The 2023/24 Season just ended. How do you feel about it?
“I’m definitely sad about it. The season went by incredibly fast for me. When you come in, you often have to adjust to what’s happening in the orchestra, the new environment, new colleagues and a new ensemble nucleus where things function in a specific type of way. Becoming a part of that was an incredible experience, so it was a great year. I’m really happy to have had the opportunity to play with my colleagues, work with Courtney Lewis and be a part of the organization.”
We heard you have plans in Memphis, Tennessee, over the summer. What will you be doing there?
“I’ll be teaching at a music camp in Memphis called PRIZM Ensemble Music Festival. We work with young students of various levels who learn to play together, how to collaborate and how to make chamber music together. They also get to play in large ensembles and participate in studio classes with faculty and peers. Then, the faculty also gets to perform for them and the community. It’s a fun time, and summer camps are a wonderful opportunity for students to meet other learners with similar interests, expand their network in music and be social in the summertime. It’s also a positive way for them to continue their music because a lot of times, they might be just playing music in school, so it’s a great way for them to further that activity outside of school in a safe environment.
What’s most unique about this festival is that any music-playing student can sign up with different instruments, and the ensemble will be formed for them. They can be at a beginner level, or they can be advanced, and the festival will find ways to bring the students together within a certain group. Most festivals are welcoming places to play, but in this case, because the levels are so different, students can truly start at any level and then grow through the process of making music. I think in some cases, it’s a little bit difficult to make students feel comfortable with that process. However, this opportunity really meets young learners where they are and shows them that growth is a natural and necessary aspect of being a musician.”
Do you have any masterclasses on your summer schedule?
“After PRIZM, I’ll be going to The Sewanee Summer Music Festival for the second two weeks of their music festival. This will mainly be a college-level festival with some high school students. It has a rigorous audition process with small and large ensembles. The students get private instruction every week from the teacher of their instrument. At Sewanee, I’ll be doing two masterclasses, one the first week that I’m there and then one the second week that I’m there. During that masterclass, I haven’t quite decided what I’m going to do yet. There are several options where we can have students perform and then their peers give feedback on their interpretation of the music, what they did well and how they could do things differently.”
You’ll be participating in the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) in North Adams, Massachusetts. Can you tell us more about the festival and what your role will be?
“Bang on a Can is focused on contemporary music that actively pushes boundaries, techniques and ideas in many ways. For that festival, numerous musicians apply to be fellows, and then 30 or so of those musicians are accepted. Then, they converge into MASS MoCA and start making music. They also have opportunities where they can perform within the different galleries of MASS MoCA. The main part of the festival is a schedule of sessions in which we prepare specific pieces. It’s usually music written in the last 60 or so years. At times, the ink is barely dry or might not even be dry just yet. Some of the fellows are instrumentalists, and some of them are composers themselves. Those composers actually write music specifically for the festival. Then, the festival culminates with us presenting the pieces that we’ve been working on in the sessions. All these listeners, artists and composers converge into MASS MoCA to hear this mind-blowing music. It’s a great opportunity for listeners to learn what they like and what they don’t like. The idea of exposure is huge as it opens our minds to different things.
Bang on a Can was started by three fabulous composers that were in Brooklyn, New York, when they first developed the festival: Julia Wolfe, Michael Gordon and David Lang. BOAC has been putting on groundbreaking concerts and performances since 1987, while this festival has existed at MASS MoCA for 23 years, and it’s a big deal. Once you come to the festival, your life will be changed forever. It’s rigorous, and there’s just so much to absorb and conceptualize. It has an amazing setting where we work in the museum every day. We’re also in The Berkshires, so we are surrounded by mountains, great hiking and it’s a beautiful area with amazing people and artists. This is my third year on faculty there, and I’ve grown considerably through the process, having learned a lot from my colleagues. So, it’s a wonderful, innovative and creative atmosphere that is mind-stretching and even physically stretching.
The other great thing I love about my opportunity to work there is that I get to bring in my experience as a health coach. I got my health coaching certificate about three years ago, and that’s been a great addition to what I do. I feel that it’s affected my relationships with people, my communication and most importantly, my relationship with myself. I’ve also become a licensed Zumba instructor, and now I’m working on obtaining my license in teaching Les Mills Body Balance, which is a Pilates, Yoga and Tai Chi mixture that flows with music. And so, at Bang on a Can, they gave me the opportunity this past year to present a wellness seminar that went really well. A lot of times, as musicians, we’re not necessarily thinking in that way because we’re grinding at the art so hard, so it’s nice to have a space that encourages mind-body connection. In addition, we added a Zumba class to incorporate even more bodily movement. These were a huge hit last year, so I think they will be popular again. When we move our bodies, we’re cultivating energy, which is really invigorating.”
Why is music education important to you?
“Music education is important because it’s about growth, and I believe that we should never stop growing. I believe that it’s a way of passing along our knowledge, but I think music education can be thought of in very different ways. When we think of educating, we think of teaching another generation, which is important. However, and I talked a little bit about this already, the students are also educating the teacher in a lot of ways, and the teacher can learn through the process of instructing. All of this is to say that the process of music education is cyclical. It’s important to always be mindful that as teachers, there is a lot we can share, but we must balance the idea of authority with side-by-side learning and the concept of challenging our sometimes deeply historical perspective. We must ask, how can we learn most effectively from each other?”
