MUSIc
Music has always played an important role in my life.
I learned the piano and the treble recorder at an early age, the clarinet at ten, and the oboe at twenty.
I composed my first piano piece when I was about eight years old. Later ambitions were limited by my modest knowledge of music theory, but I dared to do it again and again, especially in more difficult phases of life.
I grew up with classical music, but even as a teenager I expanded my horizons and got to know a variety of genres. Today, I still enjoy listening to blues, jazz, and classic rock. My piano teacher, Piotr Lachert, helped me overcome my fear of atonal music. My efforts to discover new musical terrain beyond the established canon eventually led me to the composers who were at the heart of the nascent American music. They composed in an environment characterized by clashing musical cultures (white, Black, Indigenous) and by political upheavals that remain unresolved to this day. This is the backdrop against which my novel "Goin' Home and Far Away" is set.
