A Brand New Day

by Diane Findlay, submitted May 2023

Sometime in the early 1970s, Janine & Phil Staniszewski moved from Los Angeles, where they had become Baha’is, to Garrison, Iowa for a job taking music programs into the schools. They had begun their singing career in Italy and continued to perform around the state in clubs and at community events as “A Brand New Day.” Later in the decade the duo became a trio with the addition of John Andreini. They played a variety of popular and more serious songs, ranging from “I’m in Love with a Big Blue Frog” to a moving version of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” including a spoken interlude quoting Baha’u’llah’s “The earth is one country and mankind its citizens.” Their music was uplifting and important to a number of us who were seekers or new Baha’is at the time.

As I understand the story, Bev and Dick Beatty, parents of Diane Naaktgeboren and Kathy Siegling, happened to hear them in a restaurant one evening and were so impressed that they brought their daughters to hear them play soon after. Janine & Phil used opportunities to visit with audience members during breaks and after their sets, so they became friends and, through them, Diane and Kathy & Jim learned about the Faith. They told their friends and the circle of fans and seekers grew!

Bob and I first heard them sometime shortly before we declared, I believe, and were very taken with them and their music. I recall one evening in particular. My parents were visiting us from Minnesota and we took them to a club to hear Janine & Phil perform. My dad was a musician and he was so delighted with them that he, a lifelong “teetotaler” declared that if this was what he could expect, he might have to start frequenting bars! Bob remembers Phil commenting that they hoped not too many Baha’is would come to hear them on the same evening, since Baha’is didn’t drink alcohol and the house’s profits might slump!

Janine and Phil, and later John as well, enriched many Baha’i activities in Iowa with their music. Their LP album, “A Brand New Day” came out in 1978. It included such tracks as “Broken-winged Bird” and “Teacherman” and was a prized possession for many of us. Thanks for the music and all the teaching that went along with it! It was, truly, a music ministry.