Album Notes

I played 'by ear' and 'made up' my first songs on the piano at age 4. I got my BA from Millsaps College, and was in the school of music at the CU School of Music/Boulder where I completed two years of graduate work which resulted in my teachers license to teach public school music. I studied jazz with Ted Alexander, one of Oscar Peterson's many teachers. Mr. Alexander told me, if I understand the chord progressions as learned in jazz studies, I will understand the progressions in classical music. I have found my work with him to be of the greatest value in composing. These lessons opened new avenues for me and allowed my music to become less conventional, as he put it. My parents and many uncles and aunts played various instruments. It seemed like everyone I knew enjoyed singing. We’d get together regularly and jam.

I was raised in a very conservative Mennonite farming community in Kansas. Unaccompanied four-part singing was the norm in school and church. I was a voice major in college. I sang the high tenor solo from Carl Orff’s Camina Burana with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and the Millsaps Singers, (an accapella choir), while a senior at Millsaps College in Jackson, MS where I graduated in 1961. Shortly thereafter I was a grad student at CU, Boulder, CO, where for two years I studied vocal education which resulted in teacher’s license in music. I taught vocal education for a short time.

My first love is the keyboard, namely piano.

Why I love the synthesizer:
The synthesizer allows me to paint a colorful orchestral sound picture behind the piano or any solo instrument (acoustical or synthesized) that I may choose. My music draws from every genre from pop, classical, jazz and new age. In the past I played nine acoustical instruments: accordion, French horn, violin, viola, cello, bass, trumpet, clarinet and a few chords on the guitar. I love hearing most every instrument. My life style is simple. I am not interested in carting around nine instruments! The synthesizer allows me to create great quality sound of all acoustic instrument plus new sounds that I feel links one with the etheric planes. Perhaps because I use some unusual sounds, someone who listened to my music likened it to deva or (angel) music. Another person called it heart music.

The wonderful, digital box, called a synthesizer, because it has high quality old and new sounds. The old sounds that might be called normal and familiar sounds, are carefully recorded - actual acoustical sounds, and new sounds that are a combination of digital and totally made up or synthesized sounds. I see the synthesizer as a bridge between the past and the future. I have sounds that are arguably as good of each of these instruments that can be heard on a CD. A CD is a digital reproduction of those instruments. I suspect the synthesizer is preparing humanity's ear for new sounds. It is hinted at in the esoteric philosophy or Ageless Wisdom Teachings, that humanity will eventually be able to see and hear on the etheric planes. I love the idea of helping to bridge the future with my music. Therefore, this is another reason the synthesizer is my cup of tea.