In early 2003, after creating and producing a number of CD’s for relatives, friends, and a local elementary school, my accumulated CD experience allowed me to embark on a very ambitious project. I wanted to try my hand at creating a CD for public sale.

The music I had in mind was one of my favorite compositions to listen to growing up, a seven movement suite called “The Planets”. This composition is usually heard in its orchestral form, but I was able to find an amazing piano arrangement, authored by Gustav Holst, the original composer. But in this case, the arrangement was for two pianos.

On one of my prior “personal” CD compilations, I had done a little experiment to learn how to perform and record – and most importantly synchronize – an arrangement for two pianos. Each piano part is recorded separately, and then the recordings are combined, using sound editing software I designed and wrote myself.

A year earlier, I had just purchased a new (to me) Mason & Hamlin grand piano to play the music on. I created the predecessor to this website, with online payment to sell the CD’s. I learned about copyright law, so I knew how to protect my work. I used an outside graphic designer and print house, rather than create and print all of my own label graphics as I had done for my “personal” CD’s. Expensive, but the results looked so much more professional than anything I could have done myself, as it replaced the labels I had been using with an image printed directly onto the disk.

The recording and production took several months, but it’s one of my best live performances. Visit my Planets page and listen for yourself.