In The Garden

TESTIMONIALS:

“There is much to savor about in this beautifully crafted album of 15 hymns rendered so lovingly on the piano. This marvelously produced album is a veritable bouquet of sounds that rise and fall gently on the heart and impart utter peace and well-being.”
- Ricky Kej,Grammy Award Winning New Age Composer and Producer

“In the Garden, fifteen of our most beloved hymns, songs and classical melodies, all set in a perfect flow of delightful arrangements. Peggy Duquesnel, Billy Martin and Steve Hall have crafted a sublime sonic refuge for our weary nerves.”
- Paul Avgerinos, Grammy Award Winning New Age Artist and Producer

“A masterpiece so gentle and lovely it heals the parts you didn't know you had.”
- Dave Kinnoin, Songwriter and Children's Artist

“Peggy has taken many recognizable hymns and created instrumental masterpieces. I found 'Canon in D/Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee' to be particularly moving. This album also features original songs by the composer that are equally enjoyable…you can easily listen again and again, each time finding some new favorite line.”
- Gurujas Khalsa - White Sun, New Age Artist

“The collection of piano reveries mixes hymns with secular music in a flow... this new age/instrumental set comes in handy when you want some peaceful tunes swirling around you. With a real pro at the wheel, our ears are in good hands throughout.”
- Chris Spector, Midwest Record

PRESS RELEASE

Award-winning pianist Peggy Duquesnel turns heads skyward "In The Garden"

The just-released Piano Orchestrations set of originals, classics and inspirational hymns, featuring Billy Martin and the late Steve Hall, also serves as the soundtrack to a series of nature videos released on DVD and airing on Radiant TV.

Long Beach, Calif. (5 May 2016): After teaming to write an award-winning original score for a web series, pianist-composer-arranger Peggy Duquesnel reunites with orchestrater and woodwind man Billy Martin for a newly released outing that explores the spiritual side of her creative muse entitled "In The Garden." Containing over an hour of tranquil piano and woodwind selections issued on the Joyspring Music label featuring originals penned by Duquesnel along with classics and traditional hymns, the recording also includes a pair of long-revered hymns from the late pianist and Piano Orchestrations brand creator Steve Hall, whose 25-year-old, two-million-selling Bankbeat Productions imprint recently came under the Joyspring Music umbrella.

Continuing her varied recording career that spans a dozen instrumental and vocal jazz and devotional albums, "In The Garden" is a soothing session featuring Duquesnel's lyrical piano poetry and enhanced by Martin's woodwinds. The pianist wrote nearly half of the record and conceived of fresh arrangements for the timeless hymns with the lion's share of the lush orchestrations deftly handled by Martin. Setting the mood for reflection, Duquesnel's spacious production allows her poignant, uplifting and communicative piano melodies to occupy the fore while sweeping orchestral woodwind backdrops underscore the exquisite orations.

A companion "In The Garden" DVD is also now available, pairing the album's tracks with stunning nature videos that are currently in rotation at the recently launched Radiant TV network. Lensed by Creation Scape's Gary Hanson, the cinematic images marry the music to the divine splendor of colorful carpets of floral fauna, majestic mountain ranges, placid streams and babbling brooks, verdant rainforests and oceanfront vistas.

"'In The Garden' is a continuation of my work with Billy Martin along with remembrances of my late collaborator Steve Hall, with whom I worked for 20 years. It's a prayerful, meditative and inspirational album of new compositions and handpicked hymns inspired by family, dear friends and several momentous moments in my life. I hope that this music provides peaceful experiences and fond memories," said Duquesnel, who will perform album release concerts with Martin and other musicians in Southern California on Mother's Day (May 8) at the Irvine Presbyterian Church and May 22 at the Hoson House in Tustin.

Through her secular and non-secular catalogue that boasts critically-acclaimed albums and national radio singles, Duquesnel has recorded or performed with Alan Broadbent, Henry Mancini, Pat Boone, Dionne Warwick, Jeff Lorber and Rick Braun. Martin has a lengthy, award-winning history of composing original music for television series such as "The Mentalist," "How I Met Your Mother," "Desperate Housewives" and "Monk"; for feature films including "Spiderman 2" and "Selena"; and for best-selling video games by Disney and Ubisoft. Together, Duquesnel and Martin recently won a best original score statue at the Studio City International Film Festival for the pilot episode of the web series "Vagabond." Hall's Bankbeat Productions released Duquesnel's "Tropical Breezes" album twenty years ago and it was he who encouraged his protege to launch her Joyspring Music label in 2001. Duquesnel is proud to continue his musical legacy.