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As the holidays approach our joy
can quickly spread thin. Darker days, the bright lights
in the stores, and secular music blaring everywhere you turn
contribute to putting us on edge. Through it all we wonder if
there can truly be any peace in our hearts during this
season.
Steve Sensenig shares the peace and joy
of Christ's birth through his music. His CD, Christmas Solitude,
is beautiful and relaxing. It pushes those feelings
of stress out of the heart and mind and
fills them instead with love and the wonderful
memories of Christmas' past. It puts our focus back on
Christ.
TOS: Steve you play the
piano so beautifully! How old were you when you learned to
play?
Steve: Thank you for that compliment! I am
humbled and blessed by the response to the music I play.
I started playing the
piano when I was three years old! My parents tell me that when
we would get home from church on a Sunday morning, I would go
to the piano and try to pick out the notes of the songs we had
sung that morning. I
don't have any recollection of that specifically, but my
earliest memories all include playing the piano in some
form. I don't remember a time that I didn't
play! Because my mother was
a pianist and my two oldest sisters had both taken piano
lessons as well, there were plenty of piano books around for
me to learn from. My mother taught me the basics, and I just
ran with it!
TOS: How did you decide that worship music
would be your focus?
Steve: In many ways, it wasn't a conscious
decision that I made. It's just what came out of my heart.
About five years ago, a friend of mine who was the sound
engineer at a church with which I was involved at the time
asked me to provide him with music that would be appropriate
for playing before and after church services. Specifically, he
wanted something prayerful in nature - something very
intimate. I sat down at home
at the keyboard, hit "record" and began just playing from my
heart. Just worshiping God through my
fingers.
My friend began playing
that CD that I provided him and people started asking him over
and over, "Who is that? Where can I get
that?" One thing led to another, and eventually the ministry
of that church decided to help me release the CD
commercially. That first CD (recently
re-released independently under the title Ivory Worship) came out in
2003.
It was featured on a
television praise-and-worship show on which I was playing at
the time (The Awakening, hosted by Randy Phillips of Phillips,
Craig, and Dean).The response from the television audience
again was amazing. I realized that something about my personal
worship through music was touching hearts and helping others
worship God, too.
That's what I've been
doing since. And in many ways, it makes the most sense. Music
is one of the ways I express my love for Jesus, and somehow
what's in my heart comes across, even in the medium of audio
recording. What greater use of my talent could there be than
to focus it on the One Who gave me that talent?
TOS: Your CD, Christmas Solitude, is so
peaceful.It creates a feeling of rest and puts one in the true
Christmas spirit. Why did you choose the songs you have
on the CD and what did you hope to convey with them?
It seems like so many of the things that
come about in my CDs come at the request of people involved in
my life and ministry!
Here in Boone, NC (where
we currently reside) there is a wonderful, locally-owned and
operated Christian bookstore called Cornerstone
Bookstore. I have a wonderful, ongoing
relationship with them that is very unique for an artist and a
bookstore, in my opinion. They have
diligently played my CDs in the store and sell many copies of
them on a regular basis.
The owners of that store
approached me in 2005 with a request.They said that several
customers had mentioned to them that they were looking for
Christmas recordings that were all Christ-focused and not
combined with Jingle
Bells, Winter
Wonderland, and other "holiday" songs.They suggested to
me that I do a Christmas CD centered completely around
Christ.
It made sense to me! And
it fit so perfectly with the focus of my ministry through
music. So I began the process. My only criteria for selecting
songs was that each song had to be focused on the birth and/or
person of Jesus. The flow of the CD just came naturally out of
that process.
The style of the CD,
besides being consistent with what had quickly become my
trademark sound, grew out of my own personal experiences with
Christmas. As many people can attest, the Christmas time of
year ends up being a very hectic, stress-filled time with very
little "peace on earth".
Often during that time,
I love to put soft music on, turn out all the lights except
for the Christmas tree lights and window candles, sit on the
sofa, and just be quiet and still. I decided that I wanted to
provide that experience for others by creating a CD that is
peaceful and worshipful - a soundtrack, if you will, for
others who might like to sit and be still during that time of
year, too.
TOS: Thanks for taking the
time to share about your inspiration and music with us Steve.
We're so pleased that we can share your music with our
readers!
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Purchase and listen to samples of Christmas
Solitude at
Don't miss Steve Sensenig's article
on the history of
Christmas hymns in our Fall 2007 issue
which also features holiday recipes from our TOS family!
Steve has more than just Christmas music.
His other
albums will fill your home with a sweet spirit of
worship all year long.
May Your Holidays Be Filled With
Worship,
Your Friends at The Old Schoolhouse
Magazine
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