Damien Sneed on Dreams, Family and Franz Liszt

The Open Ears Project

Damien Sneed is an award-winning musician, conductor, composer and arts educator who works across classical, jazz, R&B and other genres. When he was five years old, Sneed’s parents told him he was adopted. He walks us through the story of how, through a series of dreams and coincidences, he eventually reunited with his biological family and learned to accept the complexity of life and music alike.

In this episode, Sneed reflects on how playing Liszt’s Étude No 3, “Un Sospiro,” for both his biological and adoptive mothers allowed him to finally loosen his grip around ideas of adoption, rejection and acceptance.

This performance of Franz Liszt’s “Concert Etude No. 3” is by André Watts from his EMI record, “André Watts Plays Liszt - Album 2." The performance of “The Will of God” is by Karen Clarke Sheard and Kierra Sheard from the Island Black Music record “Finally Karen."