If you purchased your copy of the groundbreaking DVD Champions of Faith then you may have noticed the beautiful orchestral score throughout the film. Composer Stephen Kaminski has been writing and producing music for TV, radio and films for over 20 years and owes his career to his faith, a faith that he attributes to his parents.
Stephen and his brother attended Catholic school growing up in New Jersey. Stephen went on to follow his music career at Berklee College of Music in Boston, and it was there he started attending Bible studies outside of school. When he graduated, he looked into attending an graduate film-scoring program at the University of California, but the program was expensive. He was faced with a big decision. The sixty-plus hours a week that the course demanded would have made it impossible for him to continue working part-time, meaning that the entire burden of the cost would fall on his parents. Yet the program seemed to be just what he needed for the career path he was envisioning for himself.
That's when a friend of his in California invited Stephen to visit her church. The sermon that day was about making decisions in life. Religion had not been playing a big role in his career up until then, but that day sitting in church with a big decision weighing on his heart and mind, Stephen realized his limitations. He could not see into the future, but he knew God could. If he made the decision not to pursue a graduate degree, he would have to put God in charge of his career. He decided to trust that there was another path, that God would be the one in charge of where he went professionally. As Stephen puts it, "The journey took longer, and it has been a far different road, but I have been writing music almost everyday and I love it." Since then, Stephen has been growing in his musical career, composing music for TV and films. Stephen's last theme was for the show, The World Series of Pop Culture, on MTV. His music has been heard on every major network around the world.
In addition to his mainstream music, Stephen still honors his parent's Polish heritage. His mother and father listened to polka music for much of Stephen's young life. After college Stephen got a call from Polish entertainer Jan Lewan to be his musical director. Stephen wrote, arranged and played with the band for 12 years, earning Jan a Grammy Nomination for best polka album in 1995 and directing the band in such places as Avery Fisher Hall and The Las Vegas Hilton. He since has helped turn polka music on its ear by contributing a different sound to the industry. He helped coin a new sub-genre of polka music called Extreme Push, which is a high-energy style of polka music that infuses different contemporary styles of music. Stephen loves combining Rock, Jazz, Caribbean, Tex-Mex, Latin, and even classical music into polka music.
It's no wonder that he would produce a Christmas polka CD that not only infuses a lot of different styles of music, all woven into an energetic 2/4 beat, but one that would also emphasize the true meaning of Christmas. His latest production, Christmas Lights, is a CD by Charm City Sound, a popular polka band out of Baltimore. Half of the 14 songs on the CD are original. All but one were co-written by Stephen. One song is entitled "The First Six Letters Of Christmas." co-written with band leader Mike Matousek. It emphasizes what is often missing from the commercialized holiday, and what the "reason for the season" truly is; Christ. "Tell The World" urges the listener to spread the good news of Christ's birth. A ballad, written by Stephen, paints a picture of his 4-year old daughter writing a letter to Santa. The song goes on to list some of the more important things in life — other than toys from Santa. Fun and familiar songs done in this unique and contagious style of music include "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "The Little Drummer Boy".
If you haven't listened to this style of music before, you really should give it a listen. You can listen to clips and purchase the CD at CD Baby. Click here http://cdbaby.com/cd/ccs6.
To read a review, clink on http://christmasreviews.com/wccs6.shtml to visit Christmas Reviews.
Visit the band's website at http://www.charmcitysound.com/.
To find out more about Stephen Kaminski's other projects, visit http://www.stephenkaminskimusic.com/.
For music licensing please visit http://www.westwoodmusicgroup.com/.
