Enlightening Entertainment
 
David Lanz: New Age Music Pioneer, Composer and Pianist      
Greetings gracious viewers, and welcome to Enlightening Entertainment. In today’s program, we are honored to present the Grammy-nominated pianist, composer and New Age music pioneer, David Lanz. His platinum album “Cristofori’s Dream” topped Billboard’s first New Age/Adult Alternative chart in 1988 and remained #1 for 27 weeks. David Lanz’s music, embraced by worldwide fans since, is permeated with tranquility, deep feelings, and a celestial feel of spirituality.

Born in 1950 in Seattle, USA, David Lanz has shown his musical talent since a very young age.

I was about four and half years old, and I have to credit my mother who was a piano player. And my grandmother played the piano as well. So I had a lot of music in my life as a boy, and of course, I took piano lessons and did the kind of usual things that kids do. But by the time I was 10, I was already starting to compose my own music.

At age 12, young David decided to develop his talent on his own. He derived his inspiration from various kinds of music and great masters. He came into the limelight by playing with in his rock band, “The Towne Cryers.” His exceptional piano skills also gave him the opportunity to play in Terry Jacks’ 1974 worldwide hit, “Seasons in the Sun,” and other albums.

I was really excited like many musicians in my age group when The Beatles came around. And they kind of changed the way popular music was viewed, and so really I always felt like I was being mentored by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. In fact, I have to really thank George Martin, who was The Beatles’ producer. He would bring in classical musicians and add touches to their music that wasn’t typical. So I started to really listen a little more intently to the great masters of the Classical era, and so they’ve also had a big influence of my life as well.

Mr. Lanz’s spiritual awareness further raises his music to a new level.

I studied yoga for a while and learned basic transcendental meditation techniques, I studied Paramahansa Yogananda. I found his work really, really wonderful. I feel Jesus and Saint Germaine around me a lot. And I love Buddha.

Over the years, I’ve studied various spiritual masters and put myself in a position where I opened myself up to letting more light into my body and into my mind.

As a spiritually oriented person, Mr. Lanz was not contented with the existing music only. He hoped that his music could bring more healing and peace to the world. That’s how he evolved the unique style of music that came to be known as “New Age.”

I got to a point where I was asked the question, “What does the world need from me?”

And this different style of music started to kind of evolve. I’ve always had a very kind of simple melodic approach to my music. And so I kept this, some of my own musical personality, and it blended with my spiritual nature and my desire to create something beautiful and something that the world needed. The answer to my question was the world needed to be healed.

And I knew I wasn’t going to go to school and be a doctor, so the next best thing for me was to allow that intent to charge the music that I play. If people are open and they need some sort of, even if it’s just a stress relief, I think they can find it and there is lots of beautiful music that has that feeling in it, and that’s what I tried to do with my own music.

Over the years, Mr. Lanz has created more than 30 albums, including his Grammy-nominated “East of the Moon.” The world’s largest music print publisher, Hal Leonard, also published over a dozen songbooks of his piano music. Recently, Mr. Lanz created his new album “Liverpool Re-Imagining the Beatles,” collaborating with his friends, the world flutist Gary Stroutsos and cellist Walter Gray.

My latest album is called “Liverpool Re-Imagining the Beatles.” And in the process of doing this recording, I got to take an amazing trip to Liverpool, and got a chance to spend some time both in Paul McCartney and John Lennon’s childhood homes. Most of what we do is the music either from Liverpool or music that’s inspired by Lennon and McCartney and other English composers of that era. And I guess if we wanted to call us anything, you could say we’re smooth-Classical. We have kind of a Classical approach, but there is improvisation within the group which is nice.

This is called Liverpool. It’s a song I wrote, as kind of an emotional overview of the Liverpool record.

Finally, Mr. Lanz shares his insights about how music can affect people’s emotions and lives.

I’m not a scientist, so I can’t really speak from a scientific point of view, but I know that certain repetitions – and you know this in meditation – if you use a mantra, that is a repetition. The human mind loves repetitiveness. So certain rhythms and certain phrases that are repeated will help create kind of a light trance in the listener.

Music will take on whatever charge that the performer or the songwriter, or the singer puts to it. We can create music for people that want to dance and celebrate. You can make music really sad, people will cry. You can make them laugh. I mean it all takes on whatever charge, like you were saying, this vibrational energy. And I think that starts with the performer, it starts with the initial compositions.

I want to bring a music that has the intent for healing, relaxation. I don’t feel like the music has to always be mellow; it can still be exciting. But it needs to take people some place. I like to create little movies in people’s minds, kind of like they’re flying there, or having an experience that they won’t normally have. I want to bring a positive entertainment, to the world. (Wonderful.)

This is the song I’d like to dedicate to Mother Earth. It was a song originally written as a celebration of Earth Day. And it’s entitled “Madre de La Tierra,” Mother of the Land.

Our appreciation, Mr. David Lanz, for sharing your talent in creating such soul-soothing music. With best wishes, may your music continue to touch the hearts of many and help bring evermore peace to the Earth.

Be Veg, Go Green 2 Save our Planet!

For more on David Lanz and his music CDs, please visit

Melodious viewers, it was a pleasure having you with us on Enlightening Entertainment. May you and your loved ones be blessed and happy.

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