When Winter Comes

Dimitra Dourouda Byron, Greece

Dimitra’s the name, music is the game… And I hope I am not bound… to go underground! I have been a restless traveller on the Road to Freedom of the Spirit and the Soul paved by the unique Crusader of contemporary music, Chris de Burgh, since 1983, at the age of ten. I have had the great fortune of enjoying him “live in concert” as well the true pleasure and honour of meeting him personally on several occasions in Greece, the UK and Germany. Other influences since childhood include Mike Oldfield, Richard Clayderman, Abba, Ennio Morricone, Yanni and Manos Hadjidakis. For the past 8 years I have been working as an executive secretary in a private institute for counseling and psychological studies, which has turned out to be a fascinating on-going process of personal and professional development for me. I live in Byron (a municipality named after the famous British romantic poet, Lord Byron), about 20 minutes form the center of Athens, Greece. My street is no longer as quiet as it used to be, this being the reason for deciding to… cheat on my wonderful Ackermann (my old German piano) and record in a studio. Moreover, I always wanted to go through this challenging experience, but I never had a solid… excuse for it, as I am not a musician but an amateur piano player. “When Winter Comes” captured my heart from the very beginning with its melancholic and evocative melody; I just “had” to learn it on the piano (by ear of course) and I simply adore playing it over and over again ever since! I hope that my playing – recorded in one take surprisingly enough – will convey my deep emotion, as it happened with the sound engineer: a prolonged silence falling after I had finished playing terrified me as I thought that something had gone wrong, when he said: “Oh I know this piece! It’s so beautiful… I just closed my eyes, laid back and drifted away…” "When Winter Comes" did not appear on the tribute CD. But you can download the track when you right-click and "save as" here as a bonus track.