Dana Cunningham is in the upper echelon of contemporary instrumentalists as a solo pianist. Her third recording, The Color of Light was released in June, 2007 from her label, Fountain Creek Music. The Color of Light was produced by William Ackerman

William Ackerman

William Ackerman is a Grammy winning guitarist and composer of acoustic-based instrumental music. He founded and ran for many years the influential New Age record label Windham Hill Records.- Career :...

, who built Windham Hill Records

Windham Hill Records

Windham Hill Records is a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment specializing in Acoustic, New Age and Folk music. Originally founded in 1976 as an Independent record label by guitarist and carpenter William Ackerman and his then-wife Anne Robinson, Windham Hill was a successful and well-respected...

 into one of the most successful independent record labels in history. Ackerman said, "Dana's new album is simply the most impressive work of composition and performance I have heard from a pianist in twenty years.”

Born in Colorado Springs, Colorado

Colorado Springs, Colorado

Colorado Springs is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and most populous city of El Paso County, Colorado, United States. Colorado Springs is located in South-Central Colorado, in the southern portion of the state. It is situated on Fountain Creek and is located south of the Colorado...

 in 1961, Dana eventually moved with her family to Texas where she grew up in Amarillo

Amarillo, Texas

Amarillo is the 14th-largest city, by population, in the state of Texas, the largest in the Texas Panhandle, and the seat of Potter County. A portion of the city extends into Randall County. The population was 190,695 at the 2010 census...

, Dallas

Dallas, Texas

Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...

, and Paris

Paris, Texas

Paris, Texas is a city located northeast of the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex in Lamar County, Texas, in the United States. It is situated in Northeast Texas at the western edge of the Piney Woods. Physiographically, these regions are part of the West Gulf Coastal Plain. In 1900, 9,358 people lived...

, Texas. Dana began piano lessons at the age of seven, and while living in Paris,Texas, she studied piano under James Thompson.

In 1980, Dana moved to Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

 to attend Vanderbilt University

Vanderbilt University

Vanderbilt University is a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the...

, where she received a Bachelors degree in Communications in 1984. While at Vanderbilt, she also studied piano at the Blair School of Music under the direction of Enid Katahn. Among her sorority sisters was Christian pop singer/songwriter, Amy Grant

Amy Grant

Amy Lee Grant is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author, media personality and actress, best known for her Christian music. She has been referred to as "The Queen of Christian Pop"...

 of the Eta chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta

Kappa Alpha Theta

Kappa Alpha Theta , also known as Theta, is an international fraternity for women founded on January 27, 1870 at DePauw University, formerly Indiana Asbury...

. During the summer months of this period, Dana was a camp counselor at Greystone, a Christian girls’ camp outside Tuxedo, North Carolina.

After graduating from Vanderbilt, Dana taught at the elite Chatham Hall Girls School

Chatham Hall

Chatham Hall is an all-girls college-preparatory boarding school located in Chatham, Virginia, United States. Graduating classes are fewer than forty students each year. The school was founded as Chatham Episcopal Institute in 1894, Chatham Hall. The athletics teams play in the Blue Ridge Conference...

, a private college prep institution outside Lynchburg, Virginia

Lynchburg, Virginia

Lynchburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The population was 75,568 as of 2010. Located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains along the banks of the James River, Lynchburg is known as the "City of Seven Hills" or "The Hill City." Lynchburg was the only major city in...

. In 1987, Dana enrolled in Dallas Theological Seminary

Dallas Theological Seminary

Dallas Theological Seminary is an evangelical theological seminary located in Dallas, Texas. It is known for popularizing the theological system known as Dispensationalism...

, earning a Masters in Biblical Studies in 1990. She later studied the healing arts at the Institute of Natural Healing Sciences near Dallas,TX and the Esalen Institute

Esalen Institute

Esalen Institute is a residential community and retreat in Big Sur, California, which focuses upon humanistic alternative education. Esalen is a nonprofit organization devoted to activites such as meditation, massage, Gestalt, yoga, psychology, ecology, and spirituality...

 in Big Sur, California. For nearly a year, Dana chose to live at Pecos Benedictine Monastery outside Santa Fe, NM

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...

.

Since 1998, Dana has lived in the White Mountains

White Mountains (New Hampshire)

The White Mountains are a mountain range covering about a quarter of the state of New Hampshire and a small portion of western Maine in the United States. Part of the Appalachian Mountains, they are considered the most rugged mountains in New England...

 of New Hampshire

New Hampshire

New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...

. She released her debut album, Dancing at the Gate, in 2002 and Silent Night in 2004.

Trivia

• Marcia Myers, the United States’ preeminent fresco painter from Santa Fe, generously lent her stunning work, SCAVI CLXXXIV, for the cover art of The Color of Light.

• These contributing artists also appear on The Color of Light:

  2005 Grammy Award-winning cellist, Eugene Friesen

Eugene Friesen

Eugene Friesen is an American cellist and composer.Friesen is a graduate of the Yale School of Music. He has been a member of the Paul Winter Consort since 1978, and performs with Howard Levy and Glen Velez as Trio Globo...

  Ugandan-born vocalist, Samite Mulondo

  2004 Grammy Award-winning guitarist, Will Ackerman

  English Horn, Jill Haley

  Percussion, Derrik Jordon

  Violin, Steve Schuch

  Percussion, Glen Velez

  2004 Grammy Award-winning engineer, Corin Nelsen

External links

• Dana Cunningham's official site
• Solo Piano Publications 2007 review of Color of Light.