I have been a performing artist for 25 years and have enjoyed exploring just about all of the United States and Canada along with a lot of Europe and the UK. The landscapes stay with me in photographs that I captured but my souvenirs are memories of the individuals who I have encountered and had the fortune of enjoying conversations with. They have greatly enriched my life providing inspiration for musical sketches and compositions.
I fell in love with a toy piano that my mom gave me when I was two. Music and an English Setter named Razz were my childhood friends. I went through most of my life without actually owning a piano and learned to compose on piano's I could find, mostly in public places. Half of what I ate as a teenager was earned from tips while composing. I worked in the forest falling timber to earn my music theory lessons and for studio time to record my first commercially unavailable CD's. When I was 19, my step-dad very kindly gave me the opportunity to study piano for 3 months under Hillipi Kantola of the Helsinki Conservatory of Music. The rest of my musical education came from writing in coffee shops and small cafes, spending time with varied musical instruments and exchanging ideas with a few musician friends.
I enjoy conversations about nearly anything. I value kindness much more than physical beauty. I appreciate personality and thought.
I love to travel and am looking forward to seeing more of the world.
I would like to be a better photographer. It is almost impossible for me to pass up a piano once I actually see it. I like to paint mediocre pictures outside on painting expeditions in the summer and give them away to friends to hang in their bathrooms. Some of them actually do.
When I'm home with free time, I enjoy photography adventures in the mountains or along the water. I like gardens too. I like to donate my time to a few (non-religious) community projects each year and I have played piano for free at nursing homes that I could find all over the United States while out performing or traveling. I love to hear ideas, insights and concepts. I love languages that I do not understand, learning new things and learning to better understand different cultures. I love history, ancient mythologies and music.
The past couple years have been productive. Since 2008, my music has been featured in 3 plays (one premiering in India), 4 Italian TV shows, 1 A&E documentary about the life and death of Anna Nichole Smith and 12 ballets.
My newest ballet for 11 dancers “Temptation” premiered in Springfield, Oregon April, 2011. I am currently composing a full length children’s ballet about a faerie that has an adventure.
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