CARL THIEL
Carl Thiel is an award-winning composer/producer based in Austin, Texas. Born into a European family and raised in Mexico City, he was exposed to a rich and wide variety of cultural experiences and musical styles from a very early age. As a young boy, he would listen to his father (a Swedish immigrant with a doctorate in music) play Mozart and Bach on the piano, while his older siblings would play Beatles and Carpenter's albums. His mother, a perpetual student of the healing arts and spiritual well-being, and the daughter of German and Austrian immigrants, shared her love for Strauss and Vivaldi, as well as meditational and inspirational music. Immersed in the huge metropolis, it was impossible for young Carl to escape the colorful variety of Mexican music present at every corner, ranging from songs of traditional artists such as Agustín Lara and Los Panchos, to pop legends José José and Emmanuel, to all the folk and pre-hispanic sounds and melodies that live at the heart of Mexican culture. 

At age 6, he began taking classical piano lessons under the tutelage of Carlos Alcaráz -from the National Conservatory of Music-and within a couple of years, he was already improvising and composing his own music. He had a natural talent for figuring out how to play music by ear, and by his early teenage years, he had built a vast repertory of pop songs that would amuse his family and friends. At age 14 he landed a summer job as a pianist at an upscale restaurant, where he played Billy Joel and Elton John favourites, as well as Frank Sinatra standards and the like.
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His high school years were spent at Trinity College School in Ontario, Canada, where as a boarding student, he flourished in art and music studies. Noticing his creative potential, his teachers granted him unrestricted access to the school's fine arts building so that he could play, paint and practice at will; a privilege of which he took full advantage. In music, he not only took part in school orchestra performances but also persuaded his teacher and school officials to rent professional rock instruments and equipment and let his rock/pop band perform at various school functions with much success. He graduated with high honours, and was awarded the Art and Music Prizes, among others.