- Video shows artist Hans Christian playing his music from his Grammy-nominated CD, "Ocean Dreaming Ocean"
- Christian found out on November 10th that he was among four nominees for the New Age/Ambient/Chant category
It's such a milestone. One of our neighbors is nominated for a Grammy. I'm your Door County neighborhood reporter Katlyn Holt and I'm talking with this local musician about his career and his nomination.
"It’s a long time coming. You know, it's not an overnight success story in my in my case for sure," said Hans Christian, who came to the United States from Germany in 1982 to pursue a career in music.
He says he didn't have much money or a place to live and he went to music school in Hollywood for a year.
"I worked my way up the ladder as a musician and eventually decided to pursue my own music more seriously, and also, to start producing other artists," said Christian.
Fast forward 40 years and Christian got the call on November 10th he'd been dreaming about for decades.
“I was sitting, and my phone was overheating, you know, I got all these messages,” said Christian.
That call is when he learned his CD, “Ocean Dreaming Ocean,” was nominated for a Grammy under the category New Age/Ambient/Chant, along with four other nominees out of 175 entries.
Last year, he received a call from the long-time producer, Mickey, of artist David Darling. That producer offered Darling’s raw and unfinished materials to Christian to work with. Christian used these samples to help create, “Ocean Dreaming Ocean”, and says he had followed Darling’s work for a long time, even referring to him as a legendary cellist.
Most of the music on the CD was created on cello, either by Darling or Christian himself.
He says this CD has been a highlight of his career as a cellist, composer, and producer.
“So, there's a lot of music out there a lot of hundreds of 1,000s of titles every year. So, I’m pretty stoked that somehow, 'Ocean Dreaming Ocean,' made it that far,” said Christian.
Christian has lived in Door County since 2002 and owns 'Studio 330' in Sturgeon Bay.
"It's both for my own music and for collaborations with other artists where we co-compose, co-produce, and for clients’ artists to come in they want to record in a high-quality environment," said Christian.
Along with his studio, Christian also teaches audio engineering at NWTC.
“I'm excited. I have plenty of work to do on other things,” said Christian.
Christian will find out if he wins a Grammy in February at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards.
