ORANGE – Bradley James, also known as “The Boston Piano Kid,” will be featured at the first coffeehouse of the season at the First Universalist Church on North Main Street.
Billed as a family-friendly event, the coffee house will be held on Saturday, March 14, 7 p.m. at the church.
This will be the first appearance of the teenage musical phenomenon at the church’s annual coffeehouses. In addition to piano, he performs on tenor saxophone, ukulele, guitar, vocals and accordion.
James cut his first CD in 2014 at the age of 11. During that same time he was chosen as the youngest solo performer at Faneuil Hall in Boston.
In 2015, he was voted Boston’s top instrumentalist by the Young Performers’ Club and the grand prize winner at the New England Talent Agency Showcase in Music and Acting.
James has appeared at the Hard Rock Café in Boston, the Boston Jazz Festival, and locally at the 1794 Meetinghouse in New Salem, as well as several other venues.
Benefit concerts have included donating his time and talent for the Boston Jimmy Fund, Hearts For Hope Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Christopher Cantanese Children’s Foundation and the Victoria Alviti Music Fountation. He has also performed at nursing homes, rehabilitation centers and schools.
James is also an actor who has been included in many off-Broadway productions. He was an audition finalist in “School of Rock,” where he met Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber.
He won an audition at the Berklee College of Music in 2016, and was selected as solo keyboardist at the college’s Music Rock All-Star Band.
In 2016, when he was 13 years old, Bradley also got to perform with his idol, Billy Joel, at a sold-out concert at Fenway Park in Boston.
The coffee house will be funded on a donation basis in addition to local sponsorship. Children will not be charged to attend, and refreshments will be available.