Craig's Story

Craig hails from the picturesque coastal town of Mackay, Queensland. At the age of five, his parents put him into piano lessons and so it was that Craig’s passion for music was born.  Throughout his childhood and early teens, Craig took up several other instruments and was involved in choirs, barbershop quartets, symphony orchestras, jazz big bands, amateur musical theater (his stage debut occurring at the age of nine playing Tom of Warwick in Camelot) and even rock cover-bands.
 
When it came time to venture off into tertiary studies, Craig began a Bachelor of Science at the University of Queensland in 1998 and whilst he could have put his mind to anything, his heart just wasn’t into it.  He switched to a degree at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music majoring in Music Technology and half way through, was offered a gig playing keyboards and programming synths and backing tracks for the Australian vocal ensemble, The Ten Tenors.  Craig dropped out of music school, packed his bags and took off on a nine-year adventure that would see him travel to 25 countries around the world, record gold and platinum CDs and DVDs (Craig also wrote a song for the platinum album, Tenology), perform at (among others) the Sydney Opera House, London’s Royal Albert Hall, The Pantages Theater in Hollywood, the Tchaikovsky Music Hall in Moscow, and ultimately meet his better half, Emily, whilst on tour in the USA in 2007.
 
Though it was far from an easy decision, Craig eventually decided to leave the grueling touring life of The Ten Tenors behind and, newly married,  moved to Texas in 2009.  It was there that Craig stumbled across a gig playing piano and singing at Louie Louie's Dueling Piano Bar.  Performing four nights a week in an all-request, high-energy pop/rock show, he learned literally hundreds upon hundreds of songs and further refined his skill as an all-round versatile entertainer.
 
During that time, Craig also furthered his music production career, contributing arrangments, orchestrations, programming, bass playing and mixing for artists in Australia and the US and collaborated on several projects with long-time friend and Producer, Steven Baker, in London.
 
Craig jumped at the opportunity to reunite with three former Ten Tenor members in 2012, doing a one-off performance at a fundraiser for returned US veterans.  Without having even decided on an official name, the quartet began singing at various charity events and by the end of the year, ARIA was officially formed.
 
In 2013, Craig moved to Los Angeles to focus on ARIA, for which he is also the musical director and in 2014, the group released its debut album, Home.  As well as with ARIA, Craig continues to perform solo and duo shows,  and plenty of dueling piano gigs throughout the US. He also maintains a busy schedule in music production, freelancing as an arranger and programmer from his home studio.
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After seven incredible years living in Los Angeles, Craig moved with his wife and daughter to the Raleigh/Durham area in North Carolina, where he's been enjoying the (long and somewhat tedious, but rewarding nonetheless) process of building a new home studio, renovating a basement, building furniture, and watching the deer and squirrels roam through his backyard.