Interview Ann Sweeten: “Love Walks Through Rain”
(Global Heart | Esther Haasnoot) In life, the greatest joy is often accompanied by the greatest loss. However, most of us agree that we would repeat this experience if given the chance because love is what gives life meaning. An Interview with Ann Sweeten about her new album: “Love Walks Through Rain”.
“There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”
– Leonard Cohen
Heartwarming Piano Album
“Love Walks Through Rain is one of the most heartrending, emotionally hard-hitting piano-driven albums in years, showing us that, even amidst the shadows of melancholy and heartbreak that seem to be a necessary part of the journey, life is still very much worth living.
This album is an expansive showcase of her passions for new age, neoclassical, jazz, pop, and film composing, the gloriously composed and performed collection artfully captures compelling personal moments in the artist’s life while inviting us to connect on a universal level with her profound sense of grief, colored and followed by gratitude for love that endures all things”.
An Interview with Ann Sweeten about her new album: “Love Walks Through Rain” by Esther Haasnoot
Esther Haasnoot: Let’s talk about your musical genes and history. Does music run in your family? What first led you to pursue a career in music and ballet?
Ann Sweeten: My mother sang, and her mother (my grandmother) was a pianist. My mother loved musical theatre and took me to shows; I was enthralled. She would play the soundtracks from them and I would dance around. She must have thought I should be exposed to ballet because of that, so at age 5, I began lessons. Sensing my desire, she also gave me the opportunity to explore music. When I was six years old, she gave me a Hammond Organ for Christmas. For the first year I had to stand to reach the pedals. By age 9, I had started piano, and that became my first love! By age 13, I was studying with Russian-born Concert Pianist David Sokolof, my friend, mentor and overall fabulous human being. He was an incredible teacher: he developed my technique and encouraged my innate musicality. Music and ballet have always been a part of my life and from a very tender age; but it has always been the music that made me want to dance!
Esther Haasnoot: At some point in your life, you moved to New York, joined the actors’ union, and began getting roles in stage musicals while also playing piano in clubs and restaurants. Tell us something about this chapter of your life. Can you share a memory of one of your favorite musical moments?
Ann Sweeten: I never officially moved to the Big Apple, but when I was auditioning, I’d either stay with fellow actors, or often commuted from Connecticut or Massachusetts. I had so many wonderful roles and so many great cast experiences, so many stories, it would take volumes. When I was between shows I played in clubs, restaurants and aboard cruise ships. One funny experience was when I had two bookend appearances on a cruise ship in Camden Harbor and then Bar Harbor, Maine. They were about 5 days apart so my husband and I decided to go camping in between with our three dogs! So, first night all dressed up and staying in a little cottage for 2 nights in Camden Harbor, then camping in Acadia for a few days and then another little Inn where I dressed up again and headed out. This time we needed to take a zodiac as the ship was way out in the Harbor. It was raining too and of course, so as not to pierce the raft’s bottom, I had to carry my high heels in one hand and hold an umbrella in the other. I might add that the gangplank was rather steep, what a night! After the concert, I told some of the patrons what we’d been doing the previous 5 days, and one lady said, ‘Well I never looked that good after camping out!’ The show must go on, always, it’s the stage training!
Esther Haasnoot: You were able to gain so much experience. How would you describe what it means to be an artist?
Ann Sweeten: I can only speak for myself, and there are many levels of artistry, but in my case I’ve been involved in so many aspects of the performing arts I would say that my very essence equals Artist. But more than that, I think it’s a way of looking at the world… a very sensitive and intimate approach to the world, as things move me very strongly, good or bad, and that kind of passion brings extremes of joy and emotional pain, which are of course the very catalysts for inspiration!
An example of this is “Send Me an Angel” from my album Tapestries of Time, which was written for and is dedicated to all laboratory animals, in the here and now, and to all those that have gone before, finally free of their unconscionable suffering. It is written from their perspective:
“I tried so hard throughout the years,
To hold to hope through dreaded fear.
I’ve wished so hard amidst the tears,
For simple freedom, strange souvenir.
Angel, Send me an Angel now,
For I’m so weary, Help me, somehow…” A.S.
Esther Haasnoot: You wrote in the introduction of your new album: “Love Walks Through Rain”, that you’ve been fighting cancer for years. How are you?
Ann Sweeten: 20+ years to be exact. I’m in my sixth year battling Leukemia (after Breast Cancer twice) and I’m currently on the fourth treatment drug – so many really horrible, life-threatening side effects I’ve been through from the past 3 chemo drugs used to treat Leukemia. On this drug, so far so good. It seems to be working well for folks like me who could not tolerate ANY OF THEM, so I’m very hopeful, but in general I try not to dwell on it. I’m currently in a deep clinical remission but I need to be in molecular remission for 2 years before they’ll consider taking me off the drug. So, I welcome any and all prayers!
Esther Haasnoot: The battle with cancer alone would be worth an album of musical mood swings – but your focus is on the special connection with your two fur children, Jazzy and Remy, and the flood of emotions that accompanied their passing, ten months apart, in recent years. This album is a beautiful reflection of your love for your faithful companions. Tell us a little about the genesis of your album. What inspired you to make this album?
Ann Sweeten: As with every album I make, it represents a certain chapter in my life filled with all of that chapter’s experiences, but those that stand out the strongest which inspire. The first piece I wrote for Love Walks Through Rain was for my dog, Jasmine (Jazzy), but I couldn’t write it until 7 months after she passed on. I always write a tribute and I just couldn’t get centered enough to pull that together. I also was rehearsing for a tour in October 2021 and that was all I was able to undertake at that time. Just before I left, my other dog, Remy, was diagnosed with brain cancer. It was while Remy was at the Angell Memorial Hospital in Boston that I finally was able to write “Through Jasmine’s Eyes”. We were trying to buy Remy some time as he was only 8 when he was diagnosed. But, during those few months after radiation, hope took us by the hand and that hope for Remy, that “Glimmer” became my muse. The next 5 pieces were inspired by him in some way and after the last one, “The Shadow of You”, I could no longer write again, until I came up to our vacation home where our dogs loved to roam the hills and “The Hills of Riversong” was born. The next piece I wrote was “Love Walks Through Rain” and as I contemplated the title, it struck me that it, indeed, would be the album title as it expressed so much of what had been happening. In addition to my dogs’ health crises, I, too, was going through some difficult side effects with the 3rd chemo drug and wasn’t certain what was next. At one point, I wasn’t sure of my longevity. So that’s it in a nutshell.
Esther Haasnoot: Love is a universal language. You don’t have to be a dog lover or have lost a beloved pet to appreciate the enchantment of what you have created with “Love Walks Through Rain.” The need to feel and be loved is an integral part of the human experience. Love is a medicine that heals the mind, body, spirit, and soul. Love is the energy that brings life to every part of our being. Therefore, it is natural to understand how love accelerates and facilitates healing. How do you see this? What insights did you gain?
Ann Sweeten: I have been through so much in my life, from the death of my mother to cancer when I was 18, to having cancer myself 3 times, but all along the way I never needed a “wake-up call” from which to come back a “changed” being. My mother instilled a great love for life in me as she had in herself. She lived every moment of every day to its fullest and I try to do the same. Back in 2009, after I had had my double mastectomy, I was asked a similar question. I replied the same then but added that if I had one thing, one thing at all that I learned, it was the breadth of my husband’s devotion to me. I knew he loved me deeply, but his involvement throughout my surgery/post-surgical care and so forth was completely selfless. I always knew we had something very special, just maybe not to that level. It was just another level, even deeper.
Esther Haasnoot: Beautiful music can establish a connection to the innermost part of people. You once said, “One of the greatest gifts I get from my music is knowing that it is being used to help heal others in some way. What is it that makes people feel so touched and/or healed by your music?
Ann Sweeten: I think it’s because my music is coming from a completely open, vulnerable place, a trusting place even. I am as much inside my music as the music is inside of me. It communicates all my personal sorrows, joys, compassion, hopes, love for life and somehow becomes tangible to people. I know this because my fans tell me, through sharing some of the most beautiful, sorrowful, and genuine stories I have ever heard. They identify with my music, so they identify with me, I guess. As I heal myself, and share my feelings through my music, so in turn it appears I am healing them, helping them in some way to better navigate the ups and downs of life’s journey. It is humbling in a way I would never have guessed, never thought my music would have this kind of impact on people’s lives.
Esther Haasnoot: Based on your background, you are an avid environmentalist, animal rights activist, and vegetarian. In what ways Is your life and perhaps work dedicated to increasing awareness and appreciation for the animals and our planet? Do you use your music as a main to express your love and concern for the natural world?
Ann Sweeten: All ways!! I literally stop and smell the roses every day! The lilacs, the tulips, the peonies…I have flowers in my home 24/7. I’m often rescuing animals, finding wounded birds, responding to activist alerts. All my dogs are “rescues.” My life is a microcosm of how I wish the world would be, and I’m so very concerned for the future of our planet. Tears fall as I write this at all the injustices that pervade our world: the animal cruelty, the pollution, destruction of habitat, the poaching, warring, and abuse. It seems at times that we are going backwards instead of learning from our mistakes as we fight, for example, to keep wolves on the Endangered Species List, who were slaughtered to the brink of extinction a hundred years or so ago, and now people are lobbying to do it all over again.
One of my albums that came out in 2016, Where Butterflies Dance, carries a very strong environmental message:
The Monarch Butterflies are actually on the brink of extinction, thanks to major chemical companies, and all the GMO’s, pesticides and herbicides wreaking havoc on our environment. Shifting land management practices are responsible for the disappearance of the Milkweed plants along the Monarchs’ Migration route. Monarchs cannot survive without milkweed: their caterpillars only eat milkweed plants and Monarch butterflies need milkweed to lay their eggs. The warning signs are clear: If we destroy nature, we destroy ourselves.
“Sateo” is another piece on that album about one of the last “great tuskers” with ivory tusks weighing over 100 pounds. The great bull elephant, likely close to 50 years old, was found dead on May 30, 2014, in Kenya, after being poisoned to death by poachers, after years of adapting his behavior to hide himself from humans. Elephants are such extremely intelligent and sensitive beings – he must have sensed they would bring about his demise. Poaching has reached unprecedented levels in history in all species. In the recording, the Violin represents the beauty and grace of “Sateo’s spirit”. Action is happening to fight to save these and countless other iconic species, but will there be time enough?
Esther Haasnoot: What is your hope and wisdom for this world we live in?
Ann Sweeten: When I created my record label, Orange Band Records, over 26 years ago, I wanted it to stand for something. On my website is a page devoted to it, and the inspiration behind it which came from a beautiful piece by Robert J. Waller, a wonderful human being, who sadly is no longer in our physical realm. This is an excerpt:
“The day Orange Band died there was a faint sound out there in the universe, hardly noticeable unless you were expecting it and listening. It was a small cry, the last one, that arched upward from a cage in Florida. If you were listening closely though, you could hear it. ‘I am zero.’ Extinct. The sound of the word is like the single blow of a hammer on cold steel. And, each day, the hammer falls again as another species becomes extinct due to human activity.
But we press on. With highways and toxic waste and all-terrain vehicles and acid rain and pesticides and the straightening of pretty creeks to gain an extra acre or two on which to grow surplus crops. In the name of progress and something called “development”, we press on, though we seem reluctant to define exactly what it is we seek. That definition, you see, likely is too frightening to contemplate, for the answer along our present course might be nothing other than “more”.
And each day, the hammer falls again. And, each day, another small cry arches upward, slowly and forever, it arches upward. And sometimes I sit with my back against a granite ledge near a river in a distant twilight-colored blue, and say, ‘I am Orange Band.’”
(Reprinted by permission of Warner Books, Inc. from, OLD SONGS IN A NEW CAFE by Robert James Waller Copyright 1995 by Robert James Waller. All rights reserved.)
My decision to use the name Orange Band is not only in remembrance of the last little Dusky Seaside Sparrow, but is also a testimonial tribute to the fight we must wage to preserve our blessed Mother Earth and all her creatures, before we, too, utter a final cry: Extinct.
Esther Haasnoot: Anything else you would like to share with our readers?
Ann Sweeten: I would say: remember to listen to your heart, take time for the little things, follow your dreams, look out for who you might help, turn off your cell phones and stop and smell the flowers, roll around on the floor with your fur babies, and love with all your might! Every day is a gift – OPEN IT!
If anyone out there resonates with the topics discussed here, I’d invite you to connect with me and join the conversations on my website (annsweeten.com) social media and in my blog, where I dive more deeply into the environmental, animal and music stories that I’ve shared today.
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About Ann Sweeten:
After over a quarter-century of enamoring audiences on the Concert stage and on the Airwaves, Ann Sweeten’s signature style is recognized worldwide. Her style is decidedly unique, embracing not only the classical realm, but aspects of jazz, film scoring, new age and popular music. One of the most decorated pianists of the last 26 years with albums consistently ranking in the Top 5 ZMR Radio Charts, Sweeten is also one of the most played modern instrumentalists in North America. She is a Steinway Artist, a featured C.A.R.E. Artist with Healing HealthCare Systems. A Breast Cancer survivor twice over and currently battling leukemia, Ms. Sweeten is a passionate individual and artist, a staunch environmentalist, animal activist, and vegetarian. For more information or to connect with Ann Sweeten visit: Website, Instagram, Spotify, Facebook, and Twitter.
Source: Global Heart
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