Carricks launch new ‘Heirlooms’ album
Local musicians promote the family

By Rebecca Bostic, The Catholic Sun
November 16, 2006

SCOTTSDALE — The Christmas season provides a natural time for families to gather together and recall family memories and heirlooms.

Kurt and Julie Carrick, local Catholic musicians, hope that this Christmas season people will reflect on the greatest heirloom: the family.

The Carricks are celebrating that hope and the release of their Christmas album, “Heirlooms,” at a gala event at Steinway of Phoenix Nov. 18.

The event will showcase the artwork of local Catholic Cyndy L. Carstens, musical performances by the Carricks from their newest album, and the Heirloom Editions of Steinway pianos.

“The overview of the event is celebrating things that last — heirlooms,” Julie said. “So the tripod of the event will be the art that Cyndy is bringing, the music that we are bringing in the new CD release and then the heirloom pianos.”

The heirloom series from Steinway is composed of pianos, some more than 100 years old, that are sent to the Steinway factory to be enhanced with new technologies. The result is a rich sound from old wood combined with the most modern mechanisms, according to Julie.

The event “takes the word ‘Catholic’ in its essence and really brings that focus into that evening,” Julie said. “Our focus is Catholic. Cyndy is a Catholic artist and Steinway is not Catholic per-se, but they’re doing something unprecedented in that they are helping the Catholic community” find ways to fundraise and purchase Steinway pianos for worship.

‘Heirlooms’

In keeping with the title of their new album, the Carricks feature ancient Christmas songs like “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence,” classic Christmas carols and more contemporary songs like “Advent Prayer,” written by local artist Aaron Thompson in 2006.

“So the old and the new,” Julie said of the album. “You may have a new family, but the idea is that it will be a lasting family … Things that have lasting meaning, things that have lasting value, went into this project.”

“Heirlooms” features Christmas songs from all over the world.

“We’ve done the history of some of the songs we sing every Christmas, like ‘Silent Night,’” Kurt Carrick said. Originally written on the guitar in Germany, the song on the album opens with a guitar playing and singing of the famous melody in German.

The Carricks will perform songs from “Heirlooms” at the gala on Steinway pianos in a room decorated with the spiritual art of Carstens.

Carstens, an artist who uses many mediums, will feature landscape and Vanitas paintings will be at the event.  Vanitas portraits are still life paintings created in the 16th and 17th century that feature a person with objects important to that person’s life.

“They’re emotional pieces about life in general,” Carstens said of her landscapes. “Some of them are happy, some of them are sad … they’re meant to be beautiful pieces to look at and yet if you look past that just a little bit” there is a deeper and usually darker meaning.

Carstens is looking forward to sharing her art with the music of the Carricks, long time friends. Although there will be a price list available for interested attendees, Carstens goal is not to sell her pieces.

“It’s more of an awareness,” she said. “To strike up a conversation within someone’s heart.”

Peter Becker, the manager of Steinway of Phoenix, came up with the idea for the gala after hearing the album name. He immediately connected the title of the album to the Heirloom Series in the Steinway pyramid of pianos.

Steinway was the originator of the modern piano and has been producing famously high-quality pianos for the past 153 years.

Both Steinway of Phoenix and Carstens are donating a percentage of their sales from the evening to the Carricks’ non-profit ministry foundation.

Ultimately the goal of the event is to simultaneously launch the “Heirlooms” Christmas CD, Carstens artwork “and to launch the Heirloom pianos into living rooms across the Valley,” Kurt joked.

The gala will feature a private performance by the Carricks followed by a reception open to the general public from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Music will be performed throughout the event.

Steinway of Phoenix: 14418 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale.