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Shoshannah - News & Reviews

Tambourine Publications Interviews Shoshannah...

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Tambourine Jewish Women in the Arts --
Interview with Pianist Shoshannah (Saráh)
Tambourine had the unique opportunity to interview internationally acclaimed composer/pianist/recording artist Shoshannah, also known as Shoshannah Saráh and Shoshannah Shoshannah. We focused on her early beginnings with music and creative exploration. I was fascinated by what I learned about Shoshannah Shoshannah's development as a musician that led her to a successful music, therapy and teaching career. -DG.

T: Shoshannah, what are your earliest musical memories?

S: At the tender age of two, I used to regularly play the pots and pans in a semi-circle on the kitchen floor. There were no "pots and pans" teachers around at that time to learn from…

T: You mean like "Mommy and Me" type introductory music classes for tots, right?

S: .Yes, except my sound exploration was something I did entirely on my own. I used to take a metal fork and strike it on different surfaces in the house exclaiming, "Listen to this sound!"… "Now listen to that sound!" I was completely fascinated with rhythm, colour and timbre...how everything had its own unique sound in the universe. Even though I must have driven my mother to another planet with the loud noises I made daily for long periods of time at the pots and pans, she knew one thing for sure: my daughter is going to be a musician.

T: When were you first introduced to the piano?

S: When I was six years old, my parents purchased a new Sohmer console piano which is still miraculously in tip-top condition. I graduated from improvising rhythms on the pots and pans to improvising on the piano. It was definitely a step up! My parents were told that six was too early an age for me to start piano lessons, so they acquired a piano teacher for my older brother.

T: Did your brother also become a professional musician?

S: My brother ended up learning guitar on his own, and became an aspiring singer-songwriter. He later became a successful physician. He gave many beautiful performances that brought people to tears. He was my greatest childhood inspiration.

T: Do you want to say more about being inspired in those early years?

S: Sure. I was completely in awe and greatly fascinated by this gigantic ebony and ivory object called "piano". First thing, I plugged in the radio and I tried to pick out the melodies I was hearing. I would then turn the radio off and work on that particular tune, adding new ideas along the way. Often the music would transform into something completely new and original. Within a couple of months, I taught myself how to play this gorgeous sounding instrument, the piano, quite comfortably. I figured out chords, and how to play melody with a full, harmonizing or syncopated accompaniment. After all, I already had experience with rhythm at my previous instrument, "the pots and pans"! I naturally created piano technique exercises, and so my playing abilities at the piano flourished. I composed many melodies and fully arranged them. I was truly inspired and motivated!

T: I have heard stories from adults that disliked piano lessons during childhood, mostly because of their teachers. Do you think traditional piano lessons would have inhibited this innocent early musical exploration?

S: Absolutely. I fervently thank my mother to this day for NOT giving me early bird piano lessons. Instead, she allowed me the opportunity to first explore music freely on my own accord. These first two impressionable years stimulated my current approach to creating music and formulating a creative approach to piano education and music therapy. By exploring the musical creative process between the ages of six and eight, I am now able to feel at home with composing and producing piano CDs of original music. Allowing a child to fully access their creativity can be a truly profound experience. I've seen it with my piano students and it's a real life-changer.

T: Did you have other family members besides your brother who were creative musicians or performing artists?

S: I remember meeting my cousin Zero Mostel at a very early age backstage. My family was personally invited to his "Fiddler on the Roof" Broadway show. The first time I met him, the cat caught my tongue! And then there was dad's brother Simon who was a professional jazz drummer. Dad told me how Simon used to frequently jam and fill in for the famed Gene Kruper. He was that good. I found out a few years ago that Jerry Seinfeld is my relative, but we haven't met yet. It was my father who had great impact on my creative explorations even though he wasn't a musician. Dad would sit with me at the piano and write poetry lyrics to my newly composed melodies. I even remember a love song he wrote for my mom to a melody I composed. I used to improvise background piano music to the different stories he would recite.

T: It sounds like you had an especially creative and supportive connection with your father.

S: Dad was my creative playmate, mentor and support. He taught me how to paint on canvas with oil, as he was a painter in his leisure time. He showed me how to dance to Sephardic Middle-Eastern melodies. At age eight, he joined me in making up an entirely new language called "Mashy." I called it "Mashy" because I wanted mushy conversations with the people around me. I made up the phrase "Mashful mashful mevu" which meant "I love you very much". If dad ever wanted me to do something for him, I told him that he first had to say those magic words, but also it had to be said with great expression. If he didn't say the words with great expression, then the rule was that it didn't mean anything without it. All through the years into my adulthood, dad used to end all his letters and phone calls to me with this Mashy phrase, and of course, with great expression!

T: What a cool dad!

S: That's not all. Finally, Dad used to be my supportive audience and lovingly listen to me play for hours on end until he would fall asleep on the living room couch. He would suddenly awaken in and out of his slumber as I continued to play, and he would profess, "You play like an angel, so beautiful, play more, play more"...

T: It's no wonder that you thrived with your music…

S: …and I did play more, thanks to my greatly supportive parents. By the time I was eight years old, I had written a prolific amount of piano themes in different styles that I performed and recorded. All of the music that I played and created until now, was figured out on the piano "by ear". I did not know how to read music yet.

T: So, who was your first piano teacher?
S: Like clockwork, my mother found a piano teacher for me as I turned eight years old. My first teacher would write the letter names underneath the music notes, which to me, was like cheating. He also taped the letter names on the piano keys. My inner senses told me (even though I was very young), that this was an inferior way to learn piano. I literally went through a handful of teachers in half a year's time, rejecting one teacher after the other.

T: What was your mother's reaction?

S: My mother was so incredibly wonderful because she totally trusted my instincts about this and continued her search for the proper piano teacher whom I would finally approve. Mom really took my music seriously and made everything happen. Thanks to Mom, she miraculously found the president of the National Federation of Teachers, Mrs. Bertha Lang. Mrs.Lang recognized my innate talent immediately and gave me the piano education and performing experience I never would have had otherwise. At my first lesson, she immediately called my mother over to say, "Your daughter is a great talent, and I am going to turn her into a fine concert pianist." I never forgot those precious words. Here was a teacher who truly believed in me and in my music potential!

T: What did she think of your improvisations and the prolific amount of compositions you wrote?

S: She could have continued nurturing my creative process, but instead she chose to concentrate on the technical and fundamental aspects of music that I had not developed on my own such as reading music. Mrs. Lang was a dedicated and highly competent piano teacher who taught me the piano classics for nine years, which paved the road for my entrance into music conservatory.

T: Did reading music come easily to you?

S: No. For me it was very difficult, slowed me down, and created much discontentment inside. All week long I continued to compose and improvise at the piano, and then at the last minute, I would cram in the classical music that Mrs. Lang gave me to learn. Although I was constantly cheating with the practicing assignments she gave me, I somehow got by, due to natural abilities. Her goal was to have me perform on stage. With focused dedication, I was able to stick with the program and excel at reading music quite comfortably.

T: When did you begin performing?
S: Mrs. Lang entered me into various auditions and competitions from which I received seven consecutive superior ratings. Within six months time, I was playing "Fantasie Impromptu" by Chopin, in Carnegie Hall.

T: Wow.

S: And that was the start of my career. I had two more golden opportunities to play Carnegie Hall, once more as a child, and once as an adult right after college. In my early years, it seemed that I was playing one magnificent concert hall after another year after year together with other children who had won piano awards.

T: How did you like playing classical music as a youngster? Especially considering that you had already made up your own music.

S: Well, excelling in classical music was a necessary step toward developing a technical command of the instrument and gaining a fundamental knowledge of music that I had lacked. However, being a young child learning how to play what my teacher wanted did not give me the enthusiastic joy I had experienced spontaneously improvising at the piano on my own.

T: How did you handle those feelings?

S: I continued to create music on my own, and slowly began formulating alternative ideas to teaching piano. By the time I was twelve years old, I started teaching piano to the other children in the neighborhood for 10 cents an hour. Any time I had a friend over, I taught them piano. I even gave my dad a couple of piano lessons! I had developed a strong philosophy and an organized plan to implement my new ideas. Many of my teaching and music therapy ideas that I have today stem from these early beginnings of teaching piano as a youngster to the neighborhood kids. Teaching piano is still my greatest love today.

T: That's incredible. I can't believe that you covered so much ground until only twelve years of age. Moving on, what are some of the highlights from around your college years and then some?

S: Let's see… Free associating... At college, I had the opportunity of a lifetime to learn piano for several years from renowned classical pianist, Leonid Hambro, Z"L. I also learned the great value of rhythm-making from African Master Drummers Ladzekpo Brothers, Baba Olitunji and Ladji Camara. Another highlight was getting put in charge of the secondary piano program at Music College and being given the rare opportunity to create an original music improvisation therapy program there. Then I graduated college, and loved every minute of it. I had a specialty in piano pedagogy and music therapy. After college, I started an improvisational ensemble called "Intuition" and I released my first CD "Sanctuary"…What else…oh, I had the joyous opportunity to perform and concert tour with Reb Shlomo Carlebach, Z"L, beginning in my teenager years. That's some highlights. Life was definitely exciting then.

T: What inspired you to get into another aspect of your work, music therapy?

S: Whenever I cried for whatever reason children cry, I used to sit on our living room couch and singsong my crying. Quite naturally, my whining tears turned into a newly composed melody. I would then go over to the piano and discover the crying melody at the piano and turn it into a song. Very early on, I had experientially discovered the value of music as something innately therapeutic.

T: That's amazing. Shoshannah, can you briefly tell us the different things you do today in the field of education and therapy?

S: I have an esteem-effective, creative healing approach to piano lessons for both children and adults, and a music therapy approach that I call "piano therapy". My approach for children and adults in piano lessons and piano therapy combine the creative, therapeutic and spiritual. You can read about this approach in Mishpacha Magazine, or on the Aish HaTorah site at: www.aish.com/family/heart/Spiritual_Piano_Lessons.asp. In addition to teaching piano and giving "piano therapy" sessions, I also work as a Certified Experiential Therapist assisting people with their emotional and physical maladies. I work a lot with victims of terror and have a regular clientele as well. My aliyah to Israel was largely influenced by my desire to give my time and energy to help terror victims. Some of the other therapeutic approaches I practice are: Meridian Energy Therapy (TAT, EFT, MFT, ET), Trauma Clearing (ATT), Primal Integration (Bill Swartely), and Dr. John Sarno's TMS Mindbody Program. I try to tap into the natural spiritual resources a person has. I have to tell you that it is an absolute gift from Heaven to have the opportunity to bring out the best in others and to assist them in their healing process and creative journey.

T: Let's talk about being in Israel. As a singer-songwriter, my own creative work took on a life of its own only after I began living here. How has living in the Holy Land influenced you, Shoshannah?
S: My aliyah to the holy city of Jerusalem has been a truly profound one, and I am flourishing like never before in my life. Since living here, my ability to connect spiritually is something I could have only imagined in a colorful fantasy story, except it's actually true! Being connected to an eternal and vital life energy force here has given me a special koach (strength) to experience a healing wellspring of creativity.

T: Keeping that in mind, what could you say to religious women who want to bring their creative expression out into the world?

S: What a great question. I believe that realizing our own Divine power and unique life mission through our neshama (soul) and allowing these holy sparks to emerge through us and be expressed in the world is the ultimate route to creative expression.

T: How do we get there?

S: Each and every one of us was divinely given the midda of self-worth. If we are unable to deeply realize this basic inherent truth, then we need to clear our internal self-judgment pool. I teach my students that the opposite of creative flow is judgment. When we heal our feeling selves and start to clear away negative obstacles in our pathway, we can then realize the many gifts we have and share them with the universe. I experience the meridian energy protocols to be incredibly effective tools in quickly clearing even the most major traumas in one's life and removing the obstacles to our soul flow. After all, we are eternal partners with the Creator on an important and holy mission. Being able to tap into our soul in a pure way opens doorways to healing, light and creativity.

T: Give us an idea about the personal steps you have taken to get there…

S: The process of getting in touch with my feelings has been a tremendous opening for me to creatively flow with my music. My late teacher and mentor, Alec Rubin, Z"L, a renowned pioneer in the human potential movement, taught me how to give voice to each spontaneous moment of creativity through the deep expression of feelings. Getting deeply in touch with my feelings prepared the path to getting in touch with my soul. Coming home to my soul has connected me to the most important aspect in the creative process. Allowing the healing gifts inside me to flow from a Divine source has given me an unlimited creative potential and an unbounded loving energy to give others. Discovering my roots has brought me to the realization that my innate gifts are from GD for the purpose of bringing healing, love and compassion to the universe.

T: What would you like to tell our readers about your latest CD that you released this past year (2006)?

S: My third and newest CD, "Soul Journey", is piano music that is spontaneously improvised from beginning to end. This CD returns to my original roots in two significant ways. First, each piano improvisation expresses a different aspect of the human soul journey experience. Secondly, the "Soul Journey" CD reflects my tender beginnings at the piano when I was freely and creatively exploring my inner sanctum through the vehicle of improvisation. Whereas my first recording, "Sanctuary" was very much in the "classical composition" vein and closest in influence to my experience learning with Mrs. Lang, "Soul Journey" is a "coming home" to my early soul's essence and creative spirit.

T: So, "Gifts from Heaven" CD is actually your second album?
S: Right. In between "Sanctuary" and "Soul Journey" CD, is "Gifts from Heaven". The Gifts CD was greatly inspired by a profound visit to the Holy Land in 1992 when I re-experienced my ancient roots. My Baal Teshuva experience was so electric, that playing the piano transformed into a heavenly experience and personal expression of praise and gratitude.

T: I imagine that what you're saying could be inspiring to women who have put their creative talents aside. What was that experience like for you?

S: My playing became simple, pure and "light as a feather". I felt as if my hands were gracefully floating on top of the keys, allowing the music to come through me from a higher source. I felt my spirit reborn through the piano. Piano became my personal prayer through and to the Divine.

T: Sounds like "Gifts of Heaven" can inspire others who are on a spiritual journey.

S: Baruch Hashem, it has been considered by many to be a spiritually healing album. Not surprisingly, this CD became known as many women's favorite musical accompaniment to having a baby.

T: Could you share some of your future goals with us?

S: Here's a little bit of what's up ahead: "Deepheart Awakening" piano CD is cinematic 'spiritual theme' music. The original compositions and arrangements visually depict Biblical and historical events that musically transform slavery and oppression to hope, light and geula (redemption). "Deepheart" will be out early 2007, B"H. I dedicate it to my teacher, renowned pianist Leonid Hambro, Z"L, who unfortunately passed this last October, and will be eternally missed. "Soul Journey II" contains the piano music from "Soul Journey", together with Grammy-nominated improvisational cellist, David Darling. David improvises deeply beautiful cello tracks with my spontaneous piano tracks. He is in the studio finishing up his part right now as we speak! B"H. "Unconditional Love" CD is a synthesizer grooving track for exercise and musical improv. My most exciting project to date that everyone keeps asking for is "Rivers of Light". This healing piano CD is the long-awaited sequel to "Gifts from Heaven". "Rivers of Light" has already been conceived and composed and waiting to be born at the right time on the right piano…B"H, soon!

T: I really loved listening to the pre-studio version of "Rivers of Light" and am looking forward to its debut! Shoshannah, thank you for sharing your time with Tambourine and b'hatzlachah with all of your current and future productions.

S: And Devora Gila, Thank You for your generosity in giving the spiritual women of Israel an amazing avenue to share themselves with the public eye. It's a special and rare opportunity to share my personal life experiences with everyone out there. May we allow our creative channels to flow, to be expressed…and may we have the merit to share our many beautiful soul-gifts and light up the world.

Shoshannah Saráh is an internationally acclaimed composer/ improvisational pianist, piano teacher, therapist and recording artist living in Jerusalem. You can read about and hear Shoshannah's music at www.CDBaby.com/all/thehealingpiano. Shoshannah can be reached at thehealingpiano@yahoo.com and welcomes your correspondence.
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