The highest compliment...

...that one can give me is not to compliment my writing, my compositions, my artwork, or even my are-they-blue-or-green eyes. 

The highest compliment one can give me is to actually learn one of my compositions, interpret it, and preserve that performance for posterity.

I received a pleasant "surprise" in my mail Thursday afternoon.   Chase Kimball, a talented amateur pianist (in the best sense of the word - meaning an adult who is trained as a musician but makes his or her living in another field; Chase is an attorney) has been "threatening" to make a private CD for some time.  In fact I knew that he had recorded my piece (actually twice, with differing ideas as to tempo) and we had discussed another of my pieces, currently in a state of perpetual rewrite.  (I'll finish it soon, Chase.  I promise.)

Chase and I e-met through the many and varied piano discussion groups that inhabit the Internet.  He is a member of the board of directors of the Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation in Utah.

Why did he do this?  He can sum it up better than I can.  (Click to "embiggen".)

Sometimes, it's the little things that make me happy, and remind me that all those years of scribbling notes on music paper may not have been in vain.  Thank you, Chase.  A little validation can go a long way.

He's not the first, however.  David De Lucia recorded my Romance in D Flat waaaaay back in 2005 on his CD "Show Some Emotion".  That recording is the first commercial recording of one of my compositions.  Don Satz gave the CD a positive review at http://www.classical.net/, although he got some of my biographical information wrong.  (Evidently no one has ever heard of Roanoke, Alabama, and I have to admit that I find that understandable.  I know that De Lucia knew of my home state, so I'm guessing that there were some assumptions on the part of the reviewer....)