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When I was a podcast guest on Off the Record with Brian Murphy, his last question was what song I would like to contribute to the Off the Record Spotify playlist. I couldn't choose just one song. This was one of three songs I picked. All three were meaningful to me. This one captures how I feel about my husband and have felt about him for the past 25 years. I Don't Want to Miss a Thing from Arm...

I haven't recorded any songs in more than a year, but I've been wanting to record this one for a while. I chose it for a boy I came to love as my own. He has had more to bear in his few years than many people will encounter in their lifetime. Circumstances caused us to lose touch, but I think about him every day, wondering how he is, hoping and praying he is healthy and happy. The simplicity of...

My second daughter, Mackenzie, had her first violin recital tonight. She wanted to play La Seine from A Monster in Paris. It was a challenge, but, as usual, she applied herself and did a great job. Music: Matthieu Chedid Arranger: Revka Stearns (based upon an arrangement by Rasa8) Violin: Mackenzie Stearns Piano: Revka Stearns

You know I favor music by Joe Hisaishi. This song is the theme he wrote for Porco Rosso, a Studio Ghibli film. I don't know how many "favorite" Hisaishi songs I can have (😜), but this is one of them. It echoes the characteristics of Porco Rosso, the titular character in the film: sometimes reserved, sometimes tender, always charming. Il Porco Rosso Composer: Joe Hisaishi Pianist: Revka Stearns

This is one of the most meaningful songs to me. It has brought me solace in some of the darkest moments of my life and always brings comfort and rest to my soul as I consider its words. I decided to record it today as I was thinking about some special friends who have lost dear ones recently. This arrangement only includes two verses and the refrain, but I'll share all the words below. Does Jes...

I've been focusing on getting the school year finished, and today is our last day. Hurray! Today the serenity and assurance of this song, one of my favorite hymns, sings in my heart. The story behind It Is Well has been told countless times, and I always marvel at the peace and comfort God gave Mr. Spafford and Mr. Spafford's song shares with so many even today. I hope that it truly is well wit...

This is the third song I've shared from the musical Les Miserables based on Victor Hugo's book by the same name. In this song, Jean Valjean, who has raised Cosette as a daughter, is praying for Marius, the boy Cosette loves. Marius joined the revolution and was part of the fighting from which few returned alive. His fate is unknown at this point in the story, and Valjean's simple yet heartfelt ...

"Via Dolorosa" is one of my favorite songs. (I may have as many favorites songs as I do books. 😂) This arrangement doesn't include the Spanish verse, but it's beautiful anyway. Down the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem that day The soldiers tried to clear the narrow street But the crowd pressed in to see The man condemned to die on Calvary He was bleeding from a beating, there were stripes upon His ba...

A while back I played "Castle on a Cloud" from Les Miserables and shared the back story. Today I'm sharing "I Dreamed a Dream," a well-known song from the same musical. This one is sung by Fantine, Cosette's mother. In it she remembers the hopes and dreams she had a young adult and the path that led her to the miserable life she led shortly before her death. "I Dreamed a Dream" affects me in mu...

I find this arrangement peaceful and relaxing. I would not have thought to put "Jesus Loves Me" in the setting of Debussy's "Clair de Lune," but it works beautifully. If your experience has been like mine, you sang this song often as a child but have rarely sung it since unless you're working with children. That's a shame because the message conveyed is one I believe everyone needs to remember ...

My husband occasionally requests I play a song. He recently asked me to record one of his favorites: Somewhere Out There from the movie An American Tail. I love this song, too, because of the deep love, longing, and hope it expresses. The story centers around the Mousekewitz family, Russian Jewish mice who emigrate to America because of pogroms. Their son Fievel gets lost on the journey and end...

One of my favorite songs sung in my childhood church was "My Tribute." When I hear it today, I'm transported back to those days worshipping God with people I love dearly. The words themselves are powerful, and my heart claims them as my desire. How can I say thanks for the things You have done for me? Things so undeserved, yet You gave To prove Your love for me. The voices of a million angels C...

Today I found the music for another of my favorite songs: Send in the Clowns. It's from the musical, A Little Night Music, with which I am unfamiliar. Despite not knowing the larger picture, this song just about makes me cry every time I hear it. It expresses profound hurt, regret, and loss stemming from missed opportunities and miscommunications. One popular misconception is that the clowns re...

In Les Miserables, Cosette spends her early childhood in the care of an innkeeper and his wife. Although her mother pays them to care for her, they verbally and physically abuse little Cosette. One way she copes is by imagining she lives with her mother in a castle on a cloud. The simplicity of this song adds to its poignancy and makes it one of my favorite songs in the production. Castle on a ...

You Light Up My Life

The Wind Forest from Studio Ghibli's My Neighbor Totoro

Thou Art Worthy

Send the Light

Hana-Bi

In Times Like These (with The Solid Rock)

O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus (in the setting of Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring by J. S. Bach)

Sweet By and By

"Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again" from The Phantom of the Opera

"Confessions in the Moonlight" from Studio Ghibli's Castle in the Sky/Laputa

"Rust" from Violet Evergarden

One Summer's Day from Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away

It Is Well

Someday from Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Face to Face/We Shall Behold Him