Biography
Fran has a passion for music & has enjoyed listening to & creating music since a child.
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- Often would listen to Classical music of the greats and the Big Bands of the 1940s from her father's collection of albums before grade school.
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Grew up directly behind & attended Good Shepherd Church & School in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, a small town just across the Susquehanna River from Harrisburg, PA. The Church & School were often alive with the sounds of music, the organ and a wonderful choir. The school had a great music teacher and choir director, Sister Regina, IHM, who taught us all how to sing in harmony. Had group piano lessons in third grade with Sister Regina. Memorized and performed a piece at the school's piano recital.
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- Taught herself guitar at 14.
- Took more private piano lessons after high school.
- Singer/Songwriter, guitar. Performed at her High School Senior play in 1970 at Methacton High School, Pennsylvania. Performed covers of Buffy Sainte-Marie, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Joan Baez & original songs for friends, at parties, coffeehouses & many venues throughout the Philly, Valley Forge, Villanova, Collegeville, Eagleville, Montgomery County & Bucks County areas.
- Auditioned for Hair at the Schubert Theatre when 17 and passed the first audition. Did not receive the notice of passing the first audition until the date of the 2nd audition.
- Gibson guitar was stolen in Boston, along with all her lyrics and poetry.
- While living and working as a typesetter/typographer in New York City in Manhattan in the late 1970s to 1982 took piano lessons for a few years from Renata Laufer, who was the lead accompanist for Opera singers in Europe during World War II. Also took a Music Theory course at the Manhattan School of Music.
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- Improvising on the piano for decades.
- Since 2008 have produced, created, recorded & mixed over 200 pieces of music in many genres & have added instrumentation.
- Made 7 albums with another one on the way.
- As a sideline to this, I've always enjoyed the arts. I also like to paint, however, with making music I don't often have the time. I like to decorate, take digital photos and enjoy graphic design.
- Still play the guitar & sing occasionally. I always have a few songs or instrumentals in the making.
- Have collaborated with a few artists in recent years. Mike Hackbert aka Hackdaddy added Trumpet in 2014 to my 2013 New Year Jam recording which is in Playlist-1 and/or in the section titled New Releases. Mike also collaborated in a piece named World War II Memorial which is in my Memorial Album. This piece is in Player-1. Available now in this website are pages for all of my Albums. They are all available here to listen to in full under the headings "Albums" and "More Albums."
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- Leanne Felzien, composed the Cello part to my piece, Awareness. This is in Player-1 and under the heading "More Music." I will be adding more music there that is still not in any of my Albums.
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- * First collaboration was with Scott Orland Rogers in an album he produced named Earth's Evolution. We each took a period of the Earth's history and created some pretty interesting experimental / avant garde music. This was a wonderful learning experience for me & a brief description of each era we cover in music. A booklet is included within the album with a timeline for the different eras. Scott also has a book he wrote on Earth's Evolution. The music is a very good way to remember the different eras of our planet.
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- Created a few Podcasts in 2013 for my music Resurrection & Transfiguration. Please see the "Podcasts" page in this website if you'd like to check them out.
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- A few videos are located in this website under the heading Videos.
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Fran Schultz iPhoto Self Portrait in her home studio November 2014.