Nastia’s music resonates with its producer

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BEIJING -- Shortly before Nastia Liukin did her floor exercise routine on Sunday night, I checked my e-mail.

There was a note from Kathy Geisler, founder of Well-Tempered Productions. She wrote that Liukin’s floor-routine music was called ‘Variations on Dark Eyes’ and was performed by Israeli pianist Ilan Rechtman and violinist Lara St. John and produced by Geisler’s company.

It wasn’t until Liukin had won the Olympic women’s all-around gold medal on Friday that Geisler discovered the gymnast had used the recording.

‘I have seen videos all over the Internet of the medal-winning performance,’ Geisler said. ‘I think I was the last person to know my music had been used.’

Geisler said the song is available on a CD recording called ‘Gypsy.’

Liukin said that she and her father thought the song fit her classic, dance-filled routine. Besides helping Liukin to win the all-around title, the soundtrack helped her to win the floor-exercise bronze medal Sunday.

-- Diane Pucin