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MP3 Ed Stauff - Champlain Summer
14 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Gentle, CLASSICAL: New Age
Details:
Ed has been a musician for as long as he can remember, ever since his mother taught him piano at an early age. Born of musicians, his early musical influences included the Kingston Trio, the Tijuana Brass, and symphony concerts. He began taking classical organ lessons at age 10. He sang in his gram-mar school choir, where he made his solo singing debut, and later played alto sax in the band.
Unable to keep his hands off any instrument within reach, Ed delighted his parents and frustrated his high school band teacher by switching between alto sax, tenor sax, baritone sax, trombone, and sousa-phone. He sang in the school chorus, and his study of classical organ continued all through high school. Meanwhile, Elton John sparked a renewed interest in the piano, which led to Chicago, James Taylor, Harry Chapin, Peter Paul & Mary, Simon & Garfunkle, and (though he denies it) the Carpenters. During this time Ed began arranging, first for the high school band, and later for a community band. Summer courses in music theory at Hartt School of Music complemented his growing ability to play by ear.
While majoring in computer science at Yale, Ed took as many music courses as he could fit into his schedule. He expanded his repertoire of pop tunes on the piano, classical works on the organ, and also picked up clawhammer banjo and Appalachian dulcimer. During this time he discovered the Beatles, Gordon Lightfoot, Judy Collins, and The Moody Blues. He also fell in love with medieval and renaissance music, and acquired a full consort of recorders. He joined the marching band playing alto sax, then switched to sousaphone, and eventually found his true calling as the only marching celtic harpist. Inspired by a book discovered while working at the music library, Ed built a harpsichord from scratch.
After graduating, Ed moved to New Hampshire, where he soon discovered Dick Pleasants'' "The Folk Heritage" on WGBH. In no time he was permanently hooked on the likes of Gordon Bok, Sally Rogers, Judy Small, Cindy Kallet, Stan Rogers, Lui Collins, and Archie Fisher (to name just a few). Soon after helping start the Wang Chorus, he became its director, and arranged numerous traditional and contemporary folk songs for it. During this time Ed finally fulfilled one of the requirements of folk mu-sicianship and took up the guitar. In the early 90''s Ed formed a folk ensemble called Ordinary Folks, where he continued to improve his arranging skills, performing at local coffee houses and the New Eng-land Folk Festival. Appalled at the lack of folk venues in and around Nashua, Ed founded Simple Gifts Coffee House in 1994, where he served as chief sound engineer for six years. While working for Avid Technology, he contributed to a CD of multimedia clips a two-minute piano solo which, to his surprise, generated fan mail from across the country for a number of years.
In 1995, at a local science fiction convention, Ed met singer Mary Ellen Wessels (Mew), just in time to help her produce her first solo album "Current Obsessions", and therein made his debut as a published songwriter. In a classic love story, Mew moved to New Hampshire and married Ed. They now perform as a duo called "Hopeful Romantics" which has delighted audiences from Los Angeles to England, in-cluding several New England Folk Festivals.
In 2001, inspired by the fan mail from his clip on the Avid CD, Ed began work on his first solo piano CD, "Champlain Summer". Funded mostly by presales, it was released in 2002. Immediately after its release, many of his presales customers ordered additional copies after hearing the finished product. Ed and Mew are now living in Vermont with their two sons Rowan and Corwin.
Ed''s piano playing has been compared to George Winston and Elton John, and other "paper trained" musicians frequently notice his classical training. He also plays 6 and 12 string guitar, recorders, banjo, and hammered dulcimer. He seeks out the best traditional and contemporary folk songs, and interprets them with freshness, originality, and loving care.
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