These two outstanding musicians found each other through their love for music. Sandra and Gregory Maytan perform regularly together and give diverse programs and workshops on a high level. Välsignad” (Swedish for “blessed”) features some of the oldest prayers, with and without words, of our Western civilization. Having been endowed with powers that transcend imagination, music is one of the most exalted blessings we possess. In the world’s Holy Scriptures, music has been compared with being a “ladder for the soul”. Depending on the motivation and skill of the composer, the artist and the audience, it has been given the power to heal and beautify, to refine, inspire and uplift. In order to truly grasp and experience the power and uniqueness of music, we need to allow for times of complete silence and meditation, even solitude, just as we need periods of fasting to enjoy the finest repast. Being somewhat remote from this physical world, music can also remind us of the mysterious state of “pre-existence” that many claim pre-dated all creation. The role of music in creation is expressed most beautifully in this ancient Arabic legend: When God created Adam, he first created his soul – pure, beautiful and radiant. He then bowed down and took red clay and dust from the earth into both of His hands, forming Adam’s body. Adam’s soul, with its holy and refined nature, rejected the dirt and dust it was now expected to embrace. In order not to disrupt the purity of Adam’s soul, God ordered a group of Angels to descend into Adam’s body and to perform a heavenly concert. The moment Adam experienced the first sounds of their ethereal melodies, he fell into an ecstatic trance. Soon afterwards, the Angels ascended to their heavenly home, leaving Adam’s divinely enchanted soul to bless and accompany him as he fulfilled his earthly destiny. Sandra Maytan is an emerging young singer and pianist with a richness of vocal expression. She currently teaches voice and piano at the Valparaiso University Partners for Music Program. Born and raised in Germany she studied Music Education, majoring in piano with Prof. Herbert Schmidt at the Franz Liszt Music Conservatoire in Weimar where she worked and performed repeatedly as an accompanist and soloist. She continued her voice studies with Countertenor Alejandro Garri in Frankfurt, Germany, where she appeared as a featured soloist at the Kronberg Summer Festival. During that time she premiered several contemporary oratorios and appeared as a soloist in Germany, Luxembourg, Austria, Sweden and England. Upon moving to the United States with her husband, Gergory Maytan, she continued her vocal studies with Prof. Patricia Stiles at Bloomington IU and Tracy Watson at Roosevelt University. This coming fall, Sandra Maytan will be performing among others Mahler’s „Songs of a wandring wayfarer“ with the LaPorte Symphony Orchestra. Gregory Maytan joined the Valparaiso University faculty as Assistant Professor of Music in 2006. He performs regularly as a soloist chamber and orchestral musician. Maytan has performed extensively in Europe and the US, playing about 50 recitals a year. Upcoming engagements include multiple performances of the Paganini Violin Concerto no 1 with orchestras in Nevada, Indiana, Sweden and China and participation in the prestigious chamber music festivals ‘Musikveckan’ in Junsele, Sweden and the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Schwarzwald, Germany. Maytan’s recent CD, consisting of music from his native Scandinavia was lauded by the Classical Voice of North Carolina for its ‘great artistry’ and noted that the performance is ‘as polished as any listener could desire’. It was selected by The Strad is the top recital CD of April, 2009 and highly praised by Strings Magazine. Maytan was recently a semi-finalist in the Schadt competition in Pennsylvania. He has participated in the International Chamber Music Festival in Vienna, Austria, where he was a featured prize winner and has placed and been awarded significant cash awards in the Swedish Royal Academy’s competition for post-graduate violinists during the years 2006, 2007 and 2008. He has performed and toured with numerous orchestras, and his concerts have been broadcast on radio and television in the U.S. and Europe. He has participated in masterclasses with Zakhar Bron, Leonidas Kavakos and Michela Martin. He earned his doctorate in violin performance from the Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington, where he studied with the renowned violinists Miriam Fried and Paul Biss. Other teachers include Igor Petruschevski (London), Federico Agostini (Bloomington) and Alexander Kerr (Bloomington). He performs on a Stefano Scarampella violin from 1896.