‘These melodies just flow out of my fingers’ — former Jacksoul member Ron Lopata on his new musical calling

For more than a decade, he played keyboards for Canadian R&B pop group Jacksoul and oversaw recording projects for Warner Music Canada.

Now Ron Lopata is launching a career of his own and the direction might be surprising to those who know him: neo-classical music.

Recently, Lopata released his first five-song EP called “Sketches for Piano” on the Amsterdam-based Andante Piano label, with each of his original instrumental compositions, lasting no more than two minutes and 20 seconds, registering over 750,000 streams on Spotify.

Lopata, the former vice-president of A&R for Warner — who has produced such acts as Lindi Ortega, Jully Black and Tara MacLean, and signed Scott Helman, Brett Kissel and Tomi Swick among others — said the timing was right to move into classical crossover music.

“A year ago, I split from Warner and I really took the time to assess,” Lopata said over the phone recently. “I thought, at this time in my life, where am I? What have I accomplished? What are the things that I wanted to do that I haven’t? And the thing that rose to the forefront was being an artist.”

Specifically, a piano artist.

“It all came down to the piano, really,” he said. “As a kid growing up, that’s what I did: I played classical music and it was a massive part of my life.”

Like tens of thousands of other Ontario kids learning their way around the ivories, Lopata studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music and graduated with his associate diploma in performance degree. His education helped him develop a professional discipline that came in handy when he joined Haydain Neale as the keyboardist for Toronto’s Jacksoul in the mid-aughts, assisting the band in gathering a North American following and three Juno Awards.

“After I was in the U.K. for a couple years, I came back here, started my own band, and then I auditioned for Jacksoul because I used to see them live and thought they were incredible,” Lopata recalled. “That was the first act that was a pro band that I was a part of; they were my brothers, you know, we had a lot of success.”

Jacksoul ended after Neale died of lung cancer in 2009. Lopata said they probably would have continued working together.

“I often think of that,” he said. “We were the best of friends and we collaborated even when we worked on other projects. It’s really sad what happened. It made me cherish the friendship that we had.”

Later, Lopata helped Toronto singer-songwriter Ortega secure a deal with a U.S. record label and he was approached by Steve Kane, Warner Music Canada president at the time, to sign and develop acts.

“Steve approached me and told me the A&R position was opening up. He said, ‘I think we’ve done some good work together and I love how you develop artists. We’d like you to do it for Warner, if you’re into it.’

“I love developing artists; it’s a passion of mine.”

Which brings us to “Sketches for Piano,” which Lopata said is “something that I feel in my soul.”

“Literally, I sit down and these melodies just kind of flow out of my fingers, out of my heart,” he said. “It’s that old expression: 10 per cent inspiration, 90 per cent perspiration … although sometimes I think it’s 50 per cent inspiration in my case.”

As for those who feel there may not be a market for this type of instrumental music, Lopata begs to differ.

“I started doing a little bit of research on it and if you look on the streaming services — especially Spotify, Amazon, Apple — they have these playlists: the big one on Spotify is called ‘Peaceful Piano’ and it has 7.5 million followers right now. The biggest hip-hop one, ‘Rap Caviar,’ has 15 million.”

Not such a big popularity chasm between the genres, eh?

“I think people are looking to relax and meditate with calm, serene music,” Lopata replied. “Whether you are having a coffee, going to bed, studying, reading, or waking up early and preparing breakfast on the weekend, people want to listen to something that’s really relaxing, beautiful and doesn’t have lyrics.

“I looked at the demographics and would you believe that the biggest number of listeners are between the ages of 20 and 30?”

If you’ve already discovered the dulcet charm of Lopata through his tracks “Luminescent” or “Silhouettes” on numerous streaming platforms and wish to hear new stuff, the wait won’t be long: he’s releasing five more pieces on Aug. 4.

“There is going to be a mini EP of three pieces called ‘The Spirit of Tarot’ and it’s held together by the idea of three tarot cards,” said Lopata, whose favourite classical composers include Frederic Chopin and Claude Debussy.

“The first piece is called ‘The Lovers,’ which is coming out on Aug. 5. The second piece is called ‘The Empress,’ is out Aug. 18. The third piece, ‘The Magician,’ is the culmination of it all and I believe that’s out Sept. 8.”

He’s also planning some live performances in the fall, but is looking to do something a little more intimate and immersive that might also touch on the mental health benefits of listening to calming music.

“My wife and I are definitely advocates of mental health these days, and being able to provide music that gives us this calm, this meditative quality of relaxation is something that we’d like to get more and more into and how we bring that to people.

“So I’ll be doing that in the future. I would like to do some shows starting in the fall, but also I have some other ideas of being able to share my music through a broader partnering up with other people or outfits.”

It’s all part of Lopata’s five-year plan to get out the music he describes as “capturing the real essence of the piano itself.”

You know it’s in the cards to make it a reality.

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