November 7th, 2011

Clearly I have not been keeping this page up to date! It has been a whirlwind year and in about two weeks an enire album of Musical Portraits will be released, called " When Your Life Becomes Music". More on that in the next few days. In the meantime, I have a schedule of recording for Musical Portraits that will probably take me through the end of 2011 to complete. The new price of a commission is $1000. You can hear a couple of the new portraits here. let me know if you have questions at 541-973-7415, or email me at daniel@cellomansings.com

December 6th, 2010

I am happy to share two new Portraits - both of which I am feeling so grateful to have completed while I was on the Irrational Quest For Beauty Tour, during breaks along the way....

The first is Koan For William which I completed in the week I spent with my sister Beth at her farm in Goshen, MA. This time in the country, in the lovely home filled with the happy goings on of my two nephews and niece, was a deep rejuvenation, and a perfect time to lean into the feeling I had gained from my conversations with William. His piece was commissioned as a birthday piece by his friend Lenore, and I had started and stopped the creation of the piece a few times since my first conversation with William, at the end of May. I am really happy with how this turned out - the piece contains Balinese gamelan and timpani, which are both influences in William's life, but more than that, for me it has the feeling of the inner drive as well as the soaring, beautiful heart quality that I experienced in getting to know William. It was presented at the house concert he hosted at his home in Boulder and it is safe to say this was a high point of the whole trip for me.

The second new Portrait is The Universe In Star Time ( For Amorah Quan Yin), which I completed in Ft. Collins, CO at the home of June Konopka, in a big temple room that has been the site of many deeply sacred ceremonies and much healing work. I was fortunate to be able to stay at June's and to be able to set up my gear in this room - it had a huge spacious feel, and this was appropriate for the piece, since it is created for a major spiritual teacher I had been fortunate to do some recording for and who was interested in hearing what I would come up with, given the task of bringing through such a piece. There was a theme that came through that to me felt like a starscape opening up, and then a hymn - like melody that I love - both of which feel very appropriate for Amorah. So this is another new instant favorite of mine - and I hope you enjoy it as well.....

August 21st, 2010

This new one is called "Down Wisdom Road". It was created as a gift from another friend of mine, to her husband, and I had an interesting set of characteristics to consider as I worked on this piece. After my first conversation with this man, it was clear that he had a very wide-ranging and rich connection to music - classical music, African music - all kinds of, and especially, very fine music that evocatively brings up the stuff of life that was clearly, to me, a reflection of his own inner world. To weave together these sensibilities, as well as the sense of this man's journey through life was a very interesting prospect, which I undertook with curiosity and delight, since I would be able to work with a palette of sounds a bit out of the range of what I have done previously. After spending some time with some musical ideas, a feeling began to emerge of something like a quest, something with some nobility to it, as well as a sense of discovery and real finding. I wasn't completely sure I was on the right track, so I scheduled another conversation with him, and after talking to him about what I was up to I was encouraged for two reasons. One, he said, "this may be something I put on my Ipod and listen to all the time or not - the point is I am trusting you to create something that seems right to you" - I am paraphrasing here, but just the sense that he had comfort with the relationship was very helpful. And, two, after delving a bit more deeply into the feeling that was emerging, I did actually feell I might be tapping into something that was in alignment with his life path. What emerged from there was a further development of the piece, where the initial sense of propulsion drops into something deeper and carries through to a sense of resolution that seemed to me to be the real reason for the journey to begin with.

Creating this Musical Portrait was another reminder of the fascinating alchemy involved in attempting to create music for another - mysterious and rewarding!

August 1st, 2010

Here is the Musical Portrait I created called Man Under the Night Sky - This one was created as a gift from a friend of mine, Kim, to her husband, Jeff, on the occasion of his birthday. In order to do it, since it was a surprise for him, I had to interview six of his friends, over the course of a month or so, and piece together a feeling for his extraordinary life, which includes flying, arctic exploration, and sleeping out under the stars most nights of the year. I eventually arrived at this melody, which was initially composed as a song with lyrics, but eventually took the shape of an instrumental with cello as the lead voice. The piece was performed at his surprise birthday party with all his friends in attendance - for me it was a stunning experience, to get to know the man through his friends and then to create some music that hopefully will be a touchstone for him over many years.

July 26th, 2010

Here is a video of one of my Musical Portraits - "Lydia and the Trees". Lydia is an occupational therapist in Nashville, TN, who came to one of my concerts and after purchasing my album, decided she wanted to have me create a Musical Portrait for her. 

Since I didn't know her except for meeting her at the performance, I needed a process that would help me get the sense of who she was, so I started with a phone interview, asking her various things like what were some of her first memories of music, and what kind of art she liked. I wanted to get a feel of what kinds of expression she gravitated towards, and also if there was any sort of theme that I could connect with in creating her portrait. One thing she shared was that her response to a lot of my music was that it was emotional, and that she was hoping her portrait would be " hopeful". 

So then I went to work, spent at least ten hours thrashing around with various different ideas - good musical ideas - but none that seemed to really spark the feeling of connection with her. I decided I needed to talk with her again, and scheduled a call for the next day. My thought was to just spend some time hanging out with her on the phone, finding out about her week and so forth - I needed some kind of feeling to go on that was really authentic to who she is.

After rambling around for awhile, she started talking about a tree farm she had inherited, a place in West Tennessee of old growth forest, and wetlands, with cedar, pine, sycamore, persimmon trees - she spoke about going and walking there and taking pictures and how she was aware that this place would not necessarily ever be a money maker for her and her sisters who had inherited it, but that it was a legacy that she needed to take care of and leave better than she found it. At that moment I knew this was her portrait. After I got off the phone, it took me about two hours to play the piano melody that came through and to add three cellos to fill it out.

This portrait is such a good example of what I love about creating these pieces. There is something so unique about each of you - each of the people I meet. And whether I know your whole life story or not, I do get some kind of sense from people about what there struggles and loves have been - and somehow, it can turn into music! There is something quite heartening about that for me....

I have right now three more of these Portraits in the process of being created. In some cases, the subject will let me share them and I will put them out to my list or even include on an album. In other cases, they wish the music to just be their own. Either way, this feels like something I am going to keep doing, as the flow of requests keeps coming in. 

If you have a sense of how this could be a good gift for your own good self, or for someone you want to honor, let me know. So far I have been charging $250 if the Portrait is a straightforward one on one project, or it could be more, if as has been the case with some of them, the Portrait is a surprise and I need to do a series of interviews of friends and family in order to home in on what music is right for the one the gift is being given to. In any case, we can work out what is best for you. You can call me at 541-973-7415 and we we will talk about it.

June 30th, 2010

As I have written before, I have been embarking on a new and interesting challenge - to attempt to express something unique about an individual in a Musical Portrait, that may take the form of a song, or instrumental piece, perhaps to be given as a gift to someone you love, or as a beautiful affirmation of your own good Self. I have several of these in the works - two are gifts, two have been commissioned by individuals for themselves, and with the permission of my first subject, I wanted to share with you my first Musical Portrait. This one is for Lenore, my dear friend, who is a woman of great accomplishment with a very interesting narrative to her life - someone who I have been fortunate to know from my playing in the Park, and who has been a great appreciator of my music and poetry events over the last year.

My process in this particular Portrait was to play spontaneously some music on the cello when I was at Lenore's house recently - for folks who are long distance I am using the Skype-like service called www.oovoo.com to record a video conversation that may include some cello music as an initial sketch for a more complete piece. This was how the Portrait for Lenore began, except that it was in person. After that, we had another conversation that included questions about early musical memories and tastes - in each case I want to get to know the person I am doing the composition for well enough to originate the flavor of what should go into the piece. While I am taking a different approach for some of the other Portraits I am doing, in this case, the music that came out at the beginning really seemed worthy of filling out and arranging into a more complete composition - the melody suggested certain harmonies that came together on the piano and, as I enjoy doing, I heard a couple of sparse cello parts that could be added to round out the piece.

Since Lenore is happy with her piece, and willing to have others hear it, I wanted to send an mp3 to each of you so you could enjoy it. As each Musical Portrait is completed, it opens up a spot in the queue - I can't do too many at once, but if you have an inclination either for yourself, or a friend or family member, please let me know - we can work out the details of how to get started. So far I have been charging $250 for these Portraits, and, for now, I am happy with that....it should cover reasonably well the steps and time involved....

Wishing you all the best as you spring in the direction of Summer....Daniel