FIVE FIRSTS: Clay Ostwald, Music Director of “On Your Feet!”

NAME: Clay Ostwald
AFFILIATION: Musical director/conductor of On Your Feet!
INSTRUMENT: Keyboards

1. THE FIRST ALBUM I EVER BOUGHT WAS … Steely Dan’s Can’t Buy a Thrill. I wore this record out trying to understand why it was so special.

2. THE FIRST CONCERT THAT I EVER SAW WAS … An Oscar Peterson solo piano concert. My father
took me to see him at Macky Auditorium on the University of Colorado campus. It literally changed my perception of what music could be.

3. THE FIRST MUSICAL INSTRUMENT I EVER OWNED OR PLAYED WAS … piano. In our family, piano lessons were required!

4. THE FIRST SONG THAT I EVER PERFORMED IN PUBLIC WAS … “Imagine” by John Lennon. Talent show in sixth grade. I played the piano and sang.

5. THE FIRST BAND I WAS EVER IN WAS … The Doris Clements Band, named after the woman next door who threatened to call the police if we didn’t stop rehearsals at 10pm every night. We performed for three or four years around Boulder, Colorado using this name, and Doris was never in the band…

Clay Ostwald – founding member of Gloria Estefan & the Miami Sound Machine – heads into Proctors in Schenectady as the musical director and conductor for the national touring company of the Broadway musical “On Your Feet!,” which runs from Wednesday-Sunday (May 30-June 3).