In July 2021 after 8 years of suffering Alzheimers, while I held her hand, my Mother slipped away. Almost all of us go through the experience of losing a parent but what we sometimes don't realize is how it effects the course of our lives thereafter.
I had already begun the most demanding recording project of my life; remotely recording Amor Aeternus, a Requiem I finished writing the prior year. Amor was not written for my mother but for all of us, as I watched for a prior decade the whole world stumbling from one issue to the next and finally coming to a halt at the mercy of a 3 year pandemic.
In this terrible time, to be able to complete the recording of the Requiem was a godsend. It was carrying me through the grief, the pandemic, the pain. Along with a whole host of accomplished musicians - held up in isolation in their music rooms -we tracked each voice, each part, each instrument and meticulously pieced each line of it together. (Thank You: Grammy Winner, Producer Corin Nelsen). (I think it is unprecedented to this day).
The recording was released towards the end of 2021 and in July 2022 we had the first and only performance (so far) at Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall. It was a beautiful, foggy, blur of an experience that floated in and out of time and in and out of the hearts of the few that were brave enough to come out to a communal hall on the heels of Covid 19.
In 2023 I recorded a series of piano solos in which I explored the simplicity of the single instrument and the path of simple improvisation. Allowing my fingers to roam the keys led to what has amounted to a Wanderlust of sorts. A letting go. Since April 2023 I have been wandering in my mind and on our earth... I walked the French Camino Way, stayed for a few months in Maine, visited old friends in Spain, took a German course for a month and decided to give Germany a try for 8 months visiting Berlin, Frankfurt, Dresden, Darmstadt, Heidelberg and the rolling hills of Lower Saxony. I also revisited London and explored the beauty of Belgium's Ghent.
It might indeed be that I have a Wanderlust spirit (that I never knew I had as a young adult) or maybe, just maybe, I'm coming to the end of a long period of grieving. Either way I want to share that I'm now taking myself back home to NJ, to the folks I know, to my loved ones and to the area I have lived for the last 30 years. One thing with traveling you can be certain of...it let's you know where you belong.
So with that said, I have a favor to ask! If you can please hold fort here while I'm gone (unplugged and en-route), listen to my music, share my music and generally enjoy the pieces that resonate, it would mean the world to me! With Love, H xx
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