Site Title
For Your GRAMMY Consideration
®
TWO ENTRIES:
1. BEST AUDIO BOOK, NARRATION, AND STORYTELLING
2. BEST CONTEMPORARY INSTRUMENTAL ALBUM
Please Note CATEGORY CHANGE: album moved from New Age
Best Audio Book Narration And Storytelling
Put Your Dress Down and Sing
Audiobook Narrated by Darlene Koldenhoven, author.
Music composed and performed by the author.
Available as Audiobook, E-Book & Trade Paperback.
Link to Audiobook on Amazon
Release Date August 7, 2026
Music gave her a life she never could have imagined. From a strict Dutch Calvinist upbringing on Chicago’s South Side to performing before audiences of millions, GRAMMY® Winning vocalist Darlene Koldenhoven forged an extraordinary career through talent, determination, and an unwavering belief in possibility. In Put Your Dress Down and Sing, Darlene shares the inspiring, often hilarious story of her journey from a sheltered childhood to the global stage. Best known as the tambourine-waving choir nun in the Sister Act films with Whoopi Goldberg and as the featured soprano soloist in Yanni: Live at the Acropolis, she offers a behind-the-scenes look at nearly fifty years in the entertainment industry. Filled with unforgettable encounters, hard-won lessons, and insider stories from working alongside legends like Pink Floyd and Paul McCartney, this memoir is a celebration of resilience, reinvention, and the transformative power of music. Darlene's story proves that sometimes the life waiting for you is bigger than anything you could have planned. The author’s narration in the audiobook is enhanced by occasional sound effects and new music from the companion album to the book, A Grand Memoir (sold separately), composed and performed by the author. Darlene also recorded, produced, edited, mixed, and mastered the audiobook in her TimeArt® Studio. Book, e-book, and audiobook published by Sibylline Press, will all be released along with the album on August 7th. And yes, that is Darlene at 3 on the cover.
Reviews Coming In . . .
View Reviews, Interviews & Articles
“The expressive excellence that won Darlene Koldenhoven a Grammy for singing is on full display in the audiobook version of Put Your Dress Down and Sing. The tone and clarity of her voice, the emotions she shares, are beautifully augmented by her new musical compositions used as underscoring.”
–Gloria Loring, singer/actress, Days of Our Lives
"An extraordinary journey of resilience, artistry, and deep personal sacrifice"
"Powerful, honest,
and triumphant"
"Everything you want in a memoir"
New Category: Best Contemporary Instrumental album
Please Note Category Change from Best New Age, Ambient, or Chant Album
A Grand Memoir
Solo Piano Music to Relax, Reflect, and Renew
Category Changed by the Grammys to Best Contemporary Instrumental Album as of October 1, 2026
Release Date August 7, 2026
Listen to Full Tracks at Soundcloud. Click Here
Wright's Romanza Video LINK
A Grand Memoir is GRAMMY® Winning vocalist Darlene Koldenhoven’s third solo piano album and fourteenth on her TimeArt® Recordings label. Ten original Classical Crossover - New Age Solo Piano compositions, including one improvisation, range from relaxing to rousing. Her sonic palette reveals a variety of meters and modes, expressed with sweeping emotions, ethereal spaces, some pensive, and others pure joy. Darlene’s love for the piano shines through these heartfelt live performances. All piano pieces came to Darlene in awakening dreams during the writing of her memoir, Put Your Dress Down and Sing (Sibylline Press). On January 22, 2026, Darlene recorded live in her living room on a 1926 Golden Era Steinway Model L grand piano with original strings and ivory keys. The century-old piano was entrusted to Darlene’s care by a family whose concert pianist mother was the original owner. Sheet music is available at Darlene's website. Music from A Grand Memoir appears in the audiobook version of Darlene’s memoir.
Ultimately, A Grand Memoir stands as a heartfelt testament to Koldenhoven’s lifelong love of the piano and her belief in artistic creation as a vital human experience. The album is grounded in the authenticity of an artist who transforms every composition into a living inhabitable space, where emotion unfolds naturally, gracefully, and without affectation.
–Leandro Torres, Cyclical Magazine 7/10/26
I generally don’t write about musical album releases. However, when I listened to some of this music, I was very impressed. I found the music inspiring and uplifting.
– Barbara Keer, Editorial Director, Splash Magazine Worldwide 6/7/26
The music on A Grand Memoir is calming, relaxing, elegant, and sophisticated, with a kind of neo-classical/classical crossover New Age style. What I like best about the whole album is that it’s emotionally evocative, sensitively and masterfully played, and completely relatable.
—Dyan Garris, NewAge Notes Magazine, NewAge Notes Radio 5/12/26
Koldenhoven's virtuosic command of the acoustic piano elevates each composition beyond mere notes into lived experience.
—Keith “MuzikMan” Hannaleck, New Age Music Reviews 5/12/26
Like her memoir, the music expresses wide-ranging experiences and emotions. Expect to be impressed!
—Kathy Parsons, MainlyPiano.com 6/26/26
About the Author - Bio Highlights
What made GRAMMY® Winner and 3-time GRAMMY® Nominee Darlene Koldenhoven one of the most sought-after singers in Hollywood? Was it her 5-octave range, style versatility, and sight-reading prowess? Or her memorable soprano solo, “Aria,” in Yanni, Live at the Acropolis, seen by 1.5 billion viewers worldwide. Whatever the reason, she has had a remarkable career. Darlene sang on over 1,000 recordings for film, television, commercials, albums, and charitable causes internationally. Disney hired her as the tambourine-wielding choir nun in both Sister Act films, starring Whoopi Goldberg. Pink Floyd hired her to contract two additional singers and sing on their "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" album. Even Paul McCartney kissed her on the cheek on stage at the Hollywood Bowl while exiting the stage after their performance. In 2000, as her career blossomed, she started her own label, TimeArt®, which produced 14 albums.
Darlene is a vocalist, pianist, composer, lyricist, arranger, engineer, and producer. She is also a certified sonic therapist and credentialed voice teacher with a master’s degree in voice and a bachelor's in music education. She authored a comprehensive music program, Tune Your Voice: Singing and Your Mind’s Musical Ear, endorsed by faculty from Juilliard, Berklee, NYC, and American Idol. Furthering her humanitarian passions for peace and planet, in 2018, she trained with former Vice President Al Gore to become a Climate Reality Leader, giving climate presentations, some accompanied by her music. Darlene continues to produce music, tour with her concerts, workshops, and dramatic readings of her memoir.
You may send your entries here.
Add your name to our newsletter. Be the first to know when and where you'll be able to get her book, e-book, and audiobook, and new album. Find out where Darlene is appearing. Book Darlene for a speaking engagement and/or book reading or book signing event, concert or combination thereof.
Download | Stream | Connect
