"Children feel joy and spontaneity and exhilaration when they make music, yet those emotions often disappear when formal music training begins. Music training today, I feel, too often emphasizes technique and musicianship while overlooking composition and improvisation. Somewhere a balance should be struck. Ideally, music education should help children become not only musicians, but also creators. The goal is to inspire children to want to play so that learning is a joy. A passion for learning and creating is perhaps the most important ingredient you can nurture in any student. Once the passion flows, the muse emerges."

Often found playing woodwinds and other instruments to Eric Tingstad's acoustic guitar. Born one day apart in the month of December, they have performed in concert everywhere from the Berklee Performance Center in Boston to a rocky outcrop atop Glacier Point, high above the valley floor in Yosemite National Park. They first met at an outdoor music festival in 1984. Both gifted soloists, the two musicians sensed an uncommon rapport in their styles and, a year later, initiated a collaboration. Their fluid interplay has matured into what one observer has defined as "contemporary chamber music." Their performances have often benefitted schools, the homeless, environmental causes and health research.

Inspired by the complex synths of Kitaro, composer of five best-selling albums during Narada's first 10 years, emerged as one of contemporary music's most popular instrumentalists during that period, earning a Grammy nomination for his 1991 album IN THE WAKE OF THE WIND. Many fans however have been disappointed with his recent albums because of his growing use of vocals.

Owns a long list of commercial and production music credits that includes composing music for the film Dances with Wolves. While Buffett employs some of modern music's most sophisticated technology in his work, his themes often touch on his interest in American Indian culture and his wistful yearning for a peaceful, more innocent world.

"That was a decade ago. Last spring, a moving truck arrived at my home in Seattle. While I was away teaching at school, a well-cared-for Yamaha grand was moved into my studio. These keys know every note I've ever played -- my very heart and soul. Welcome home..."

Music teacher, father, outdoorsman, pianist -- was, at age 13, the youngest musician ever to perform and tour Europe as a member of the Golden (Colorado) Symphony Orchestra. vGettel, who each spring takes a groups of students to North America's desert southwest for a two-week backcountry expedition, considers himself a "musical historian" who often thinks of his compositions as deeply personal entries in a lifelong diary.

"Later, I explained to him my role as a consultant and my reluctance to leave such an orderly and rational world for the more mysterious realms of piano playing. His eyes flashed intensely, `But who will play your music?' he asked. I heeded his words. It was the piano that most excited me and invigorated my heart. Once again I tapped the wellspring, allowing my fingers to dance over the keys and giving myself over to an adventure that would have no beginning and no end."

A lifelong musician who found success early in life as an educator/consultant, might never have recorded his music had it not been for the constant prodding from friends who had been enchanted by one of his spontaneous after-dinner recitals. Their instincts were correct; Jones released nine albums during Narada's first decade, including the label's first album.

"I am grateful to have studied under two of Russia's great master teachers, Vladimir Nielsen and Tamara Karetkina, who encouraged a sense of reverence for the relationship between pianist and piano. To the musician, the piano is more than a box with keys and wires; it is a part of music itself. When I play, the piano becomes part of me, and I become more than myself. It is a bridge to the dimension where music exists, and it takes time and talent to be in tune with the piano -- to be in tune with music. It is a mystery, I know, but it is a wonderful mystery, and my life as a musician is devoted to understanding it more deeply."

The son of a well-known Russian actor, was born Konstantin Efimov in St. Petersburg. Music became the focus of his life at age 4, leading to classical piano studies at the famed Leningrad Conservatory under Vladimir Nielsen, one of the last great teachers of Russian romanticism. Kostia performed throughout Eastern Europe and Scandinavia before moving to the United States in 1989.

"I did little else during my first week of class but hover by the piano. Mrs. Small, concerned by my lack of interest in anything else, called my parents and suggested piano lessons. Within a week we had a new piano in the den (a spinet with mush action which is more suburban furniture than musical instrument). That piano saw me through years of lessons, though I never liked it. It is still in the den of my parents' home in St. Louis. Each time I go back it is a little more out of tune. Of course, I play it nonetheless."

Has composed numerous scores for film and television productions, including music for the seven-part television series COLUMBUS AND THE AGE OF DISCOVERY.

Added the soundtrack for MILLENNIUM: TRIBAL WISDOM AND THE MODERN WORLD to the lengthy list of scores he has composed for major film and television productions. Others include Rain Man, which earned him an Academy Award nomination, Driving Miss Daisy, Thelma and Louise, and more recently The Lion King, which earned him both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.