His parents wanted the boys to be classical pianists, but Van Halen gravitated towards rock music, and was greatly influenced by British Invasion bands like The Beatles and The Dave Clark Five. Between 19, he won first place in the annual piano competition at Long Beach City College. Van Halen was never taught to read music instead, he watched recitals of Bach or Mozart and improvised. They began learning the piano at age six, commuting from Pasadena to San Pedro to study with an elderly piano teacher, Stasys Kalvaitis. Since the boys did not speak English as a first language, they were considered 'minority' students and experienced bullying by white students. They settled near other family members in Pasadena, California, where Eddie and his brother Alex attended a segregated elementary school. Īfter experiencing mistreatment for their mixed-race relationship in the 1950s, the parents moved the family to the U.S. The family eventually settled in Nijmegen, Netherlands. Jan was a Dutch jazz pianist, clarinetist and saxophonist, and Eugenia was an Indo ( Eurasian) from Rangkasbitung on the island of Java in the Dutch East Indies. Born in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Van Halen was a son of Jan van Halen and Eugenia ( née van Beers).
