Richard Carr was the big man at the big keyboard connected to the big, intimidating speaker one morning last week at the South Side Day Nursery, 2930 Iowas Avenue.

But when he started to play his New Age/contemporary music, Carr quickly won over his audience of 4- and 5-year-olds, who had eyed him somewhat suspiciously when they were first brought into the room by their nursery-school teachers.

And when he launched into renditions of "Winnie the Pooh" and "Cruella De Ville" from the movie "101 Dalmations," Carr had the youngsters laughing, clapping and joining him in singing the popular children's tunes.

Carr, who grew up nearby in Tower Grove Heights neighborhood and has since become a Jazz and New Age pianist of note in New Orleans, acknowledged before his free performance at the old day-care center that this could be the toughest audience he had ever faced. "How do you relate to children so young?" he wondered aloud.

"Just play whatever you usually do," was the advice from Sheila Davis, Community Relations Director at the South Side Day Nursery. "We try to teach the kids to just express themselves, and we want to expose them to many types of music."

Clearly, however, the children loved the kids' songs the best. And Carr soon warmed to playing those songs. His only regret, he told the children, was that a bad cold had played havoc with his voice.

"This is not my normal voice, so you'll have to help me sing," he implored his audience with a gravely rasp.

So everybody sang along and had a good time as Carr kicked off events to help the old Day Nursery, which dates to 1886 and is the oldest continuously operated day-care center west of the Mississippi River.

Carr, 38, also played a benefit acoustic piano concert for the nursery on Sunday evening for $30 a ticket at the Piper Palm House in Tower Grove Park. The benefit concert raised almost $2,200 for the nursery.

He said he had a special affinity for the nursery because his niece attended preschool classes there; his sister, Cathleen, and brother, Greg, have served on the nursery's board; and his father, Richard Sr., has been on its advisory board and helped buy the building that houses the nursery's shool-age program.

Carr smiled and thanked the children at the nursery when they gave him a big, blue umbrella in appreciation for the concert. "You must have heard that I live in New Orleans and that it rains alot there," he told them.

A full-time musician and composer for the past five years, Carr has released five CDs of his piano music to good reviews from New Age and Jazz critics. He says he plans a sixth CD release in July of music inspired by various national monuments, including the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington.

"I hope my music will capture the power and the energy that you find at the memorial." he said in an interview. "I could just feel the sense of energy that is there when I visited it. It's really unbelievable."

Carr holds two music degrees from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. He says his music is influenced by many sources, including American, Russian and French composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as various modern performers.

He took his first piano lessons in St. Louis at age 5, graduated from St. Louis University High School in the early 1980s and then earned his music degrees. He later got a degree in Sports Management and worked in that field for several years before turning back to music as a full-time career.

He plays piano from four to seven nights a week at clubs, restaurants and hotels in New Orleans' French Quarter and composes and records music when he's not performing.