Hazel Hurst resident Daniel Nordin had a memorable night Saturday — one he hopes someday to share with audiences who come to see him perform.
Nordin has been blind since birth and is a gifted musician. Through the Bradford Creative and Performing Arts Center, on Saturday, Nordin met someone a lot like himself — music legend Ronnie Milsap, who was performing in Bradford as the last show of the BCPAC season.
“Follow your dreams” was the advice Milsap gave to Nordin — advice the country music icon was given decades before when he met legendary blind musician Ray Charles. Taking that advice, Milsap went on to an incredibly successful career, winning six Grammy awards and scoring more than 40 number one hits. Nordin’s friend, Mount Jewett Borough Council President Chuck Paar, is hoping the same will happen for Nordin.
“We’re hoping this will open doors for him,” Paar said. He and his wife, Ona, accompanied Nordin and his grandmother, Pat Henderson, to the concert.
Nordin was thrilled with the concert, and with his opportunity to meet Milsap and the members of his band.
“To come and meet an icon of music who has the same type of background as me makes it more exciting to really move on with my career,” he said. Describing his favorite parts of Milsap’s show, Nordin said, “I loved when he did the last three songs, ‘Button Off My Shirt,’ ‘Smoky Mountain Rain’ and then cleverly segued into ‘America the Beautiful.’ I was holding my breath, hoping he would hit that high note and he nailed it. After almost 50 years in the music business and he still has it.
“My favorite thing to hear out of the whole entire band was the keyboard player doing all those crazy synthesizer arrangements. That is the stuff I would like to master one day and do that in an orchestra.”
At Paar’s urging, Nordin told The Era a bit about his background. He attended Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Mass., and then went to Berkshire Hills, a private school for the disabled and musically gifted in South Hadley, Mass. “I graduated with a degree in jazz performance,” Nordin said. “I play keyboards, I can sing, I play many different types of music.
“I play every Sunday night at church in Mount Jewett,” Nordin said. “I play praise music. I haven’t been doing much lately, because there hasn’t been anywhere I can really get my music across.”
On Sunday, Nordin’s mother, Trish, said her son was “so thrilled by the whole thing … not only meeting Ronnie Milsap, but talking with his band manager and his keyboardist. My son … that’s his whole life.
“Ultimately, he would like to be a musician and be part of the music world in any way. He’s excellent on the producing end of things.”
The biggest problems Nordin faces, she said, are “opportunities and transportation.”
Trish Nordin is disabled, and isn’t able to drive her son places to take advantage when an opportunity arises.
“He wants to be a part of the music world,” she reiterated. “I hope we can do that for him.”
