Lore Constantine

The Red Keyboard Odyssey - more dramatic than My Red Car! 6-7 years ago, I was at a concert at the TLA - Jaimoe, to be exact. It was one of those standing room shows. I was hearing this huge B3 sound coming out of a small (comparatively) red keyboard on stage. I looked at John, and said I have to find out what's making that sound. So I pushed through the crowd until I was in sight of it - "Nord Electro". Fast forward a few years, many more concerts, and invariably when I'd hear that special B3 sound but…

I am sending out a thank you to The Recording Academy (and to the cosmos) for giving me the opportunity to present my music here. When I first began this journey two years ago, I was not planning on doing any type of album, or even singing, for that matter (it had been 30 years since I'd done any solo singing!). But with the gift of a ukulele (and a red car!) and a friend who was writing poetry, these songs materialized. I only wanted to put them out there, and my goal was to do the best job that I…

Some of you may be aware that my husband and I have been great fans of the band 'Hot Tuna' (Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane), and over the years we have seen them in many venues, from Thanksgiving Eve shows at the Keswick Theater, to Philadelphia, Atlantic City, Wilmington, DE, even the Pitman theater in Pitman, NJ. We have seen acoustic Hot Tuna, Electric Hot Tuna, Hot Tuna with David Bromberg, Jorma Kaukonen solo with Barry Mitterhoff at the TLA, Philly - anyway you get the picture…

Once in awhile, something is really life changing, even if we don't realize it at the time or listen to the calling. For me, one such moment was in March 1978, when I attended a concert of Vladimir Horowitz. Attending this concert was not even my own doing. I was invited by a friend from school and really had no concept of what I was going to see or even the rarity or what I now view as priceless seats for that event. We were in the first raised area of seats at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia…

While I was playing my piano this morning, I saw a sparrow land on a pole outside my window, looking towards the sound for a few minutes, listening.  It's not the first time this has happened.  I have a cardinal who regular comes by and sits for quite awhile, seemingly entranced by the sound.

Last summer, playing outside at Woodstock Trading Company, a bird flew into the tree above me and sang along for about four songs.  Then in December, also at WTC, Mugsy the Cat sat on a chair and later on a stool, an…

Welcome to my first blog.  In this blog I will be posting music-related thoughts of my career, both in teaching and performing.  Info about this journey will hopefully open a dialogue with fans and fellow musicians alike about common interests and pursuits, and any suggestions about future topics are gladly welcome.

For this first blog, I would like to answer the question “What pianists do you listen to?”  As you can tell from my recordings, I do listen to a wide variety of music.  Even just the…