WAVERLY - When Wilma Reiner Sundeen of Waverly decided to record another CD of her piano music, she really didn't know just when to stop. Sundeen will present not one but five new CDs to the public during a signing party Sunday, Oct. 14 from 1 to 4 p.
m. at Roper and Sons Chapel in Waverly. The CDs will be for sale during the afternoon.
Sundeen said that all five CDs have a special meaning to her. "I chose the songs myself and did 20 hours of recording over a four week time," she said. The CDs were recorded at Back to the Bible where Sundeen once played.
After she handpicked the songs, she began rehearsing them at her rural Waverly home. "At times I would work on a song 25 times to get it to sound right," she said. "Sometimes they go and sometimes they don't.
" In total the CDs contain 109 songs. "Everyone of them means something to (husband) Norman or to our daughters," she said. During the recording time, Sundeen read no music.
"The songs are all in my head," she said. "There are World War II songs, Big Band songs, and songs that people have forgotten about." Sundeen said she was asked to write a companion book with each CD explaining why she selected the songs she did.
But she laughed and asked, "Who had time to do it?" Instead she took the time to design the cover of each CD and write a personal note inside. "Wherever would the world be like without music," she wrote in the CD entitled "Without A Song".
Selections include Moon River, Far Away Places and other songs that meant a lot to her family. Sundeen says she "cut my teeth" on songs that are included in the CD entitled "Sentimental Journey". "These songs are timeless and bring such good memories back," she said.
Songs include Stardust, Deep Purple, and Smoke Gests in Your Eyes. Her third CD is entitled Golden Favorites. "Music on this one is from my childhood.
I remember when we left on senior sneak day everyone said let's go out to Wilma's and sing songs. We did," she laughed. She and her husband both are graduates of Waverly High School.
Songs on that CD include I'll Be Seeing You, I Dream of Jeanie and My Old Kentucky Home. While planning out the songs, Sundeen said she couldn't forget Christmas. "The one entitled "Christmas Celebration" is a two-disc CD," she said.
The one CD is filled with songs and carols of the season, such as Silver Bells and I'll Be Home For Christmas, while the second CD is full of songs to honor the birth of Christ, such as What Child is This and Still, Still, Still. "I play the songs as I'm hearing the words," she said. She uses the example of O Holy Night and how she plays the song as though Mary was speaking.
"Text was always important to me when I was learning to play," she said. "My mother made sure that I knew all the words to all the hymns and gospel songs." And on her fifth and final CD you will hear that what she did learn at her mother's knee is still with her.
Entitled "How Great Thou Art", Sundeen chose hymns that have meant so much to her during her life: Amazing Grace, How Great Thou Art, You'll Never Walk Alone, and Holy, Holy, Holy. "I play early morning and late in the evenings just for myself," she said. "Most mornings I start off with the hymn Holy, Holy, Holy and play it just for me.
" Sundeen began picking out tunes on the piano at 18 months. She took her first lesson from Emma Loder at the age of three and half. "She held me in her lap," Sundeen said.
"I can not tell you how much of an impact Emma had on me. She never really had to teach me, she was just there." Playing as an accompanist at weddings, which she started at the age of 14, at funerals, which she started at the age of 11, and at church as well as school, which she began while in primary school, was a valuable lesson as well.
"As you play along with the text, you learn how to make the music sing along," she said. "Playing along at an early age really taught me that." Sundeen has taught, and continues to teach piano lessons for 59 years.
"I used to have over 90 students, but I have slimmed it down to around 40," she said. She also played for Back to the Bible for 35 years. "I was staff musician and traveled with the youth choir during that time," she said.
She is currently staff musician for Roper and Sons. Sundeen said she had many people to thank for seeing that her favorite songs were recorded. "Lucille Bingham was very instrumental in seeing this done," she said.
Sundeen has taught Bingham's grandson, Lucas through his school years. "I also got to choose my producer, Peter Schroeder who I enjoy working with." And she added she needed to thank Roper and Sons for sponsoring her signing party on Sunday.
"I hope people can come to the signing party and hear my music," she said. And if not, she added that she was just a phone call away. Her phone number is 786-2234.
"Music is my life and piano is my instrument," Sundeen said. "I wouldn't want it any other way.
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