No quotes for now - just this:

I came into this colorful world in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, the tag-along behind 4 older siblings, though I also had a little sister who died in infancy. At 3, the family moved North to a suburb of Cleveland called North Olmstead. I started school there and also started piano lessons there, both when I was around 5 years old. Then the family moved South to Akron when I was 8. I had an idyllic youth there, roaming the woods of Sand Run Metropolitan Park, which was directly behind my house. Flew kites, climbed trees, swung on (and fell off) vines, built underground forts (with wood we stole from construction sites when we sneaked out of the house at night), went sled riding, fell through the ice, swam in the summer, caught turtles, collected rocks, ran the trails, hiked and hiked, took enormous bike trips all the way to New York State with friends, played sports all the time, and even kept playing the piano. We formed a rock band called Summit (the name of the county where Akron was) and I played the Fender-Rhodes and the piano. Played some dances at schools and Bar-Mitzvahs and began writing songs, most of which are lost now. I was especially into classical music already, having started lessons in the eighth grade with the dear and talented Mr. (Eugene) Mancini. “No, unfortunately,” he’d reply if asked if he was related to the famous Henry. Eugene was a graduate of Julliard and the Paris Conservatoire, and he taught me privately at the University of Akron. I graduated from Firestone High School at mid-term in February. “What use was it to stay the year through at High School when I only wanted to study music?” I thought. The family moved to Park Ridge, a suburb of Chicago the very next day. I’d been accepted to the Oberlin College Music School, but I returned to Cincinnati and attended the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) at the U. of Cincinnati largely because I won the prestigious Van Cliburn Scholarship, playing Reflets dans L’eau by Debussy, Beethoven’s Sonata Op. 2 #3, and Chopin’s octave etude, Op. 25, #10. There I had the rich experience of studying at a first-rate music conservatory, surrounded by a dedicated bunch of music students and world class faculty, besides all the adventures of dorm-life and sharing apartments, and college living away from home. I studied piano with Jeanne Kirstien, and David Bar-Illan while at CCM. After graduating, I studied privately with the great Bela Siki, who had been a judge at the Leeds Competition and was among those who selected Radu Lupu and Murray Parriah as winners. He told me that he thought that I could have a solo concert career. So he gave me lessons at a greatly reduced rate because he said that Dinu Lipati had done the same thing for him. I had studied with Aube Tzerko at the Aspen Music Festival and loved him and esteemed his teaching so much that I went to study with him in graduate school at UCLA in Los Angeles. I got to play the Tchaikowsky Concerto #1 with the Maui Symphony on Tzerko’s referral. But then I left the MFA degree program at UCLA and went to Europe and did Christian missionary work with Teen Challenge. While there, I learned German. I performed classical piano concerts there and talked about Jesus, along with a lot of other things. After around 15 months I came back to the U.S.A. and finished the MFA. I got a part-time job playing piano at Nordstrom as I finished my degree but ended up doing that gig for 15 years. I’d gotten married and had a son. During that time I also worked as music director and pianist and conductor for numerous musical theater productions. During that time I also got inspired to write and produce an original musical adaptation of John Bunyan’s “Pilgrims Progress”. I quit Nordstrom. Now I teach piano and accompany and coach singers at a community college for a living. The marriage ended, I’m sorry to say, but we both raise our son and stay in his life. 

“Guy in a White Shirt” came about from a plan to win a girl back to me. Meanwhile another girl showed up and took over the scene completely and the songs came out for her instead. “Sun, Moon, and Sea” has nothing to do with those two relationships, or any other relationship for that matter. It’s a song I wrote over 20 years ago and is finally getting its chance at posterity. “I Just Love You” was written first as a poem to God, and then put to music.  

Many thanks to all who made this collection of songs possible, and thank you for checking this out! Enjoy!