Travel with GRAMMY® Winner and 3 times Nominee Darlene Koldenhoven
Back in the late 1980’s Darlene had some memorable experiences (including a brush with a Roo!) on tour in Australia early in her career
The early days of Darlene’s career include work as a “sideman” in former soap opera star, Gloria Loring’s band. Darlene played synthesizer keyboards and sang background vocals and stepped up front and sing duets with Gloria. “Days of Our Lives” was in full swing in Australia at that time. Touring Australia with Ms. Loring led to several memorable adventures from Sydney to Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra and the Gold Coast in August/September of 1987 where it was quite rare to have it rain 48 out of the 50 days they were there. On one of the sunny days, the whole band drove south of Melbourne to the coast to see the 12 Apostles. Darlene cherishes a photograph she took of the waves crashing into them; seen daily in her home in Los Angeles.
On the other sunny day off, at the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, Darlene was feeding the kangaroos when suddenly, the large grey reared up on his tail, dug his front claws into her back shoulders, and kicked with both back legs on her ‘backside.’ She tried to slowly walk away but the buck was determined and hopped on his tail while still boxing her backside! She yelled, “Get him off, get him off!!!” Finally, Gloria’s music director yelled and rushed at the ‘roo’ and got him off of her. The rest of the tour Darlene had two giant bruises on each cheek and had a difficult time sitting for a while. She said it was the strangest feeling having a larger than herself animal on her back. (Darlene is 5’10’ and short compared to the marsupial on his tail.)
In Perth, Gloria threw out the ball at a championship rugby game and Darlene saw her first rugby match. Darlene was amused by the scrum and flabbergasted that the game went on with players jumping over the player who was down on the active field with a doctor!
Besides the bruises, her return home souvenirs were a few Aboriginal musical instruments she purchased while there: didjeridu, bullroarer, rainstick, clapsticks. On her new upcoming album, “Traveling the Blissful Highway” (10/14/22), Darlene played Australian Aboriginal rainstick. On her very first album, “Keys to the World,” she played the bullroarer and traditional didjeridu. Having been unaware at the time she purchased the instrument, no one mentioned it was considered cultural appropriation for a non-Aboriginal woman to play or touch a didjeridu. Upon recent study, Darlene sincerely apologizes Aboriginal and other groups who consider that taboo and adds that it was only used in a secular setting with great respect.
With the use of Zoom & Skype, Darlene taught voice and sonic therapy to Australian clients during the pandemic and has many fans of her and her music on the continent. She hopes to return someday to perform her own concerts and workshops, enjoying the rich culture of the country.
Nominee Darlene Koldenhoven and her musicians on the blissful highway with her upcoming New Age instrumental album, “Traveling the Blissful Highway”. There are twelve instrumental tracks including four with her angelic, harmonic vocalese, occasionally used as background instrumentation. All of her compositions and arrangements invite us to go out and see the world and have a good rest at the end of an exquisite day. Darlene performs on keyboard synths, creating a culture of calm: half the album has ethnic influences to gently keep you going on the road and half lets you exit to the rest areas. Even when real travel is not in the picture, pack these traveling soundscapes for your inner and outer journey. With this album, the only passport you’ll need for these destination cities – peace, calm, happiness and bliss is your own mindfulness to visit them and the album as your tour guide.
Darlene says, “After being cooped up so long in Los Angeles, I ventured to London, Las Vegas and Denver during the spring this year for some appearances and was so excited to travel again that when I came home, I started writing to process my emotions from it all and I just couldn’t stop! I hope the listener will enjoy the musical adventure and immerse in the sonic benefits from Traveling the Blissful Highway with me.”
About
GRAMMY® Award Winner and 3 time Nominee, Darlene Koldenhoven is a vocalist, pianist, composer, arranger, lyricist, speaker, and sonic therapist from Studio City, CA, born and raised in Chicago, IL. Her last two albums, “The Grand Piano Spa” and “The Grand Piano Spa: Legacy” debuted on the prestigious Billboard Classical Crossover Charts at #4 and #8, respectively in May & November 2021.
This past May & June gifted Darlene with a Lifetime Achievement Award from One World Music Radio and Outstanding Legacy Award from the Akademia Awards. She was inducted to the Indie Music Hall of Fame at the GRAMMY® Museum in 2019 by the Indie Music Channel Awards and the COVR Award hailed her “Chromatones” as Album of the Year a few months later. Several of her albums ranked #1 on the worldwide ZMR Radio Charts and she has 2 Best New Age Vocal Album and Best Holiday Album from ZMR.
Darlene is best known worldwide as the featured soprano in “Yanni, Live at the Acropolis” and for her role as the tambourine-waving choir nun in both “Sister Act” films with Whoopi Goldberg. Ms. Koldenhoven has authored “Tune Your Voice: Singing and Your Mind’s Musical Ear,” a comprehensive music education book with 7 CDs or downloads. She performs her music worldwide.
Darlene Koldenhoven – Travelling the Blissful Highway is Out Now October 14
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