Autor: Satyaki Kraig Brockschmidt

Kraig Brockschmidt, a former Microsoft engineer who also goes by the spiritual name Satyaki, * first fell in love with Indian harmoniums in 1996. He discovered, immediately upon sitting with one for the first time, that he already intuitively knew many subtleties of playing the instrument. Since then, devotional chanting has been one of his favorite pastimes, and he is considered highly skilled in the art.After a pilgrimage to India in 1998, during which he had the opportunity to visit the Bina factory in Delhi, he began importing Indian harmoniums on a regular basis. But after being flown halfway around the world, most harmoniums arrive in his home town of Seattle in less than perfect condition. This has given him abundant opportunities to explore the fine details of the instrument and to find solutions, as befits his engineering background, to a wide variety of technical problems.In The Harmonium Handbook, he is pleased to offer in written form the love of his heart and the depth of his experience as both musician and technician.(*“Satyaki” is a Sanskrit name meaning “devotion to truth” (satya=truth, pure consciousness; ki=a suffix meaning “devotion to”). It’s also the name of a character in the Indian epic, The Mahabharata, who symbolizes devotion.)