2020 was a difficult year for all people; a raging pandemic that killed 2.3 million people, unprecedented wildfires in California and Australia, a huge blast in Beirut that destroyed half the city, and racial tensions everywhere. The Hope piano compilation album was born of the idea to bring together 12 well-established pianists from across the globe and spread a message of hope through music, each in his own way. – Jean-Paul Zoghbi
Todays artist from the Hope album is Roger Everdeen from Hythe in Kent, in the UK. Roger doesn’t have any formal training on the plain, but have played since he was 8 years old. He is now retired from his job as an Enterprise Architect and have been focusing on making solo piano work for the past ten years.
Nostalgia was released as a single on March 26, an is also a part of the album “HOPE”.
Tell us something about your track Our Children’s Children!
I’ve written a number of “Serendipities” in the past – the common theme is that they were all inspired by the idea of the Gymnopedies by Erik Satie, which is why they all have the word Serendipity in the title. I called them this because there is a certain element of chance or serendipity in their composition! The recent pandemic, global warming, and other issues challenge our future on this planet, and as I am now 67 I wanted to write something that was dedicated to my grandchildren and future generations – the tomorrow people who will need to respond to and live with the legacy that we are creating today.
A lot of my compositions start with an idea – in this case “hope for the future”. I then sit at the piano, with this idea in mind, and let my thoughts and feelings flow. The germ of a melody, or structure of a song starts to emerge. I then play around with it and keep working on it until the piece takes on its own life. I use Cakewalk as my DAW, and use a VST for the sound – in this case it was the Ravenscroft 275.
Thank you Roger!
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