Mothers day was a huge treat for me this year! The children brought me breakfast in bed (my daughter makes amazing French toast and eggs) and in the evening we went to one of my favorite restaurants. After we arrived home, the family surprised me with a delicious vanilla cake that my daughter had made and decorated herself specially for me!
My son’s gift was very special too! In addition to treating me with my favorite chocolate, he made me a video of one of the piano instrumentals I had composed in his honor entitled ‘Commencement’ from the Glimmerings album. As I watched the video with photos he had found on a hubble site, I was moved to tears knowing how much love and effort he put into creating the video. ‘Commencement’ was created for my son’s 8th grade graduation and it tells the story of life with its daily routines and the ending of a chapter and a new beginning. You’ll hear the piano repeat itself in the beginning and gradually become more complex and make some twists and turns. What is especially wonderful about the video Taraz made is that the photographs of the gas nebula are the birth place of stars. They are a type of cosmic commencement! So the photographs capture the theme of the song so brilliantly.
I can’t tell you how proud I am of my children and how thrilled I am to be their mother – I am thankful each day for the blessing of having them in my life and for making me a better person.
Since the Glimmerings CD has been released, I’ve been thinking about creating videos for the pieces and would love your help. If you would like to create a video for one of these two songs on the Glimmerings album, Awakening or Realization, then please fill out the form below, be sure to check the contest box and both songs will be sent to you to choose from. You can also listen to the songs by clicking the titles of the songs above.
For all those who participate in creating a video, there will be a gift of music for each entry and for the top video for each song, the prize is 4 of my albums: Edge of Forever (an EP), Fire and Gold, Birds of Love gift set and Glimmerings. Grand prize winner’s videos will also be published on my website and youtube profile.
The deadline for submitting your video is June 15th (please don’t forget to check the contest box to ensure the songs get to you). So looking forward to seeing your creations!
I composed a song yesterday that I wanted to share with you. I love this quotation as it reminds me of all my loved ones that I wish blessings to be showered upon. The ‘ahhhing’ at the end are supposed to symbolize the rain. Enjoy!
The quotation is written by Abdu’l-Baha: “At all times do I speak of you and call you to mind. I pray unto the Lord, and with tears I implore Him to rain down all these blessings upon you, and gladden your hearts, and make blissful your souls, and grant you exceeding joy and heavenly delights…”
For the whole month of May, we are having a music sale!
With every purchase of Glimmerings CD, a free download of Fire and Gold will be given as a gift.
(After your purchase of Glimmerings, an email will be sent to you with a download code for Fire and Gold. The download code can also be emailed to a friend as a gift instead if you would like).
I love this video especially since this musician is using only vocals, his mouth and body parts to make sounds. His name is Alla Wardi and he uses no musical instruments. My favorite part of the video is when he uses his beard to make an awesome sound and listening to all the incredible harmonies. Hope you enjoy it too!
Last week I had the opportunity to play 3 pieces from my recent ‘Glimmerings’ CD on a grand piano at our Nawruz (Baha’i New Year) celebration. It was the first time I had played them for such a large gathering and was excited to be able to share the pieces after just releasing the album. About a month ago I started preparing and practicing the songs. I had been asked to shorten them to about a minute each to play in between readings and prayers. For two of them, it wasn’t too challenging to figure out where to end them and adapt them. For the last piece, ‘Final Journey’, I had to actually learn it from scratch. Let me explain…
I composed ‘Final Journey’ the day my mother-in-law passed away two years ago in May. That morning I sat at the piano and spontaneously recorded whatever came to my heart in honor of her passing. ‘Final Journey’ was composed on the spot which meant that I never actually practiced it in advance so I had to learn all the notes in order to perform the piece.
In order for a performance to be seamless, a musician has to know the pieces very intimately and play them without even thinking about the notes – that’s how much one has to practice. I was a bit nervous with only a month to perform ‘Final Journey’ as I wanted it to be engrained in my mind. I didn’t want to have to think about what my fingers were doing – just wanted to be on autopilot! So I set out to practice the piece everyday to become familiar with it. It felt a little odd learning one of my pieces from scratch because I’m so used to practicing them a lot before I record them. This was the other way around so it was a fascinating experience working backwards.
The performance went very well but best of all was having the opportunity to play on a beautiful, open grand piano that resounded throughout the room!
