Michael Ronnett believes that music is a bridge of endless ideas and experiences with the potential to change the spirit in the most meaningful manner. He was born in Suceava, Romania and started to play the piano at the age of 6. In 2001 he entered the music department of the Ciprian Porumbescu High School of Art in his native town.
When he was young, Michael participated in numerous piano competitions and music festivals at the local, national, and international levels under the guidance of his piano professors Petru Vălan and Elena Andriescu. However, in high school, he changed direction and for the next four years studied architecture while continuing to play the piano extensively in his free time.
Michael Ronnett graduated from North Park University in 2019 with a Bachelor of Music in Piano
Performance. During his studies with Dr. Terree Shofner-Emrich, Michael made his concerto debut
performing Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in collaboration with the university’s orchestra, conducted by
Dr. Tom Zelle. He was a laureate of the 2017 National Presser Scholar Award and the 2019 winner of the
Evanston Music Club Competition where he competed with top classical musicians from the Chicagoland
area. Michael also studied for one semester at Manhattan School of Music with Dr. Inesa Sinkevych, one
of the finest pianists residing in New York City.
In the past 3 years, Michael published about 200 piano recordings on his YouTube music channel
“Pardon my Piano” which has gathered an increasingly larger audience in recent months. He has gathered more than 10 million views mostly due to a viral video where he is helping people assess their musical hearing. His recording of Por Una Cabeza is now being featured in a TV commercial in Sweden and Norway. He has also published 4 music albums on Spotify and other major audio streaming platforms, one album being his original piano compositions. Besides music, Michael has a deep affinity for studying Earth science, seismology and promoting more earthquake awareness around the globe on his second YouTube channel “EarthquakeSim”. He is creating 3D earthquake simulations of various types of virtual buildings and structures. His work in the seismological field was featured in a recent documentary “Breakthrough: Forecasting the Big One” which is now streamed on the Curiosity Channel.
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