“It was my first time performing in front of people. My heart was beating so fast. But onstage, it was cool,” he says. “Now I’m a hip-hop artist. I like writing poetry and making music. Piano Slam was the stepping stone for me — it opened up many doors.”

Music is, of course, at the heart of Piano Slam. This year’s featured pianists, the husband-wife duo of Marcel and Elizabeth Bergmann, have chosen an eclectic program: Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dance No.1, Chick Corea’s La Fiesta, Leonard Bernstein’s Mambo from West Side Story, Olivier Messiaen’s Visions de l’Amen and Urban Pulse, a Marcel Bergmann piece commissioned by the Dranoff Foundation.

The Bergmanns, former Dranoff International 2 Piano Competition winners, traveled to Miami from their home in Hamilton, Ontario, in February for a workshop with the event’s DJ, Brimstone 127 (aka Seth “Brimstone” Schere), and director Teo Castellanos. What evolved wasn’t what they expected.

“It’s interesting how the creative process works,” Elizabeth Bergmann says. “We had ideas written down, classical pieces that we thought would lend themselves to remixing and sampling. But you just have to be open. You have to try things and see where they take you. When we would play something, it would remind Brimstone 127 of something else. The most important thing is that the musicians are collaborative.”

Of Urban Pulse, which will be the recurring centerpiece of Piano Slam, Marcel Bermgmann says, “I wanted to write something that was fun to play. I’ve always been interested in jazz and pop, and it worked out well. Duos have continued to play it, and we’ve been playing it quite a bit. This is the second time it has been chosen for Piano Slam.”

Brimstone 127 (from Miami’s Southwest 127th Street, where he grew up) says that making the classical music work with what he does is tricky.

“Electronic music always locks into a 4/4 beat, but classical is often 3/4. I like to challenge myself. I use the hip-hop technique of looping. We freestyle,” he says.

“This is my favorite performance thing all year. I get to work with youth and top-of-the-line piano players from all over the world. And it’s in the Arsht Center, not a club.”

Of the young poets, Brimstone 127 says, “I can really hear me in them, how the sounds of the city inspire them. Arts programs are being cut, and this gives the kids a platform to speak their souls. They get to express themselves through art. Their parents go bananas.”

Castellanos, founder of the dance-theater company Teo Castellanos D-Projects, is the guy who has to make the disparate elements of Piano Slam come together. One of his larger challenges is getting inexperienced students to feel comfortable performing their work at the city’s showcase arts center.

“Sometimes I can get them over their nervousness, sometimes I can’t. They get a crash course in delivery, dynamics, vocal qualities and movement,” he says. “Last year, I had two young ladies who could not be more soft-spoken and terrified of the stage. The way I figured out how they should deliver the text was to speak it to each other.”

Castellanos, who mentored McCraney when the celebrated playwright was a teen, agrees with his former student’s advice to the young Piano Slam poets. He also recognizes the elements that novice writers can tap into in order to create award-winning poems.

“At that age, kids don’t have a whole lot or worldly knowledge or experience,” Castellanos says. “However, we all have feelings, dreams and aspirations.”