Keith Noel Emerson (2 November 1944 – 11 March 2016) was an English keyboardist, songwriter, and composer. He played keyboards in a number of bands before finding his first commercial success with the Nice in the late 1960s. He became internationally famous for his work with the Nice, which included writing rock arrangements of classical music. After leaving the Nice in 1970, he was a founding member of Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP), one of the early progressive rock supergroups. Emerson, Lake & Palmer were commercially successful through much of the 1970s, becoming one of the best-known progressive rock groups of the era. Emerson wrote and arranged much of ELP's music combining his own original compositions with classical or traditional pieces adapted into a rock format.
His father Noel was an amateur pianist, while his mother was not musical. They arranged piano lessons for Emerson when he was eight; he received tuition from "local little old ladies" and learned to read music. His studies in Western classical music largely inspired his own style in his professional career which often incorporated jazz and rock elements.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Emerson#Early_life