https://soundcloud.com/david-salminen/the-relative-brightness-of-stars-part-1-mp3 ~ An example of space exploration through musical improvisation… this is one of my most popular recordings. Out of respect and appreciation for so many of my friends who cannot come to the 24 Feb. 2019 concert in Portland, Oregon… I wanted to share something online that hasn’t been put up before. If you’d like to have a CD or audio cassette, please contact me by email: david@wholeworks.net
The Relative Brightness of Stars (concert recording) Oct. 2017
February 17, 2019
Life in This Universe concert ~ Portland, OR ~ Feb. 24, 2019 (please note the new venue)
February 10, 2019
David Salminen, pianist, in concert ~ Sunday, Feb. 24, 2019, 1:30 pm ~ at a new venue (for him): Michelle’s Piano Company ~ 600 SE Stark St. Portland, Oregon 97214 ~ admission free (donations welcome to cover costs and support the artist) ~ program: cosmic improvisations and toning with tones ~ email david@wholeworks.net for more info ~ more about the location: https://www.michellespiano.com/about/
Nov. 18, 2018 concert in Portland, Oregon, USA
October 31, 2018
“Astronomical Moments” ~ David Salminen, piano ~ cosmic improvisations
Sunday, November 18, 2018 ~ 3 pm to 430 pm
no tickets necessary ~ donations welcome
Classic Pianos Recital Hall
3003 SE Milwaukie Ave
(corner of SE Powell Blvd)
Portland, Oregon 97202
(503) 546-5622
Come join us for an afternoon of exciting musical diversion with David Salminen, presenting piano improvisations inspired by the great steps forward in our imagining of the far reaches of the universe, since the historical advances of pioneers like Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler.
Live coverage from NASA is scheduled to be starting at 3 a.m. Eastern Time (USA) on August 12. The launch was originally scheduled for Aug. 11, but then scrubbed due to technical considerations. The launch will take place on the 12th only after everything is checked out and good to go. Hopefully NASA will succeed this time, as knowing more about our Star (the Sun), could be important for many reasons. We’ll have to wait and see what information the Parker Solar Probe and NASA will actually share…
Spring concert: The Cosmic Light Horizon
March 17, 2018
April 7, 2018 ~ 3 pm to 430 pm (with an intermission) ~ Classic Pianos Recital Hall, 3003 SE Milwaukie Ave, Portland, Oregon 97202 ~ phone (503) 546-5622 ~ Admission is free. Donations are welcome.
Salminen’s concerts, especially since his “cosmic series” began, with “Beyond Termination Shock” in 2005, but even before the “cosmic series” started, have been recognized by many for being “musical meditations”… opportunities to relax and let the mind roam free… This particular concert is inspired by the astronomical phenomenon known as the Cosmic Light Horizon, which refers to the limit as to how far back in time our telescopes can see into the history of the Universe, and begs the question, “What is beyond the Horizon?” as a kind of impossible query, like a Zen Koan. In honor of the late great physicist Stephen Hawking, this concert is dedicated to him and inspired by a statement he made in an interview on National Geographic’s StarTalk, “The boundary condition of the universe… is that it has no boundary.”
From critics and fans: “At David’s concerts, “We, the listeners, become the music.” ~ Cheryl Kolander, Aurora Silk. “contains the very spark of life” ~ Julia Sopalski, for The Anchorage Times. “Salminen uses his rather unconventional methods to create [music] bursting with life, feeling and spectral intensity.” ~ Metro Magazine, Anchorage, Alaska
For more information ~ see the website: https://davidsalminen.com/ ~ or email: david@wholeworks.net
a thought exercise…
January 13, 2018
Wm. Blake painting – Glad Day
Something I discovered while reading literary commentaries by A.R. Orage: “One of the exercises in the [right] use of imagination is that of the frequent shift from the personal to the universal, and vice versa.” How nice to see this particular idea presented so clearly! It jives with the context I’ve referenced for my personal/universal cosmic metaphor piano concerts for years & years. And it’s a useful shock indeed to find that others may actually understand what you are aiming for, in your work, better than you do!
do-re-mi… the creative process
November 29, 2017
It may well be that Western music’s “major scale” is a musical metaphor: do is the moment of commitment. re is establishing contact with the work you’re doing, the process. mi is when you start to feel the process taking on a life of its own. mi-fa is a crisis point, wherein you suffer some disillusionment with certain presumptions and expectations. sol is when the power returns… you’re more than halfway there! But also here is temptation, the temptation to “coast”. la is when you re-commit, on a deeper level, knowing that in following the process, you have a chance to enter into the truly creative – something unforeseeable. si-do is the transition to letting go of the “push” and just allowing the result to manifest itself! ~ David Salminen’s re-working of a very old tradition, inspired by J.G. Bennett’s explanation of Gurdjieff’s mysterious law of heptaparaparshinokh, found in Bennett’s book: “Talks on Beelzebub’s Tales”.
David Salminen’s Oct. 28, 2017 concert in Portland, Oregon, USA
September 16, 2017
David’s next concert, in Portland, Oregon, on Oct. 28, 2017, 1 pm, is inspired by thinking about “The Relative Brightness of the Stars”. It will happen at the Recital Hall inside of Classic Pianos, 3003 SE Milwaukie Ave, Portland, OR, USA 97202.
It turns out that stars, just like us humans, have life cycles… most stars can be found in what astronomers call “the main sequence”… but there are many outliers, as well. The stars are similar to us, or – as we are each and all made of star dust – we are similar to the stars. (No admission charge; donations to help cover expenses and support David’s efforts are welcome.) Please share this announcement with your friends as you see fit.
Hitch your wagon to a star…
September 3, 2017
“Hitch your wagon to a star. Let us not fag in paltry works which serve our pot and bag alone. Let us not lie and steal. No god will help. We shall find all their teams going the other way,—Charles’s Wain, Great Bear, Orion, Leo, Hercules: every god will leave us. Work rather for those interests which the divinities honor and promote,—justice, love, freedom, knowledge, utility.” – from Society and Solitude, by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Portland, Oregon concert, Sunday 3 pm March 12, 2017
February 27, 2017
“The Call of the Cosmos” …come join me for the unveiling of new piano improvisations linking spontaneity with classical impulses… a relaxing tribute to multi-sensory imagination… learn how to listen to the Cosmos with X-ray vision!
David Salminen in concert, 3 pm Sunday, March 12, 2017 (Please remember that our clocks “spring forward” at 2 a.m. that Sunday morning.)
open to the public – supported by donations
CLASSIC PIANOS Recital Hall (503) 239-9969
3003 SE Milwaukie Ave, Portland, OR 97202
Website & map: http://portland.classicpianos.net/contact
for more information please email: david@wholeworks.net
NGC 6357 – located in our galaxy – about 5,500 light years from Earth – Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/PSU/L. Townsley et al; Optical: UKIRT; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/cosmic-winter-wonderland.html
David Salminen 