Formative Years
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Hymns, Smooth Jazz, New Age Music and Xenberg
After graduating from Lehigh, Will sought and found employment as a systems analyst in Utah. During this period, he met and played with a few more musicians and started attending sabbath services of the Salt Lake City congregation of the then Worldwide Church of God, where he joined the rotation of pianists who played hymns during services. It was also during this time that he started listening to local smooth jazz/new age radio, and developed an appreciation of the genre(s) after hearing the likes of David Benoit, Lex de Azevedo, Patrick O'Hearn and Yanni.
Will once again returned to the Lehigh Valley from Utah, and eventually started playing hymns in the then Bethlehem WCG congregation. He played in a couple more bands and purchased an Ensoniq MR76 workstation on which he created and sequenced some instrumental tracks. He asked Chris Sokolsky if Chris would record and produce the tracks in his basement studio, and in 1999, the album First Impressions was completed and the Xenberg pseudonym (fictitious name) was registered. First Impressions was followed in 2003 by the self-produced album Second Wind.
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