and you thought you knew.. Rhonda Rosalee
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"...my Mother placed me with one of Van Cliborn’s teachers. This teacher focused on my natural ability to play and helped me with proper piano etiquette. Each week she played a song while I watched and listened, then I would return the next week and play it for her. Her gift was in teaching a restless child to play “gracefully”. She taught me to channel emotion and reveal it in the piece I was playing. Nothing she taught me was mechanical!"
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Rhonda Rosalee is blessed and it would seem that the miracles started to occur most vividly when she was around eight years old! Here we have a Lousiana nurse who somehow manages to squeeze in musical composition and recording (in the often twilight hours) between sleep and health care and still manages to astonish and amaze listeners with the gracefulness at the keys that most artists spend months preparing for!
Of course, that's not to say that's it's been an easy road for this innovative artist, it has in actual fact been a meandering path through various sharp obstacles and blinding bends here and there. The thing is, Rhonda Rosalee seems to view such obstacles not as unreachable, unsurpassable mountains, but more like gentle slopes on the hills of progress and it's evident in her music folks... that's why without any real hesitation whatsoever, we thought it would be nice to have her up north to answer for playing her very welcome part in our lives and of course to tackle the inevitable questions...
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The Interview - November 02 2006 |
| Welcome to IOM Rhonda... can we begin with you telling us a bit about your background? |
My Mother’s intuition led her to buy a piano when I was 8 years old. She asked me to learn a song before my dad came home from work. I listened to the Dr. Zhivago soundtrack and played it for my Dad that day. Instead of forcing me to learn how to read music, my Mother placed me with one of Van Cliborn’s teachers. This teacher focused on my natural ability to play and helped me with proper piano etiquette. Each week she played a song while I watched and listened, then I would return the next week and play it for her. Her gift was in teaching a restless child to play “gracefully”. She taught me to channel emotion and reveal it in the piece I was playing. Nothing she taught me was mechanical. She taught me to count silently to keep tempo, to play softly when sad, and to think about placement of my fingers on the keys in a dramatic piece.
My first composition was at the age of 8, with the use of only “the black keys” as I called them, and I still love the sharps and flats.
The last three years, my primary focus has been to capture the emotion in audio recordings.
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| What would you say have been your main musical influences? |
World and life events inspire me the most. Each of my songs has a story behind it. For example: “The Cradle Will Fall” is about children who live with parental substance abuse. However, while composing the song, I couldn’t help but envision a bough breaking and a cradle falling!
“The Eagle’s Prey” was composed out of emotion surrounding the events that occurred after 911, but again, my mind focused on a small animal running to seek refuge while being chased by an eagle.
The song “Driven” was inspired by an article about immigrants who fled to Hong Kong after the opium war. While I played, I imagined the frantic state of people driven to gather their belongings and flee from their homes. |
| What could you tell us about “high points” in your musical career? |
As a child, being allowed to play at a piano recital without the ability to read music was a definite high point, winning talent shows as a teen, and placing and winning in various competitions online. The greatest feeling so far, occurred when I read an email from a friend informing me that he thought I did well in the IOMA’s, then seeing it posted!
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| How about low points and how you managed to get over them? |
The lowest points in my career were the years I didn’t have a piano. This problem was solved when my sister recognized how down I felt during the holdays, and said “You have to have a piano to let out all your emotion.” She bought a piano and had it delivered to my home in December 2002. I have been on a piano roll ever since.
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| If you could turn the clocks back, is there anything you would have done differently? |
Although my career as a registered nurse has been very rewarding and keeps me humble and thankful on a daily basis, If I could turn back time, I would have pursued a career in sound engineering and design to compose music for film.
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| Who did you work with on your most recent projects? |
I haven’t had the privilege of working with anyone. At present I just work solo in my studio.
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| If you could pick a favourite track from your recent work what would it be? |
Betrayed, Rejected, Slain, and Resurrected is my favorite song of all the tracks I have composed. It took much imagination and improvisation with sound effects combined with music. It is meant to depict the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. For me, He is the reason for all seasons.
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| What musical instruments/equipment do you normally use? |
Motif 8 and the DGX. I play each track and record each audio track separately from my keyboard
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| Do you have a favourite instrument either as a player or appreciator? |
My favorite instruments are the piano and guitar in that order.
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| Can you remember your first stage and/or studio experience? |
My first stage appearance was singing acappella for my first grade class. My first and only studio experience was very discouraging. I completely lost my voice an hour before the recording session and was unable to sing. The real discouragement was when my voice returned on the way home. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be at that time! |
| What five albums would you want to find if you were stranded on a desert island with enough food, water, a copy of IOM, a fantastic audio system, and any one musical instrument of your choice? |
The soundtracks from "The Passion of the Christ” , "Unfaithful", “The Gladiator”, and “Troy”. Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd.
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| Do you have a favourite album cover of all time? |
I like Sarah McLachlin's covers. |
| and what, may we ask, are the five albums you listened to most recently? |
Jan Kaczmarek's - Unfaithful Soundtrack.
Sting's - Fields of Gold
Sarah McLachlin's - Mirror Ball
Enigma's - MCMXCAD
Antonio Trigo's - Sensible |
| What five movies did you watch most recently? |
City of Angels
Lake House
An Unfinished Life
Moonstruck
As Good as it Gets |
| Which artist would you most like to meet or borrow a bag of sugar from as a next door neighbour? |
I would love to spend some time talking with John Debney. (Composed the music for the Passion of the Christ) |
| If you could have been responsible for writing the best song or piece of music ever written, what would it be? |
The Wind by Jan Kaczmarek (soundtrack Unfaithful). I don't think there has ever been another song to move me emotionally as this one does. |
| If you could have three wishes, what would they be? |
Health and well-being of family and friends
To compose music for film
To make it to Heaven when this life is over!
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| On to the more intimate side of Rhonda.. what did you dream about last night AND you can't say 'I do not remember'... |
I didn't dream last night, but one repetitive dream comes to mind.
I am trapped in a house with dark wood floors and white rugs and linen curtains, outside walls of glass, and seeing tornadoes in the fields that surround the house. I always awaken before the tornado strikes the house. |
| And, if we were to “shadow” you on a typical day, what might we see you doing? |
Desiring to be home playing my piano.
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| What did you do, the day before yesterday? |
I have been printing, duplicating, and assembling CD's, trying to get ahead for this next release. |
| If you had to move to another country for a year to record an album, but you only had a few suitcases and an hour to pack… what would you take? |
With one hour to pack, and only a few suitcases, I would pack my Bible, money, clothing…preferably jeans and t-shirts, and I would pack a non-skip CD player with headphones and plenty of good music! |
| What bugs you most? |
I am bothered most by spam mail, rude people, and the train that always runs behind my house at the precise moment that I am critically listening to music, or trying to record! |
| What makes your day really shine? |
Spending time with my family and finishing a new song makes my day shine. |
| I hate to end it all like this Rhonda, but.. finally, what are your plans for 2007? |
My goals for 2007 are to spend more time with family, to be debt free, to avoid procrastination, to stop racing against time, and to complete another album!
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| Rhonda Rosalee .. thanks for dropping by... the delightful Sandra will see you to the car and don't forget to send our best regards to the folks in Lousiana! |
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Rhonda Rosalee was interviewed by Colin Lynch - 02 November 2006
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