Althea

Our album “Althea” is dedicated to the memory of the late Prof. Althea Kaplan (1936-1997).

Althea Kaplan was my private flute teacher as well as Music Theory, Contemporary
Composition, and Physics of Sound professor. She pretty much took me under her wing and
guided my early music education. In her Contemporary Composition course, she taught me to
“Break the Rules” and to “Think outside the box”. This album does just that. The first three
songs, “Snakes and Ladders”, Serene Devotion”, and “Seven Seas”, were inspired by music
from India. They use traditional Indian instrumentation mixed with Western instruments. Those
songs also use Indian Scales in a more contemporary style, kind of like India meets Jazz. The
next song “NuFunk” is a Funk/Jazz tune and uses some Indian instruments along with
traditional Jazz/Funk instrumentation. “Blue Fire – Rekindled” was arranged by 3x Grammy
winner Ricky Kej, Gary Vandy, and Paul Messina. The next two songs, “Out of the Ashes”
and “Faces in the Crowd” were inspired by personal events and use modern arranging and
production techniques. The last song on the album, “White Roses for Althea”, is a 10 minute
musical journey featuring a mixture of styles, ranging from Jazz, Classical, New Age, and Pop
. This album features some of the most phenomenal musicians I’ve ever had the pleasure of
working with.

“Althea” was created, arranged, and produced for serious listening pleasure, not for background
music, so buckle up, put on your favorite headphones and take that journey.
Professor Kaplan was one of the most caring individuals I know and always put her students
needs ahead of her own.