Hannes Kvaran

I was born in 1950 in Siglufjordur , Iceland of an American mother and an Icelandic father. I spent my youth in Sri Lanka, with a stint in a missionary-run boarding school in south India, and high school outside of Manila in the Philippines, all courtesy of my father’s work as an engineer for the United Nations.

I came to the US in 1968 to attend Eastern Michigan University. I got out with a bachelor’s degree in math and a master’s degree in economics. I moved to Arizona in pursuit of a doctorate on economics at Arizona State University. Despite a good many years there, I never got the degree.

I married Pennie in 1980 and we now have two children -- Trevor and Brienne -- in their twenties. Both are a credit to the human race, pursuing university degrees as I write.

Teaching I have been teaching economics and math at Glendale Community College on the northwest side of Phoenix Arizona since 1983. It’s a great gig. I’ll retire some time in the next decade.

Over the years I eventually managed to cobble together enough economics handouts so that I was finally able, about ten years ago, to give up using a textbook. It’s a good feeling to no longer be the lackey of an industry I don’t much admire. Writing my own books (one for each of the two principles courses) has also meant that, over time, I have drifted progressively further from the traditional waters of the subjects. Another good feeling, interspersed with much soul-searching about the role of the teacher and the rational for teaching these courses in the first place.

Music. I started playing guitar, singing and writing songs shortly before high school, under the influence of my older brother Ragnar. He and I and a third brother Einar spent many years making music together. My move to Arizona was the end of our collective enterprises, though all three of us remain attached to performing in one way or another. In Arizona, in the late 1970s I met and played with Walt Richardson, a true original of a singer-songwriter. We continue to perform together on a fairly regular basis, as he continues to make his living as a musician. The group with I play most regularly consists of Walt and me and the magical Tim Sadow on electric violin. The music combines 1960s folk and reggae into a crowd-pleasing stew.

Writing musicals has become the most consuming part of my musical endeavors. My output to date has been:

1. One Life at a Time -- a musical biography of Christopher Columbus. This was performed and recorded by the Raving Folk Dogs, an acoustic quartet that was a primary musical home for almost a decade.

2. Grimm Memorial -- a children’s summer workshop performance, crammed together in two frenetic weeks to occupy the time of 50 children whose thespian abilities ranged from awesome to non-existent.

3. SAM -- an allegorical history of the US, in which the main character, Sam, is a metaphorical presentation of the US. This was performed at my college with a cast and a director (the truly talented Ben Tyler) that were better than I had any right to hope for.

4. Wesley -- an allegorical history of Western thought that I wrote as something as a back-fill for SAM. The metaphors here are obscure enough so that I find it necessary to have background slides playing as I perform

5. Starry Messenger -- a biography of Galileo, usually performed as a one-man show.

6. Laxdaela -- the telling of a 13th century tragic Icelandic saga. I turned this into a computer slide show.

Almost all of these shows have been performed in bits and pieces at local libraries, coffeehouses and the occasional house-party. Often in these and other projects I have accompanied by my son Trevor, whose ability and willingness to support my writing with his singing has been more than gratifying.

Once home recording became a reality I began making albums. So far I’ve done about seven -- some being the musicals above but some of the free-standing songs I’ve written over the years. I’ve also recorded several albums worth of songs by people I know -- local songwriter-performers, including Walt, and brother Ragnar. The last completed project was a 8-song CD by an inspiring Nicaraguan songwriter, Salvador Cardenal. This required first getting the songs translated and then turning those translations into English lyrics. Interesting.