After I read Paulo’s book ‘Manuscripts found in Accra‘ in the late summer 2013 on my tour through Australia , a coat of peace enwrapped me and a beautiful connection to the soul soothed my heart. I had to find him to tell him. Only a month later I performed in Sao Paulo and bumped into an old friend of his, a journalist who immediately put us into contact.

It turned out that Paulo knew my music for many years and he was pleased to start a journey together. I took the most enthralling phrases out of 9 chapters of ‘Accra’, put them into a poetic frame  and then started with the composition of the songs.

With the utmost pleasure I finished this process only half a year later. I took great care arranging and finding the right atmospheres for the journeys and the wisdom of each poetic text.

I dug as deep as I could in my heart to grab the essence of these beautiful lines and capture them into most beautiful melodies and harmonic context.

Paulo’s book ‘Accra’ is a gift to the world and if I can enhance it only a little bit with this 3rd dimension of musical context and personally heartfelt compassion, I am eternally grateful.

The CD, with arrangements and collaborations by Gil Goldstein and Jamshied Sharifi, was released 2015.

The staging of the work premiered at the Ruhr Festspiele in Germany in May 2015, with beautiful atmospheric screening illustrations by Volker Schloendorff.

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Below are a couple of videos related to the ‘9 Secrets’ Project:

The fabulous video for ‘Beauty’ from “The 9 Secrets” album.

My beautiful conversation with Paulo Coelho about life and our project “The 9 Secrets”. I am so grateful to Paulo for granting me his time and support.

The photos below are from the Premiere performance of ‘9 Secrets’ at the Ruhrfestspiele in Germany, and broadcast by ARTE.