Allen Jay Friedman Creates Outlets for Musical and Artistic Talents Allen Jay Friedman has been gifted with a creative spark. As an artist and music designer, Friedman absorbs all that is around him, interprets it and creatively reinvents it. His earliest creative memories date back to childhood when he visited the armor room at the art museum, and while listening to the score from To Kill a Mockingbird, longing to be involved in music. “My mother's side of the family was musically inclined and I've always had the gift of absorbing what's around me,” Friedman shared. “I hear the music as being magical and intangible, like seeing a rainbow and watching it disappear in front of you.” Friedman remembers listening to Israeli folk songs and the score from Peter and the Wolf when he was just six years old, absorbing it all, and yearning to learn how it was created, hoping to build his own career in music. As a child, Friedman began playing the piano. A few years later, he started playing the organ. “I always had a good ear for music,” he shared. “When I heard something, I aspired to learn what was behind the scenes.” Friedman explained how his aim behind the music was to play with an original approach. “The ultimate goal is to 'be yourself,'” he said, “Even though God plays right through you as this creative expression.” He yearned to be creative and recognized he didn't learn as others did. “I enjoyed all sorts of music, with jazz being my first love, to classical and rock, and wanted to create original songs and scores,” Friedman added. Friedman recalls taking a few piano lessons from Miss Lambert when he was 11 years old and getting a mini-moog synthesizer in 1970. “This was a new type of sound,” he shared. In the early ’80s, he studied jazz piano privately with noted Cleveland greats, Bill Gidney and Joe Howard. As a young groom, married at the age of 18 and working in his family’s business (Arco Heating) as a metal fabricator, Friedman continued studying music, absorbing information like a sponge. “I wanted to learn about orchestration, and the synthesizer’s new sounds allowed me to do so,” Friedman said. “I built a studio in my home and began scoring music.” The work paid off, as he later wrote award-winning jingles and scores, including some for The Cleveland Clinic, Siemens, Jumbles (toys), The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, Innovations, Oldsmobile and the Holmes/ Chavez Fight. In 1985, Friedman started his own business, Sweet Sounds, Inc., and a few years later, for personal reasons, he took a break from writing music. Twelve years later, as he became more philosophical, he released his first CD, Dance of the Soul, a unique musical work that blended spiritual music with inspirational lyrics and melodies. “The CD is cathartic and in memory of my sister,” he said. Although Friedman played in local bands throughout the area, he gave it up after having an “aha” moment one New Year’s Eve, recognizing that life is short and he would rather dance than play. Today, Friedman has created meaningful outlets for both his musical and artistic talents. Musically, he wants to give back; and visually, he created WAVEform®, STARform® and ribbonWAVE®. When he was in Florida, Friedman always enjoyed being mesmerized by the waves of the ocean while watching the sun set, and wanted to freeze frame the images as a modern, abstract concept. Having mastered the skill of metal fabrication, sculpture was the perfect medium to replicate the radiance of the ocean waves. And since he does not like weld marks, Friedman came up with a solution by creating one-of-a-kind sculptures with mirror-polished stainless steel that reflects light and movement 22 Beachwood Buzz n December 2015