The Art of Listening

From 2020 to 2025, I was living back home in New Orleans and found myself with a lot of time on my hands. I was able to use this time to explore my deep love for mallet percussion. I bought some slate tiles and copper pipe and set about making a lithophone and a four octave set of copper chimes. These are the tools I used, along with my unfaltering companion, my Gibson Les Paul, to begin composing the rough ideas and parts that I would then arrange for a chamber ensemble in Logic X.

This live album of “The Art of Listening” during the 2025 Scranton Fringe Festival marks the first time this music was performed live. The concerts were held on September 26th, 27th, and 28th in Regina Hall at Marywood University.

These recordings are from the third performance on Sunday, September 28th. This performance was also only the third time we performed this music together as a group.

A very special thanks to Conor Kelly O’Brien, co-founder of Scranton Fringe, and pianist Zach Sprowls as without their help these concerts would not have been possible.

The support Conor has shown me over the years is hard to put into words. I haven’t met anyone more dedicated to supporting the arts and fostering the necessary relationships to grow and sustain a community of creators in the way Conor and his Fringe team have. It’s hard earned and done out of an almost maniacal love for the arts and the purity of human expression. From the artists perspective, simply knowing you have someone who supports you, who can see in their own way the subtle beauty you bring into this world, can be the one thing you need to keep going.

Zach also deserves a special note, as without him there would have been no ensemble to perform the music. He took on the role of Music Director, a difficult and often thankless task, booked the players, organized rehearsals, organized tech, and made sure everything was in place for the concerts to occur. From the moment Conor introduced me to Zach, I know I had met a kindred spirit.

- Daniel Amedee, 2026

Recorded live by Zach Sprowls and Daniel Amedee. Additional live recording by Dan Kimbrough. Mixed and Mastered by Daniel Amedee. All songs composed by Daniel Amedee.

The Art of Listening is available on BandCamp under the ‘pay-what-you-can’ model. Please consider making a donation of your choosing if you download the album. It is an album of Modern Classical music for Piano, Glockenspiel, Chimes, 2 Violins, Viola, and Cello.