OUR FEATURED ARTIST IS GRAMMY® WINNER, DARLENE KOLDENHOVEN
Darlene Koldenhoven is a GRAMMY® Award Winner with 3 GRAMMY® nominations. She is the first inductee into the Indie Music Hall of Fame.
Darlene is known worldwide as the featured soprano soloist singing “Aria” in the PBS TV Special and Video, “Yanni, Live at the Acropolis,” seen by over 1.5 billion television viewers and millions more now on YouTube.
PRE-ORDER “THE GRAND PIANO SPA” NOW
Darlene was born in a mixed neighborhood on the south side of Chicago to a family with an extensive musical lineage. Growing up, however, she only heard the singing of her mother and grandfather.
Darlene could hold her own harmony part by age 3, making her Easter Sunday debut in church singing a solo, “Low in the Grave He Lay.”
Her initial emphasis of formal training was classical piano, which she began studying in earnest at age 9. Two years prior, she learned sewing from grandmother and continues to carry on the tradition to this day, sewing and occasionally designing her clothes and concert gowns.
Her father, awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, died from malaria complications contracted during his tours of duty. Her mother, as a single mother, suffered financial hardship then, and her sister was born deaf. This circumstance didn’t allow her hard-working mother to be able to afford formal singing lessons for Darlene until age 16.
Darlene’s new album, her first solo piano album, is “The Grand Piano Spa.“
Read our review of this gorgeous album here.
PRE-ORDER THE GRAND PIANO SPA HERE
The product of a strict Dutch Christian Reformed/Calvinist family, Darlene was only allowed to listen to or play religious or classical music and she was not allowed to improvise. She never really listened to pop music until college where she absorbed everything from the Beatles and Middle Eastern music to jazz.
But the fierce work ethic and discipline she learned from home and her schooling made her an outstanding scholarly achiever, thus preparing her for the ubiquitous and enviable career she now relishes in the entertainment capital of the world, Los Angeles.
Arriving in Los Angeles in one January with only a leap-of-faith, $400, her car, 6 wool turtleneck sweaters (she’s from Chicago), and no contacts – therein is the story of how hard work and perseverance pays off . . .Darlene was awarded an MVP Session Singer award for singing on over 1,000 recordings in film, television, commercials, and more, working with many of the top names and productions in the entertainment business today by the Los Angeles Chapter of NARAS – The GRAMMYS®
Darlene revealed an early sensitivity to teaching and nurturing when she assisted in the early speech therapy of her only sibling, a sister 9 years younger who was born deaf with bilateral aural atresia. At 6 months old, her sister wore the first set of bone conduction hearing aids and experimental surgery created some hearing capabilities for her at age 4.
Revelations from that experience impacted Darlene three-fold, sparking her intense interest in how vocal sound is created by the smallest gestures of the structures of the mouth, sound vibration as a source of healing and restoration, and the expressive possibilities of vocal sound without words – a signature element of her singular style. Darlene has also created a music education book with 7 CDs, “Tune Your Voice: Singing and Your Mind’s Music Ear,” to help singers and non-singers of all ages and levels find and develop their voice.
Darlene Koldenhoven’s first two albums are her debut, “Keys to the World” (an adult contemporary pop work with an emphasis on positive lyrics, both humanitarian and for the environment), “Free to Serve” (an eclectic gospel soundtrack, commissioned by the Christian Reformed Church of North America and lifted from a World Missions multi-media concert that she co-directed, wrote all the music for and performed in, featuring musicians and singers she brought back from the impoverished Sierra Leone, West Africa).
Since then, she has released 9 more multi-award-winning albums on her TimeArt label. Especially of note is one of her vocal albums, “Color Me Home.” That album won 20 awards and now she is adding her most recent creation, her first solo piano album, “The Grand Piano Spa.” When asked about the future, in addition to her regular activities, Darlene is looking forward to touring with her concerts and workshops, and creating more healing music to benefit mankind.
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