Be Still--Music Studios: Christmas Piano

These Christmas songs were crafted in a free flowing improvisational style. My hope is after the Christmas tree has been trimmed, after the mad rush of shopping and parties...there might be a moment of quiet reflection. Let your spirit rest with the Prince of Peace.

About Me

Darrell is President of Pacificministries and served as a Worship and Teaching Pastor for 35 years, most recently at East Hill Church in Portland Oregon, where under team ministry the church grew from 600 to 7000 over 18 years.

Darrell is a recording artist, and has produced two well received CD's entitled Christmas Piano and Garments of Deep. He has sold nearly 10,000 of these albums.

In 2001,he founded Pacificministries, a non-profit organization created to serve and encourage pastors and leaders throughout the Pacific Northwest and Pacific Rim countries. Teams have ministered in 150 churches and mission organizations in Canada, Washington, California and Oregon as well as collaborating with Youth with a Mission and other non-profit aid organizations in India, Japan, China, Mexico, Korea, Russia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Africa, and Mongolia.

Pacificministries continues to build active relationships with churches, and other humanitarian organizations providing support and encouragement to pastors and other leaders all over the world.

Oregonian Columnist Margie Boule's Story

Mozart once remarked that the most important musical symbol is the rest mark. I have always believed a memorable musical experience is not detirmined by the number of notes played- it's the ones that aren't played. The gift of silence is rarely experienced.

I hope you hear the "rests" in this music. Our spiritual journey sometimes includes anxiety, sorrow, and pain. May you be reminded there is beauty after ashes, hope and peace in the silence-the "rests" of life.

Darrell

Margie Article

You think you understand yourself well. You think you know all there is to know about your life's work. And then you play piano at the Portland airport for 25 days. By playing simple Christmas carols in the midst of harried, distracted travelers who think they have no time for reflection, you discover your life's work is like a piece of music that has flowed from one phrase to another like a river of sound whose waters have slowed around a corner you didn't anticipate.
Darrell Dahlman has a master's degree in music; he has taught music to college students. For the past few decades Darrell, who's 46, has worked as a music director for a large church in Gresham. But last summer Darrell decided he was ready for a change. "I felt like I just needed to step out of the box," he says, "but I didn't really know what that meant." He recorded a CD of himself playing simple piano arrangements of Christmas carols, which he called "Christmas Piano." To sell the CD, in the fall Darrell started what he calls a musical "itinerant ministry" in small churches in the Northwest.
But no churches invited Darrell in December, when they had their own music programs. So when a neighbor who works at the Portland airport asked if Darrell would like a job playing there in December, Darrell accepted. It was just a job, he thought. Just something to do until his ministry picked up in January.
Darrell reported for work one day in late November and found a beautiful 9-foot Steinway piano in the terminal's shopping area. He looked up and realized "the new airport design acoustics meant whatever I played would spread through the whole airport. They turned off the piped music, and I started to play."
Darrell played quiet, contemplative arrangements of simple carols. And right away, people began to respond. "Some stopped and listened," Darrell says. "Others just slowed down. I think they were enjoying the music. But I think something else was happening….I guess I'd call it a 'Silent Nightness.' The food court was there, the Coffee People were making their espressos, there was a lot going on. In the midst of it, I felt I was creating an environment where people would pause. Three hours went by just like that."
Darrell came the next day, and the next. Free to set his own hours, he sometimes played 10 hours a day. "When you play for along time, you don't have to look at you fingers. You get to look at people. It became a study of what could happen if I offered something different in a place of real tension."
He met people from all over the world. "Sometimes they'd tell their stories. I wasn't in a rush." Some burst into song; sometimes strangers joined in. Toddlers danced on the carpet. "And sometimes children would say, 'I can play the piano, too.' I'd say, 'Really. Why don't you play?' And they'd play recital pieces."
One man stood near the piano with tears in his eyes. "He said, 'I was in New York when the Trade Center towers came down. I lost friends there. And you created for me a moment of peace.' "Another man, a recent widower, thanked Darrell for playing his late wife's favorite carol.
"Those kinds of things made me feel I was much more than just a guy playing the piano at the airport."
Darrell never will forget the evening of Dec. 13. "It was about 7 in the evening and really slow. Suddenly a flood of people filled the entire mall area. They'd had a security breach and pulled everyone off the planes…to go through security again."
People in long lines surrounded Darrell. "They were so nervous. You looked at them and their eyes were wide. Nobody knew what was happening, or how long it was going to take." Darrell played quietly. "For the next few hours I didn't sell any CDs, but I got winks and smiles and people said wonderful things as they passed. I'm not saying I had a tremendous effect. But I like to think I helped bring some kind of peace. After it was over, and they had cleared out, the security people thanked me."
As the days and weeks of December went by, Darrell says he "learned to play from a different perspective. For 30 years I have been playing for people who came to me in the church. In this case, I went where humanity was, and I was able to play for as many people of or perhaps more3, and contribute to a peaceful spirit. In a church there's reverence and there's respect. But when you step into the flood, you begin to understand what music can do, especially at Christmas time, especially at the airport, especially in the aftermath of what our country went through on 9/11 fall of 01
Darrell has already made tentative plans to spend next December back at the airport. The truth is, Darrell wouldn't mind playing there year-round. "I'm at the age where I think I needed this. I'm beginning to understand that perhaps a music ministry is much more than just songs you arrange for a church service."
"There were times, like late at night, I just felt I was supposed to stay," he says. "I'd be playing an exquisite, beautiful arrangement and I'd look around and there was nobody there. And I felt I wasn't playing for people, I was playing…how do I say this? For God. For the audience of One."

Be Still--Music Studios

Welcome to Be Still Music

Christmas Piano

About Me

Garments Of Deep

Christmas Piano

Oregonian Columnist Margie Boule's Story

Blog Archive