barnesandnoble.com: What album changed your life?

Suzanne Ciani: As a recording artist, creating my own very first album, SEVEN WAVES, was a milestone. It seemed I had dreamt of making this album my whole life -- and turning a dream into reality was a powerful experience. Later, in honor of this first outing, I lovingly named my record label Seventh Wave. Other influential albums include the huge stack of classical albums my mom brought home from a fire sale when I was about ten. I would barricade myself in my room and swoon to Rachmaninoff, Grieg, and Brahms.

bn.com: What album do wish you had played on?

SC: AVALON by Roxy Music. As a session musician in New York, I did play synths on all kinds of recordings, from AFTERNOON DELIGHT to STAR WARS -- not to mention oodles of commercials for Fortune 500 Companies from Coca-Cola to Westinghouse -- but I would have loved to be a part of one of my favorite albums of all time.

bn.com: What five discs are in your CD player right now?

SC: Bach's GOLDBERG VARIATIONS played by Glenn Gould, DREAMER by Michael Hoppé and flautist Tim Wheater, Annie Lennox's DIVA, BALLADS by the John Coltrane Quartet, and TURNING by moi.

bn.com: What music helps you to unwind?

SC: Mozart in any form always takes me out of myself.

bn.com: What do you listen to that would surprise us?

SC: I don't know if this is a surprise, but I absolutely adore Dire Straits!

bn.com: What person, musician or not, has had the most influence on you as an artist?

SC: Ilse Bing, a photographer whose work I collect. She was known as Miss Leica for pioneering the then new 35mm format in the '20s. Her medium was technological, like mine, but she expressed her art through machinery and chemistry. Before she died, at the age of 95, we shared many ideas as fellow artists in New York City; she even wrote poetic lyrics for a piece on NEVERLAND.

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