Pianist
Coming August 14th - A Matter of Time: Perseverancia with the Venezuela Strings Recording Ensemble
“A Matter of Time: Perseverancia” is a concerto-style piece about hanging on when facing the impossible. The work is an international collaboration with the 5x Latin GRAMMY and 2x American GRAMMY-winning Venezuela Strings Recording Ensemble.
This piece is a reimagining of my original solo piano composition that I premiered at the Kennedy Center in 2022. This new recording features a team of 20+ musicians, engineers, and producers across three countries.
"A Matter of Time: Perseverancia" releases on August 14, 2026 on the Studio Seven Media label.
About the Piece...
In 2019, around the time I started composing the original solo piano piece, my life was suddenly turned upside down. I caught a virus, and I didn't recover...
For the next five years, I was bedridden/couch-bound for 18 hours per day. At my sickest, I could only play piano for a few minutes at a time, and sound sensitivity meant I could barely do audio engineering work, either. I was diagnosed with an incurable neuroimmune disease (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) that had no FDA-approved treatments. I was given a 2–5% chance of fully recovering.
I was told to rest and wait and hope that I might get better––that recovery, if it ever happened, would be, "a matter of time." Hence, the name of the piece. Hope wasn't an easy thing to come by at first, but I kept composing "A Matter of Time" and found my own ways to continue with my life and career.
Seven years later, I've defied the odds and recovered everything except my ability to exercise––all due to luck, persistence, and lots of trial and error. Today, I live my best life as a composer, pianist, and audio engineer who just happens to have a disability. Time will always keep moving forward, and so will I.
The Team Behind A Matter of Time: Perseverancia
Pianist and Composer: Shelby Lock
Orchestrator: Joe Jaxson & Shelby Lock
Executive Producer: Alex Campos
Producers: Raniero Palm & Cristóbal “Tibo” Gajardo
Strings Conductor: Raniero Palm & Jesús David Medina
Violins:
Jesús David Medina, Ornella Hernández, Yilmar Vivas, Marco Sayago, & Camila Valentina Chacón
Violas:
Yilmar Vivas, Jesús David Medina & Ornella Hernández
Cellos:
Atamaica Ruiz, Alex Rosales & Chiquinquirá Castro
Double Bass:
Eybar Serrano
Recording Engineer (Strings):
Rubén Salas, Raniero Palm, Eybar Serrano, Luis Alejandro Bermúdez
Recording Engineer Assistant (Strings):
Diego Deseo & Edisbeth Mariana Salas
Editing Engineer (Strings):
Raniero Palm & Terry Useche
Recording Engineer (Piano):
Shelby Lock
Recording Engineer Assistant (Piano):
Mary W. Blalock
Mixing and Mastering Engineer:
Shelby Lock
Recording Studios:
Piano: Silver Moon Sound, Santa Cruz, CA, USA
Strings: The Music Embassy, San Cristóbal, Venezuela
Original Solo Piano Version of "A Matter of Time"
More Solo Piano Pieces
"Equinox"
The second track on my solo piano album Airborne, "Equinox" is a piece of contrast and change. I wrote this composition over five months, beginning at the end of a summer and finishing at the start of winter, so the name literally reflects the composition journey. Also, at the time, I was seventeen--a time of major life transitions, and it is this sense of change and juxtaposition that permeates the piece.
From Upcoming Album in 2027....
In 2027, I plan to release my second solo piano album. It will feature ten of my original compositions that I also perform, record, and engineer myself. Here are the first singles that are on it:
Airborne (2013)
I completed my first solo piano album, Airborne, in 2013, after my senior year of high school. I not only composed and performed every piece on the album, but I did all of the recording and engineering myself, too. It was a solo album in every sense!
