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JLevismusic.com is the world’s window into my personal world of sound.

To me, sound and color have always interacted such that one appears to be the sensory equivalent of the other. As a child I loved to hold down the sustain pedal of the piano in my father’s studio-then play several notes and listen to their interactions. The sound was like smoky mist rising off the strings, forming tendrils of sound that permeated the air and then gradually died away-enveloping me in their magic.

The child in me still finds this enchantment with sound-and finds his deepest emotions reflected, stirred and expressed. The expressive element connects me to the world around me, through composing, playing and improvising.

As an adult, I discovered that the movement as is expressed in dance is something that I connect with on a visceral and intellectual level. As a musician that works with dance as a composer, improvising pianist, and educator, I have learned to trust this connection and the intuitions and ideas that it engenders. I can ‘feel’ the movement inside me. The weight, volume and intensity-and the peculiar meaning that shapes evolving in time can have when well demonstrated, trigger something that guides me in my artistic decisions.

It is fortunate, then, that I have been able to make a living both as a musician who serves the area dance community and as an independent composer. I am able to create in my studio and also collaborate with musicians, dancers and choreographers.