Senior Kai Spatzier, won 1st place in the instrumental category at the 2023 SoCal Beat Battle, beating out four other talented musicians. The winning jazz composition was an original song that Spatzier wrote himself, “I wrote a song and arranged it for a band, and recorded it with a couple of my friends.”

Spatzier has been playing piano for over seven years. 

“My parents recognized that I had somewhat of a musical ability, so they forced me to play piano starting in 3rd grade.” 

He initially started playing classical music, but his passion really sparked when he went to a jazz concert. 

“I couldn’t comprehend how they were doing it all from their head and improvising it, and I wanted to learn how to do it myself,” said Spatzier.

Jazz is a distinctive style of music to play. Spatzier explains, “My favorite part about playing piano is when I get to play with other musicians. There’s a very interactive aspect to jazz, it’s like a conversation when playing with other people. ” 

The SoCal Beat Battle prizes were certainly more than a first place ribbon. Spatzier received multiple home studio supplies, including a MacBook Air, an Akai MPK midi keyboard,  a USB PreSonus Microphone, PreSonus studio monitors, and PreSonus studio headphones which has a total value of over $1,500.

 Mr.  Lubin, Kai’s music teacher at LACES, had a fix this feeling about his chance of winning the 2023 SoCal Beat Battle. “Once Kai submitted his music, I did tell him that I had a strong feeling he was going to win. I did feel that whoever the judge was, they were going to be impressed. It was very cool to see all that stuff come true.”