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Ronnie Lynn Patters left his native Kansas 24 years ago and since then he has toured the world, finally settling in Paris.  In March he played in Xiberoa at the Xiru Festival, but that wasn’t his first trip to the Basque Country, as he confessed to the online radio Radiokultura.com.  He says that he deeply loves Basque culture and we believe him because... he made the interview in Basque.  You can listen it. 

Donostia-San Sebastian.  “I really love Euskal Herria, clearly, otherwise I wouldn’t speak Basque, eh!?” says pianist Ronnie Lynn Patterson in an interview conducted by RadioKultura.com.  This musician, born in Kansas, lives in Paris but has traveled the world and says that he has a very special relationship with the Basque Country.

As he explained to Radiokultura.com, the first time he came to Euskal Herria was to play at the Errobi Music Festival where festival director, Xiberotar musician Beñat Achiary, told him the Basque story.  “It got me, it made me emotional and I decided to learn Basque,” he says in Basque.  Ronnie Lynn began learning Basque on his own, and I the interview he shows his fluency and his notable command of the language.

“It's true that it was very difficult for me, but i continued without giving up, and i still continue today, improving my vocabulary….It is still very hard, but I love it a lot.  Truthfully I do it out of pleasure and I plan to continue,” he says.

Ronnie Lynn began playing the piano at the age of 21, “very late for any instrument,” and he says this is the only instrument that allows him to express all of his feelings.  The musician plays various kinds of music, from classic (“Rachmaninoff every day” to jazz, including soul, pop, and improvisation or Afro-Cuban music. 

-To hear the interview in Basque RadioKultura.com
-You can hear his music on his website