Why did I decide to make another recording? Especially since the only reasonable way to make it is by raising outside funds.
It started when my fellow musician, pianist Dave Wiesler, gave me a tune he had composed for my therapeutic music work, "Hands of the Healer." I decided it would be the title of my next recording. Dave also composed the title cut of my first solo dulcimer recording “Starry, Starry.”
Then in 2021, I received a Folklife Apprenticeship Grant from the Maryland State Arts Council to have a hammered dulcimer apprentice. With my grant I purchased a Nicholas Blanton Forte dulcimer, which I had coveted for years to use for performing and recording.
Now I had a title and a wonderful instrument to record, but that wasn't enough. At the start of this summer I also had a couple months without performances, a relaxed schedule, which left me time to think! I started reflecting that in March 2026 I will have played hammered dulcimer for 50 years. My journey started with building a hammered dulcimer as a senior high school project. That led to 5 years traversing the globe (twice!), to many an Irish session, to playing for contra dancing, performing with the Irish trio Ceoltoiri and the Jewish band King David's Harp, to marrying a Belgian multi-instrumentalist (who was forced to learn Irish music), and ultimately taking all those years and experiences, and crafting music for healing and joy playing in hospitals.
So first there was a title and tune. Then there was an instrument. And now there will be an anniversary. And I want to share with the world the joy of where 50 years of dulcimer playing has brought me!
