Search - Ann Sweeten :: Before Today, Beyond Tomorrow

During the album's conception, Ann Sweeten was diagnosed with Leukemia. Before Today, Beyond Tomorrow refers to the time before diagnosis, and then to the horizon, beyond the immediate, with hope for the future. The album is an all-out experience of intensity: at once passionate and tender, technically prodigious with a range of dynamic and nuance that will astonish. The pieces on the album mark moments on her journey thru diagnosis, treatments and then onward to embracing the beauty of life despite unfortunate circumstances. Her music takes you to the Infinite and back again, all the while leaving the listener filled with love and hope. In Ms. Sweeten's words: ''I have never needed a wake-up call in life thru diagnosis or event, as I have always felt so very present and awake, but this third diagnosis has dropped me to my knees, and in a way I can't explain, the world is different, my life is different, my reactions are different, my patience is greater, my capacity for forgiveness as well. Life itself seems so fragile that I hold it like a wounded bird, so that it may grow well within my care and fly free again, carrying music on its wing. In light of all this, I urge you to take the time to hear the birdsong in quiet April walks in the woods, to feel the sun in a sparkling sapphire sky with a salty brine in the air while sea ebbs and flows and you walk ALIVE, not alone, with a dog running free at your feet; to taste the truth of life in an intimate embrace, to delight, in the crunch of leaves beneath your shoes in Autumn's lusty haze, in the swirling magic of December snow, and in the majesty of Earth reborn in Spring, to be grateful for all that graces your day in the smallest of creatures and in the smallest of gestures, for the stars in the midnight fields, and for Love wherever it may appear. I carry on!'' Ann Sweeten