Official 2009 Presidential Inaugural Events Featured Open Labs Artists and Instruments
Washington, D.C. -- Open Labs, the leader in computer enhanced musical instruments, has announced that three Open Labs artists performed live during the 2009 presidential inaugural events for the U.S. 44th president, Barack Obama. The events occurred between Jan. 18-20, 2009 in various locations around Washington D.C., and included Faith Hill keyboardist Jimmy Nichols, Maroon 5 keyboardist Jesse Carmichael, and official inaugural orchestra keyboardist Michael Bearden. The musicians used their Open Labs instruments live on stage, and Maroon 5 and Faith Hill's performances at the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball were aired live on ABC-TV.
Being an Open Labs instrument owner for only a week prior to the event, virtuoso keyboardist Michael Bearden performed Jan. 18 at the 18th Inaugural kickoff party located at the Lincoln Memorial, playing in the backing band for Bruce Springsteen, John Bon Jovi, Betty Lavette, Mary J. Blige, John Mellencamp, U2, Beyonce, Will.I.am, Herbie Hancock, Sheryl Crow, Stevie Wonder, Usher, Shakira and others. The event had over 500,000 attendees, and opened up with U2's hit single "Pride (In the Name of Love)."
Bearden used a GEN5 NeKo LX5 for the entire event, and Open Labs debuted the GEN5 products the same week at the Winter NAMM show in California.
"The keyboard (Open Labs NeKo) performed great," said Bearden. "It was the talk of the event."
Maroon 5 had four different inaugural performances with their Open Labs gear including:
January 18 at the Declare Yourself Inauguration Kickoff Party with host Jessica Alba, January 19 at The Green Ball with host Al Gore, January 20 at The Neighborhood Ball located in the Washington Convention Center, and again January 20 at the Biden Home States Ball.
Faith Hill, with Open Labs keyboardist Jimmy Nichols, also performed Tuesday, Jan. 20 at the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball. The event was presented as an ABC-TV special and was broadcast live.
Open Labs is extremely grateful to have participated in several of the inaugural events, and would like to thank the musicians who made Open Labs presence possible.
About Open Labs:
Headquartered in the heart of "the live music capital of the world," Open Labs™ develops customized, computer music instruments suited to fit every studio and stage need imaginable. Our instruments combine studio and computer technology with keyboard hardware to create a multi-functional studio, a multi-faceted keyboard, and a complete PC setup all in one machine. With a single piece of Open Labs gear, our customers can play any organ, piano, synthesizer or virtual instrument on the planet, create any beat, tone or sound imaginable, manipulate every parameter, record it in a multi-track system and burn it to a CD/DVD. For more information on Open Labs, please visit www.openlabs.com