on Eddie Regner's two CDs floats out of the speakers, the notes gently dipping and twirling and arching as they are propelled along in a New Age wave. Twelve songs on each, all written and performed by Regner, the CDs were put out two years apart. The second CD was released when he was an 18-year-old senior at a Syracuse-area high school. The first came out when he was a 16-year-old sophomore.

Eddie Regner is in Hornell now, at least through Thursday, when he returns home for a brief break before resuming graduate studies at the University of Buffalo.

At 22, he is wiser now than the piano prodigy that recorded two New Age CDs while in high school. He thinks his songs, his talent, his business plan, have likewise matured as he is halfway through recording his third album.
But it is not his music that has brought him to a house on Maple Street. Here, his deft hands and knack for putting people at ease are being used for his other goal: to become a physical therapist.

Increasingly, however, Regner's music becomes intertwined with his physical therapy training. It is the music itself that heals. "Sometimes when you do physical therapy, you try to reach people by talking to them,” Regner says. "Sometimes when I play piano, I don't have to say anything” to achieve the same result.

Dave Prete saw the effect of Regner's music recently on an audience at Living Waters Church outside Hornell. As Regner's fingers flitted over the piano keys, Prete says, "I looked across the church while he was playing. You could just see the way he soothed people's ears. People really appreciate the talent he has, and it really is just amazing to listen to his music. He is tremendous. A lot of times, somebody is playing the piano and you think they are going to put you to sleep. He really doesn't; his music is so good that you want to hear more of it.”

It was Prete, as regional site coordinator for the Western New York Area Health Education Center, who brought Regner and several other healthcare graduate students to the RAHEC house on Maple Street, where they live while they receive clinical experience at local facilities. Since May 12, Regner has risen early each day to get to Cuba Memorial Hospital by 8:30 a.m. for an eight-hour day of hands-on training in physical therapy.

But the music followed Regner to Cuba. He found a piano on the second floor of the adjacent nursing home and played old standards during his lunch break. As he played, patients with dementia and other ailments came out of their isolated worlds to share in the joy of beautiful music played beautifully.

For instance, there was a female patient who'd suffered both a stroke and a heart attack. When Regner learned she had played piano before being stricken, he brought the patient in her wheelchair up to his piano, joined by he husband. He began to play. "It brought a tearful joy to her face – and his,” Regner recalls. "It reached her in a special way.”

And then there is another patient who communicates only with an unseen mother. But when Eddie approaches the keyboard, she sits down to listen to the music.

Given the power of his music, it is surprising to learn Regner spent the first part of his life hating to play piano. And it is even more surprising that when finally found the music he loved, he taught himself how to play it.

Eddie Regner was a normal kid growing up in Onondaga, a small community only minutes outside of Syracuse. His father was an architect, his mother an obstetrician. Eddie raced on skateboards, played sports, and liked the kind of music his peers did; he remembers going to pre-school with Guns ‘N Roses blaring out of his Fisher Price radio.
Like a lot of 7-year-olds, young Eddie didn't relish the start of piano lessons. For the next seven years, in fact, he despised it. "I only practiced on the day of the lesson,” he says. "I hated Wednesdays, which was lesson day.”

The change came at age 14, when Regner heard the music of New Age composer Yanni. "I really started getting into it. It was music I could relate to,” he says.

Entranced by Yanni's songs, Regner bought his sheet music; Yanni's compositions were several levels above Regner's ability, but he doggedly pushed and practiced in order to be able to play them.

The inspired Regner taught himself so well that his music teacher eventually told Regner's mother there was nothing more that could be done for him. When performing someone else's music was no longer enough, he had to write his own compositions.

No recitals, no advanced musical instruction. "People always asked me why I did not just go to Julliard,” Regner shrugs. "It just seems foreign to me.”

He recorded his first CD of New Age/easy listening music, "Reality of a Dream,” at age 16. The dozen songs were all original material, featuring only Regner at the piano. On the day it was released, he remembers, a small sampling was played over the public address system during morning announcements at Westhill High School; after school that day, fellow students crowded around a table where Regner and a friend sold more than 100 copies.

In the interim between his two CDs, Regner performed at and won local talent shows. He played at weddings, graduation parties, at the local mall – all in the name of fun. "I love to perform. I love to play. I play alone all the time,” he says, "so having an audience is an extra bonus.”

Regner says his second CD, "Painted Melodies,” featured songs he wrote that were more professional, commercial and mature than the first effort. Half of the "Painted Melodies” tracks were layered in with accompaniment provided by studio musician Jeff Sawyer, "to give it texture, to give it some color,” Regner says.

He took a more business approach to marketing the CD. Some of the songs went on the MP3.com website, where songs are ranked in various categories based on the number of times they are downloaded by visitors. "On Mother's Day,” one of Regner's "Painted Melodies” tunes with a duet between piano and violin, was ranked No. 1 in New Age in New York state by MP3.com, ninth in the nation and 56th in the world. "It was awesome,” Regner says of the success. Equally impressive was the ability to put out music over the internet without the headache of finding an agent, convincing a record label to record it, and then marketing it. That left plenty of time for…physical therapy. His mother always suggested Regner follow her into medicine. He was enthralled by "the great stories from the delivery room” that she would bring home, but Regner was afraid of the responsibility of the healing profession. Finally, a friend – the son of physical therapists – told Regner he had the personality to be a PT.

The idea was appealing. Regner thought back to the 4th grade, when he broke his arm. After the bone had mended, he had done a physical therapy of his own devising in order to rehabilitate the arm. A career path was set.

He enrolled at the University of Buffalo's six-year physical therapy program (three years of undergraduate study, three years of graduate study). Regner has completed his first year of graduate study, and is two years away from his doctorate. He hasn't chosen a specialty yet, but admits he has thought about the kind of therapy that rehabilitates hands and arms.

Well-mannered and articulate, Regner possesses all the traits one would want in a physical therapist, says Prete. "He's got that rapport with people that allows him to not only be a good physical therapist in that he knows what he's doing, but also in the sense that he understands people and the pain they are going through and how to help them get back to where they want to be.”

Plus, Prete adds, "he's got a great sense of humor.”

Regner also has flirted with the idea about being a traveling therapist, working a few months in a town before leaving for another. "A good way to spread the music,” he says.

Music may tug at his soul, but Regner has promised his mother that he will earn his PT doctorate first.

"Music is the thing I love to do,” he says, "and physical therapy is more a discipline. It still is my career, but music could be a mini-career.”

Regner's CDs has taken on a life of its own in his hometown. His mom plays them in the delivery room to calm women in labor, while other physicians play them during their surgical operations. Secretaries at his mother's hospital ask when the next CD will be released. "I never anticipated this. I never envisioned it,” says Regner. "You never know where music will lead.”

The secret, says an unpretentious Regner, may be that his easy listening music can fit into any listener's mood or activity. "It goes down easy. Listen to it when you're getting ready to sleep or relax. It can be whatever you want it to be. If you're happy, the music will make you happy. If you're depressed, you can have it in the background while you're sulking.”

For all the impact that New Age music has had on his life, Regner never lost his taste for other genres; in fact, his appreciation has blossomed. His favorite group is Metallica, but he listens to all genres, including country, classical music, opera, Broadway, heavy-metal, punk, Christian and cultural music.

"I feel musicians have respect for all music,” he says.

There is no piano in the RAHEC house on Maple Street, but after Regner found the one in the Cuba nursing home, he became so popular that residents began to ask for him on days he didn't play. That led to the creation of what is billed as "Eddie's Half-Hour Show,” where he performs his songs and the oldies for patients from 2:30-3 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday.

Before he leaves for home, just before the Fourth of July, Regner would like the opportunity to perform again in the Hornell area. His appearance at Living Waters Church was preceded by an introduction that impressed both Regner and Prete. The speaker said Regner was an example of how youngsters could take their talent – whatever it is – and use it to live their dreams without fear.

And then Regner sat down and took them into his world, where music can heal.

July 2002 - Cebu Institute of Medicine Reunion Review

Another part of the program that was so good was a piano rendition by a young pianist Eddie Regner, a son of Dr. Rebecca Regner, CIM Class 1966. It was an amazing piano rendition. Eddie played the piano by gracefully and gently touching its keys like a magnificent lover caressing the body of a beautiful model, and then firmly pressing them like an expert masseur giving a sensual massage. He could have charmed a mocking bird from a tree limb onto his shoulder. One piece was not enough to his audience that did not stop applauding until he indicated that he would play one more piece. Whoever convinced this young man to play the piano for our Grand Ball, please accept our heartfelt gratitude and appreciation. Hope we can have him again in our future reunion.