Last year I finally picked up Thayer's Life of Beethoven, which had been sitting on my shelf daring me to read it since way back in college. It was very interesting. I loved reading about Beethoven's style of playing and conducting and his opinions about other composers and musicians. It was also instructive to see just how mundane the life of even a great artist could become when reduced to receipts and family bickering.

What I dwelled on the most, though, was speculation about what it would have been like to have played for him. What would he have told me about how I play his Op. 109 or Op. 110 piano sonatas? How inspiring that would have been!

Then it hit me. If it would be so cool to play for a composer, what's stopping me? Go find some composers to play for right now. That was the provocation for Tangent Shores. I did find composers and I'm producing my first release of new music, Amethyst, right now.

I just demoed Joseph Prestamo's Ballade for him. Joey's music is ravishing and he was very encouraging. How satisfying it is to connect with the creator of the music I'm presenting. So far, I have demonstrated for the composers 80% of the music I'm recording for my next CD; in addition to Joey's Ballade, music of Garrett Shatzer, Richard Cionco, Ryan Suleiman and Waddy Thompson. More to come soon...

I was a big fan of the band, Chicago, when I was kid. I loved their box set release, Chicago at Carnegie Hall. The box included a huge poster of the musicians that I glued to my bedroom wall. After their debut release, Chicago Transit Authority, the name for each of their studio albums was simply a sequential number, like a software release. I was interested up until Chicago 6. Then my enthusiasm waned. The music changed, and the novelty of the numbered releases wore off. Who could possibly identify and distinguish the contents of Chicago 15 vs. Chicago 21?

I wanted a distinctive name for the next CD I'm preparing, a program of piano music never before recorded. I ran a call for scores last year to find piano music not yet commercially released on CD that I could program and record myself. The submissions poured in! I realized I wasn't looking at just one potential CD, but rather a new life's calling. I have music for many compelling and distinctive CDs, and I have continued to cultivate friendships with composers whose work is really interesting. I wanted to unify this recording work as an ongoing artistic enterprise, so I came up with a name for the project, Tangent Shores. I like the image, it suggests far-flung, beautiful locations coming together and touching.

How to name the releases? Ten years from now, I don't want to release Tangent Shores 15. I wanted an image that is distinctive and evocative. I chose to use names of stones. Consistent with the image of Tangent Shores, stones are scattered about and plentiful. Yet they are distinctive and precious, too. I intend the imagery to be metaphorical, so I don't expect to use images of stones in my CD graphics, but rather I will employ color designs that suggest particular stones.

I'm kicking off Tangent Shores by producing Amethyst, since Amethyst starts with A. I have lots of ideas for future releases. With so much music related to the night, I could one day produce Tangent Shores - Obsidian. With so much music from women composers, I could one day produce Tangent Shores - Moonstone. Ruby, Garnet, Sand. All would make great titles for a CD and I have music to fit.

I don't think I'm going to run out of rocks, and I don't think I'm going to run out of music. I expect to keep recording this rock music until I drop.