Paul Cardall
Contemporary pianist Paul Cardall was born April 24, 1973;
suffering from a congenital heart defect, he was given only days to
live but defied medical expectations, enduring a series of
surgeries and illnesses throughout his childhood. Finding comfort
in music, Cardall began piano lessons at age eight but quit six
months later, not playing again for a decade. While in high school,
however, tragedy struck when one of his best friends was killed in
a car accident; a grieving Cardall spontaneously composed a musical
tribute, going on to write a dozen more songs and in 1995 privately
pressing an album. Around that same time he took a job playing
piano at a local department store during the holiday season,
selling his record to customers; one copy of the disc made its way
to author Richard Paul Evans, the writer of the #1 New York Times
best-seller The Christmas Box, who invited Cardall to write and
record a musical adaptation of the book. The resulting album, also
titled The Christmas Box, was released in 1997; upon signing to the
Narada label, Cardall reissued the album two years later in
conjunction with a new effort, The Looking Glass, which, like its
predecessor, drew inspiration from Evans' novels.
