BATTLE OF THE KEYS ST. PATRICK’S DAY

Stephen Dakin has been a professional musician since the tender age of 22. He started his career touring with a top 40 band. Less than a year later, he was asked to join the world-renowned “Blues Other Brothers” show band. He toured with them for eight years, traveling nationally and internationally, until he started performing as a dueling piano entertainer.

Today, he’s one of the most sought-after talents in the piano bar industry. Dakin is also an accomplished vocalist. He performs with many different artists in between piano bar shows and shines as a vocalist. As a rock singer, he’ll blow you away with his range and power, yet he can also be soulful and tender, singing everything from R&B to country.

Pamela Hopkins is a multi-instrumentalist Country Music Singer who performs weekly as a Dueling Piano Player in Little Rock, AR. Hopkins plays the drums, cello, bass, and harmonica and travels several times a year performing in various venues as a Dueling Piano Player and as a solo artist with her band. Though she and her band focus on country music when performing original music, they can also cover multiple genres to provide a fun and interactive environment to fit your event. Being in the dueling piano world, she can cover just about any genre asked for; she knows over 1,000 top 40 songs from the 1950s to today.

Marc Van Lue was born in Las Vegas, NV, but moved to Kansas City, MO, at the age of five. His mother, a classically trained pianist, introduced him to music, and he has been around music his entire life. Sports was his initial passion, and he attended Missouri State University for Media Production—but would sneak into the music hall between classes to play in the piano practice rooms. Music was never the plan, but he was a product of his upbringing. After graduating in 2009 with a non-music degree, and with the recession providing no job opportunities, music became a potential avenue. He started his own disc jockey business in 2010 and began playing dueling pianos while working an 8-to-5 office job.  Starting from the bottom, Van Lue built up his craft, connections, and song repertoire to the point that he was playing in some of the country’s most highly regarded piano rooms. He has played all over the U.S., on cruise ships, and overseas, but no matter where the show is, he has fun playing music.