Album Notes

I was born in Holland, a country known for its beautiful architecture, canals lined with flowering trees, colorful and fragrant tulip fields, windmills, and wetlands abundant with wild life. On our picturesque street, there lived a kind old woman. One day when I was playing by her house, she invited me in for hot chocolate and cookies. She told me stories about her life, and how her great love of music had given her inspiration and solace in the lonely days since her husband had passed.

In the living room of her modest home was an imposing, black, concert grand piano. We became friends and she began teaching me to play the piano. I was very blessed to have had this opportunity, because my parents, as most parents in those days, could not afford music lessons, let alone a piano. Shortly after we had begun, however, a tragedy occurred, and my dear teacher was killed in a house fire.

Since that time, I have had an intense desire to play the piano. I have always managed to find ways to make music; be it with a harmonica, or mouth organ as we called them in Holland, a 25-cent bazooka from the corner store, a bamboo flute that I had made, or an inexpensive guitar.

The beauty of music that had captured me so many years ago, has played an integral part of my life ever since. Fine Art Photography became my life’s work but the desire to create music has never waned, and at the age of twenty-seven, I purchased my first piano, pictured on the cover of this CD. I taught myself to play, and still cannot read the notes on a page of music; I play ‘by ear,’ or as I like to say, “I play from the heart.”

My music is inspired by, and dedicated to: unconditional love, children, the environment and the struggle for freedom that is going on in so many countries around the world. Truly blessed are those who through the love of life see the immense beauty and magic of this miraculous planet. I hope for an end to conflict and for every human on this planet to embrace peace, equality and freedom. I believe music has the power to unite; it knows no color, borders or boundaries.