12/20/2004

First, I wanted to wish everyone a happy holidays and healthy new year!

Second, big news! The New York CD release party is set! It will be held on Tuesday, January 4th at 8pm at The Bitter End (http://www.bitterend.com/), which is located at 147 Bleecker Street (between Thompson and LaGuardia) in Greenwich Village. Since 1961, many legends have launched their careers in front of The Bitter End's famous brick wall, including the likes of Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, Harry Chapin, Jim Croce, James Taylor, etc. I am very excited to be making my New York debut there, so if you live in the metropolitan area (or you will be there that day) please come by!

I also have another Charlotte date booked on Saturday, January 29th at 8pm at The Evening Muse (http://www.eveningmuse.com/), and more dates will follow in cities like Atlanta, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Boston and Rochester, NY.

Last, but not least, thanks to all who have purchased CD’s to date! Things are going great and it is all because of you! If you have not bought a CD yet (or have not gotten them for all of the people you know for holiday gifts and/or because they might enjoy the music) what are you waiting for! The CD features a number of great musicians, including Jim Brock (drums/percussion) who has performed and recorded with Kathy Mattea, Janis Ian, Jimmy Buffet, Joan Baez, Joe Walsh and Joe Cocker; Rick Blackwell (bass) who has toured with Janis Ian, Crystal Bernard and Kathy Mattea; Dustin Hofsess (guitar) a member of Green Light, an instrumental-only modern jazz trio, who has played with John Scofield, Charlie Hunter and the Jerry Garcia Band; Tim Gordon (sax) who has toured for many years with the Four Tops and the Temptations as their sax soloist; and Mark Stallings (organ/keyboards) who can be heard on new releases by country star Kathy Mattea and Christian artist Bebo Norman as well as R&B legends Maurice Williams and The Chairman of the Board.

If you want to buy one (or buy two or more at a 20% discount) you can go to www.cdbaby.com/cd/sonnenstein and they will ship them directly to you (or to whomever you would like to send them to)! How easy is that! This is the #1 site for independent artists to sell their CD’s on-line and is very reputable, so please trust them with your credit card information. Also feel free to browse around the site a bit and take a look/listen to some of the great artists who choose to go this route as opposed to signing with a record label...

Again, thanks again for all of your support and I hope to see you in New York on January 4th!

Regards,

Sonny

9/30/2004

First, I want to thank all of those folks who came out the The Evening Muse in Charlotte, NC on Saturday, September 11th for the CD release party. It was a full house and a great time! Diane and I want to thank all of you for spending the evening with us!

Second, I was recently featured in a front-page story in the Charlotte Observer. The story is appended at the end of this little news update in case you're interested...

Third, I am pleased to announce that the CD is complete and available for sale! (For those who purchased your copy the evening of the release party and filled out an envelope, the CD is in the mail to you and should arrive shortly; if you paid for one and do not get it by the end of this week drop me a note with your mailing address and I'll send it out post haste).

The CD is available for purchase on-line at CD baby (www.cdbaby.com/cd/sonnenstein). This site also has .mp3 samples from 5 of the songs, and they will be happy to take your credit card and ship the CD/CD's directly to you. This is the #1 site for independent artists to sell their CD's on-line and is very reputable, so please trust them with your credit card information. Also feel free to browse around the site a bit and take a look/listen to some of the great artists who choose to go this route as opposed to signing with a record label...

FYI - I am still working out the details for a New York CD release party, as well as setting up other future gigs...

Again, thanks for your support and enjoy the CD!

--Sonny

 

 

Charlotte Observer, The (NC)
September 11, 2004
Section: MAIN
Page: 1A

A TURNING POINT AT GROUND ZERO, BEYOND
ORDINARY LIVES CHANGED
AMY BALDWIN, Staff Writer

THREE YEARS AFTER the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, some Americans who promised to lead better lives have made those good intentions stick - and for far longer than any New Year's resolution.

Alisa Wenning was a banker who didn't see enough of her kids. Sonny Sonnenstein had left no room in his go-go financial services career for a hobby. Bill Youmans, a minister, was overweight, hardly treating his body as a temple.
Today, these Charlotteans say they are leading richer lives.

Wenning quit banking to be with her children. Sonnenstein is playing the piano and writing songs. Youmans lost 50 pounds and is running marathons.

Their inspiration: the terror attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, which killed thousands, pummeled the economy and persuaded many to make vows to change their lives.

"I remember thinking, `Things are never going to be the same. This is a defining moment,' " Youmans said. "I just thought I better match it with my own change. It made me take life more seriously."

Sept. 11 made a lot of Americans re-evaluate their priorities. Sports teams postponed games and election officials pushed back primary runoffs. People gave more money to charities or devoted some of their precious time to volunteering.

But ultimately life marched on.

"There were many people who dug deep after 9-11 and did very different things for a short amount of time," said Andrea Eisenberg, regional managing principal with Right Management Consultants in New York.

Wenning, Sonnenstein and Youmans are special because they set out to change their lives and they did it, not for a stint but for keeps.  "There was a core group of people who found things within themselves they didn't know they had," said Eisenberg, whose firm provides human resource and career counseling services to thousands of corporate clients worldwide.

"That is the thing about 9-11 - the time all of a sudden became right to make dramatic changes."

Sonny Sonnenstein

Sonnenstein was on the 81st floor of the World Trade Center's north tower, about 10 floors below where the first plane hit, on the beautiful crystal-blue morning of Sept. 11. At 8:45 a.m. the financial services consultant had wrapped up a conference call with client Bank of America Corp.

He was on his way to get coffee when he felt the floor beneath buckle.

Sonnenstein, who has lived in Charlotte since 1991, spent the next several hours getting himself and others to safety, watching the twin towers fall and struggling to get a call out to his wife, Diane, back home to tell her he was alive.

Out of the terror, Sonnenstein, now 36 and a consultant with Pricewaterhouse Coopers, rediscovered his gift for music. He plays the piano and writes and sings his own music.

"About six months after September 11, I remember I sat down at the piano and this little melody came to me and I started playing it," he said of a song called "Coming Home," which tells of his journey to Charlotte from New York. "This story just poured out of me. I guess it was my cathartic way of dealing with it."

Since the attacks, he has written dozens of songs and compiled a CD called "Coming Home," which is being released today. He sometimes performs at the Evening Muse in NoDa.

Sonnenstein had had an off-and-on affair with the piano.  Growing up on Long Island, N.Y., he took lessons from age 4 until about 11, when playing soccer took precedence. He resumed playing piano briefly in high school and even tried writing some songs. In college he performed in coffee houses. But when Sonnenstein began focusing on his career, he gave up being a piano man.

These days, Sonnenstein said he still works just as hard as he did before Sept. 11 and is often away on business.

But he's also committed to the piano.

"I love what I do for work," Sonnenstein said. "But I also love my music. It is something that will never get away from me again."

---

August 20th 2004