Artwork & Production; People & Things

I love working with professionals who know how to get things done in a creative way.  Renee Meyer-Ernst's art and design for this project is a perfect example.  I've included the outside front cover of the CD design, and as you can see, it matches the overall sound of the CD better than anything I could have imagined.  She's a pro.  You'll have to wait and see the rest of her design on or after March 26 (the CD release date). 
When you open it and explore the inner pages you'll find short, zen-like poems by my friend Pat Connelly.   Both of these artists are on faculty with me at St. Ambrose and we've worked collaboratively before.  It's a pleasure to work with them at the university and on projects like these. 
Without Jon Laird this whole thing would not have happened.  He tunes, voices, and works magic on our pianos.  He had to work a lot with this new piano, and I'm so grateful. 
And then there's Lars Rehnberg.  So much time with me and my music.  Sometimes I'm unintentionally confusing with my comments and suggestions, and for an audio engineer and producer, that's tough to deal with.  Lars has been great. 
It's the people that we live and work with that help define who we are.  Yes, the new Yamaha concert grand piano is amazing and I'm grateful to have access to such a great instrument.  But it's not so much the things as the people.  We have wonderful faculty, staff and students here, and all the artists I've worked with over the years have helped me in some way to get to this point.  Mostly in helping me to be open to accepting these songs as art.  I've decided these are classical "songs without words."  Some folks might consider this more of a "new age" album.  I can understand and even respect that opinion.  It's just a thing after all.