Tom Brier

Tom Brier was born on October 3, 1971, in Oakdale, California.[1] At an early age, Brier had developed an interest in the piano and ragtime from listening to his parents' piano rolls. Recognizing their son's talent, his parents bought him a piano while he was four years old and, after enrolling for lessons with a piano teacher, he began to compose his own scores of music and had composed over 24 rags by the age of eleven.[1] Brier's first ragtime piece, "Pine Cone Rag," was composed in 1982 when he was eleven years old.[2] He attended California State University, Stanislaus and graduated with a bachelor's degree in Computer Science in 1993. After graduating, Brier would continue to pursue his passion for ragtime music and has composed over 150 ragtime pieces along with seven solo albums (Rising Star in 1994, Generic in 1997, Pianola in 2000, Dualing with the McCoys in 2002, Skeletons in 2003, Rewind in 2006, Blue Sahara in 2009, and Constellations in 2012). Brier gained international exposure when a video of him playing for the first time the popular "Athletic theme" of the video game classic Super Mario World was posted on YouTube by the channel "Keeper1st" on August 13, 2008. As of March 2022, the video had amassed almost 4,800,000 views.[3]

On August 6, 2016, Brier was involved in a serious car accident which resulted in a coma,[4] rendering him unfit to play the piano. As of 2021, he had been hospitalized for about 5 years, and moved from the hospital to a rehabilitation center with support from the University of California, Davis. He currently resides with his parents in Oakdale.[4]