music from my mission

I had the chance to record some music on my mission, and I want to share some of it with you! You can listen to two tracks on http://thefruitofherhands.tumblr.com : "Tree of Life" was written for José’s baptism (written on the mission, recorded back at home); "I Need Thee Every Hour" was performed at Glen's baptism by Elder Clark and I. Enjoy!

Parable of the Talents

Foreign Loren, 2007?

I have been classically trained as a vocalist, but also dabble in ukulele, guitar, piano, accordion, glockenspiel, melodica... and probably some other things. I can't remember. Am I proficient in any of those? No, sir. But I can sit down with a guitar/uke/piano and sketch out a song in just a few minutes. And I can look at a piece of music and sight read a usually pretty accurate version of it. And if I am accompanied? No problem.

But did this all come over night? Noooo.

I've been singing in choirs for years (school, honor- and all-state, and community), studying voice privately, and the first poem I ever tried to write (it was about Halloween, and I was quite young) took an excruciatingly long time to figure out how to rhyme with, and it was 4 lines long.

My goal while I've been on a mission: 

become proficient enough on the piano 

to be able to play a hymn at a moment's notice. 

And to accomplish this task, 

I took advice from the parable of the talents.

The star in this parable is the servant who was given five talents, and with those talents, he gained five more! But the servant who was only given one talent decided to play it safe and bury his talent in the ground so that no one could steal it. He gained nothing, and his master was not very happy about it.

Because I had been blessed with these musical abilities, to gain more, I had to put it all out there. That meant volunteering to play the piano at even the smallest gatherings, such as weekly district meetings, to practice. And if you looked at my face while I was playing, you'd probably see me squinting in disgust. But I did it! And lo and behold, I improved ever so slowly. Do I still want to vomit at how bad I am sometimes? Absolutely! But I'm making progress. I remember playing the piano at a baptism a couple months back, and afterwards reflecting that I had never played that particular song so well before. There was maybe one mistake the entire time. I still messed up the closing song, but the opening was superb!

I think this particular accomplishment (in progress, but still) means more to me than even the fun times I had playing in a folk band a couple years back. Sure, I can say that I've played an accordion before, but will that do me any good in terms of serving my God? Probably not (I'll leave that to the professionals). But can I sit down and play the piano for the primary kids now? Or in Relief Society? Or (gulp) in Sacrament Meeting (heaven forbid)? Yes, I can.

And that's the story of how I took some talents, made some more, 

and offered them back to my Master.

"Guard Him, Joseph" - 21 December 2011

Now that Thanksgiving is over...

...it's time to legitimately bust out the Christmas music
(and not just shamefully hide your pre-Thanksgiving holiday music binging)!

If you like music, you're going to swoon.

I have had vocal training for years, have sung in many a chamber choir, as well as a folk band. I play guitar, ukulele, and piano, and have dabbled in a variety of other instruments. My computer at home is packed full of music, both my own and of other artists. So when I see a musician profiled on mormon.org, it's enough to give me a heart attack of joy. Enjoy just three of these artists right here:

Rock:



Classical:



Contemporary: