A Smooth Interview

I had a wonderfully smooth interview yesterday with a lifestyle magazine in China.
I enjoyed the questions as it gave me a chance to reflect on my music and how this whole journey began.  One of the questions was what inspired and influenced me to go into the field of music.  It took me back to my childhood and I remembered how my father would blast our music system with his favorite classical and jazz pieces every Sunday morning like a wake-up call and how my mother often played classical pieces on the piano.  She would practise her Rachmaninoff and Chopin piano pieces endlessly.  It brought me much joy as well as moments of sorrow as some of the classical pieces she practised made me cry!  I could see what a huge influence music had on my family and me!  Music also played a huge part of life in the Kenyan culture.  The rhythmic drums and simple melodies have definitely been inspirational.  I hope to incorporate more of that into my music.
We also talked about what inspires me as a musician and how living in China has made it possible to accomplish all the different projects that I am involved in.  I shared how our latest project, ‘Birds of Love‘ was a culmination of different elements – a CD and book of quotations and how exciting it was for me to look for the silk fabric to adorn the book.  Only in China are all these elements possible to integrate with such quality and reasonable funding.
They also wanted to know how the Baha’i Faith and my family have influenced my music so I was happy to share the CD, ‘Fire and Gold‘ on the topic of tests and difficulties and explained how music is a ladder by which to help transform and inspire souls to greater heights and that is the main purpose for me to share music.  I also introduced them to our ‘Melodies of the Nightingale for the family‘ CD which was released in 2001.  I composed most of those pieces when I was pregnant with my son!
I was also able to share some of my hobbies such as reading about human psychology, walking in nature with lots of greenery and beauty, sports (yes I used to be an avid field hockey and tennis player) and photography.  So much to appreciate and learn.
I look forward to sharing the whole interview with you when it is published in August.

Amelia, my daughter, took the above photo of me!
Below is a photo with Yang Yang, the interviewer.