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Local pianists share the stage for EntertainmentPLUS

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Contributed photo Thomas Reuter and David Belew kick off the Fitton Center for Creative Arts' 2009-10 EntertainmentPLUS series.

ENLARGE PHOTO

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By Richard O Jones, Staff Writer 10:51 PM Wednesday, September 23, 2009

HAMILTON — Music lovers are invited to “Take a Trip Down Memory Lane” Saturday night when local pianists David Belew and Thomas Reuter kick off the Fitton Center for Creative Arts’ EntertainmentPLUS season.

Last year, the duo was first introduced to a Fitton Center audience when they were recruited to provide music for a Celebrating Self luncheon.

“They must have like it, because they invited us back to do this program,” Belew said. “Tom and I have become good friends since then. He’s an extremely talented pianist and knows what he’s doing — he can read music.”

Although Belew, former president of the Beckett Paper Company, doesn’t consider himself a trained pianist, he began playing when he was a child, going to a neighbor’s home to play without his parents’ knowledge.

“I took lessons for about three years but quit in junior high school because I never played things the way they were supposed to be played,” he said. “The teacher told me I was wasting my parents’ money, but said that I’d have a good time playing music for the rest of my life.”

Reuter does have formal piano training, having studied with well-known Cincinnati jazz pianist Frank Wolff for a number of years as a teenager. After a stint in the military, Reuter moved to California to pursue a recording career, but the advent of rock’n’roll moved the industry in a different direction.

He came back to Cincinnati and built a career in the real estate appraisal business, but continued to play piano for recreation, hosting well-attended “Piano Sunday” sessions in which he invited area musicians to his home to play on his 9-foot Steinway concert grand piano.

Now semi-retired, Reuter recently moved to Fairfield at the encouragement of his daughter, Susan Moser of Tanze Performing Arts Studio.

“I love it here because the area is so committed to the arts,” he said.

Belew and Reuter will trade off playing an assortment of musical pieces featuring movie themes, Broadway show tunes, Henry Mancini and Gershwin favorites, along with songs from the 1940s.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.