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 Ken Medema was born almost blind; his eyes let him tell light from shadow and look at outlines of major objects. As soon as he was five years old, he began trying to play the piano. Three years later, a private teacher taught him classics with braille music, to play by ear and to improvise in different styles.
Later, in 1969, he majored in music therapy at Michigan State University in Lansing, where he could improve his performance in piano and voice. Then, he worked as a music therapist in Fort Wayne, Indiana and later at Essex County Hospital in New Jersey.
In 1973, he began performing and recording his own songs which mainly dealt with his own Christian life. So far, he prefers making justice, hunger, poverty, the homeless, and previously unaccepted people a topic when composing and setting up lyrics. Each and every aspect of the human experience is important for him when creating music, though he emphasizes spirituality. Meanwhile he has had 26 albums published, the first of which he recorded for Word and Shawnee Press, before he founded Brier Patch Music in 1985. Brier Patch Music is his own publishing and recording company, which serves him to organize and schedule each of his events.
He is able to create songs on the spot, which means that sermons, people's stories or even singular words can inspire him to write and perform a song within minutes.
He performs in a wide range of events, national and world wide (church) congregations, campuses, youth gathering, annual assemblies. He often contributes to worship services. He lives in San Francisco, California.
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