Sacred Music for Healing Hands, Volume 1
RICHARD SHULMANKeyboardist and composer Richard Shulman composes music intended to be a positive influence for himself, audiences, and society.  To further this purpose he often works with archetypal themes.Shulman’s new CD, Camelot Reawakened: A Vision Fulfilled, musically portrays a rebirth of the Camelot ideals.  "The theme is the fulfillment of dreams of the heart for individuals and society," he explains.  "The most beautiful world imaginable can happen, and I hope this music will contribute to its manifestation."  Composed and orchestrated by Shulman over a five-year period, Camelot Reawakened is a contemporary-classical, nine-movement symphonic work featuring Shulman on acoustic piano with a 35-piece orchestra, a choir, and vocal and instrumental  soloists.According to Shulman, "For the past 16 years, album-by-album I have been attempting to create music which will help set the stage for a harmonious society envisioned by many spiritual traditions, forward thinkers and ordinary people."   This journey has resulted in 17 of his own albums as well as other recordings for which he has provided the music.  Trained in the classical field, Shulman first worked as a rock musician and then a jazz pianist before turning to music for healing and inspiration. As a composer, however, his classical sensibility has permeated each genre he has worked in.Shulman has performed at Carnegie Hall, Art Park, the United Nations, the Kool Jazz Festival, The Amenia Peace Festival and a wide variety of other venues throughout North America and Europe.  He has composed music for and performed on more than a dozen albums by others --  singers (Susan Slack, Elizabeth Hepburn, Connie Hanham, Shelley Koffler) as well as speakers in the field of guided meditations and visualizations (Dr. Mitchell Gaynor, Puja Thomson, Jessie Ayani, Elizabeth Joyce, and Reiki master Pat Cyr).   During residencies at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, he composed music for orchestra and jazz quartet; and for a decade he was the principal composer for "Theatre of the Heart," a cooperative of dancers, singers and musicians dedicated to preserving community and the environment.  Shulman’s commissions include a piece for the Amherst Saxophone Quartet, and "May Peace Prevail on Earth" (a composition for singers, symphony orchestra, three choirs and jazz qu! artet) created for the World Peace Prayer Society.Born and raised in Niagara Falls, New York, Richard often listened to symphonies on record and in concert as a youngster. His family got him a piano and he began lessons at age seven which continued through high school, although he additionally studied violin for a year and clarinet for five years.  As a teenager Richard also played organ at various churches, was the music counselor at a summer camp in Canada, and joined a rock band with future jazz recording artists Thom Rotella and Bobby Previte.  Shulman graduated from the University of Rochester with a double-major Bachelor’s degree in music (piano performance) and psychology while continuing to perform with Previte in the jazz-fusion band Thermopylae.  Shulman’s early musical influences were Beethoven, Bach and Chopin; then in high school it was The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix; and on into college it switched to Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Paul Winter, Oscar Peterson and Ray Charles followed a few years later by Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, Pat Metheny, and Chick Corea.While at Rochester, Shulman also attended the prestigious Eastman School of Music and studied jazz improvisation with Chuck Mangione and Marian McPartland, arranging with Raymond Wright, and orchestration with Donald Hunsberger.  Shulman continued his studies in jazz with Frank Foster while getting his Masters Degree in musical composition at the State University of New York at Buffalo.  During those years he pl