What is your favorite childhood memory? The carefree summer afternoons with nothing better to do but stare at clouds, or the excitement of receiving a new toy? These were the days when the worst thing that could happen was a less than perfect test score in school or a best friend moving away. A time before debts, bills, and other unavoidable responsibilities, when whatever was the latest fad could easily be used as a currency on the playground. This is the spirit I set out to capture when I decided to record Robert Schumann’s Op. 15, Scenes from Childhood. The work is a retrospective of youth as seen through the eyes and memories of the adult, and I wanted my own story and history to be told through these notes as I played them. We all have a unique childhood, with different experiences and nostalgia triggers that instantly return us to those simpler, easier times, and the story Schumann told through this series speaks differently to each of us based on those personal recollections. With each melody, I wanted to recapture the lost or fondly remembered feelings of my own childhood and bring them into a new life through the poetry of Schumann. These performances are meant to be just as much my story as they are his and yours.