1 00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:06,139 [Opening theme music] 2 00:00:13,246 --> 00:00:17,450 Hello, and welcome to this episode of ArtsAbly in Conversation. 3 00:00:17,450 --> 00:00:19,652 My name is Diane Kolin. 4 00:00:19,719 --> 00:00:25,191 This series presents artists, academics, and project leaders who dedicate their 5 00:00:25,225 --> 00:00:31,097 time and energy to a better accessibility for people with disabilities in the arts. 6 00:00:31,131 --> 00:00:36,336 You can find more of these conversations on our website, artsably.com, 7 00:00:36,336 --> 00:00:41,408 which is spelled A-R-T-S-A-B-L-Y dot com. 8 00:00:42,475 --> 00:00:47,614 [Theme music] 9 00:00:54,754 --> 00:00:58,224 Today, ArtsAbly is in conversation with Brianna Matzke, 10 00:00:58,224 --> 00:01:04,063 a pianist, musical director, and music educator based in Cincinnati, Ohio. 11 00:01:04,063 --> 00:01:08,234 You can find the resources mentioned by Brianna Matzke during this episode 12 00:01:08,234 --> 00:01:11,337 on ArtsAbly's website in the blog section. 13 00:01:12,572 --> 00:01:15,442 ["Tremor" by Brianna Matzke] 14 00:01:16,242 --> 00:01:17,544 I'm fine. 15 00:01:17,577 --> 00:01:20,814 My hands just shake a little bit sometimes. 16 00:01:23,316 --> 00:01:25,051 It's nothing. 17 00:01:25,919 --> 00:01:27,787 These are my hands. 18 00:01:30,557 --> 00:01:32,225 There's nothing wrong. 19 00:01:32,826 --> 00:01:34,828 [She closes a drawer.] 20 00:01:38,131 --> 00:01:39,833 It's genetic. 21 00:01:39,866 --> 00:01:41,468 There's nothing wrong. 22 00:01:41,868 --> 00:01:43,870 [She is pouring coffee.] 23 00:01:44,637 --> 00:01:47,841 No, I didn't have too much to drink last night. 24 00:01:48,274 --> 00:01:50,343 My hands just shake a little bit. 25 00:01:51,978 --> 00:01:53,913 No, I'm not nervous. 26 00:01:53,947 --> 00:01:55,915 I have essential tremor. 27 00:01:57,083 --> 00:02:03,656 [Piano music - "Rêverie" by Claude Debussy] 28 00:02:17,570 --> 00:02:21,274 I don't notice it at all when I'm playing on the keys. 29 00:03:10,690 --> 00:03:16,496 When I play the piano is when I'm my most authentic self. 30 00:03:20,533 --> 00:03:23,469 My shaking hands 31 00:03:24,404 --> 00:03:26,973 are at the heart of that. 32 00:03:35,415 --> 00:03:37,150 I'm not broken. 33 00:03:38,785 --> 00:03:42,155 Welcome to this new episode of ArtsAbly in Conversation. 34 00:03:42,188 --> 00:03:47,794 Today, I am with Brianna Matzke, who is a pianist, a musical director, 35 00:03:47,794 --> 00:03:51,965 and a music educator based in Cincinnati, Ohio. 36 00:03:51,998 --> 00:03:53,166 Hi, Brianna. 37 00:03:53,199 --> 00:03:56,169 Hi. Thank you for having me. 38 00:03:56,169 --> 00:04:00,840 Well, thank you for dedicating a bit of your time in your busy schedule 39 00:04:00,840 --> 00:04:05,278 that I know is very busy to have this conversation. 40 00:04:05,311 --> 00:04:10,216 I always start these episodes by asking 41 00:04:10,216 --> 00:04:15,288 about you, about our guest today. 42 00:04:15,321 --> 00:04:21,361 So would you mind providing a bit of background? 43 00:04:21,394 --> 00:04:24,831 Where did your journey start as a musician? 44 00:04:25,031 --> 00:04:26,032 Thank you. 45 00:04:26,065 --> 00:04:27,166 Sure. 46 00:04:27,166 --> 00:04:33,106 Your introduction to me was a great introduction to what I do. 47 00:04:33,139 --> 00:04:39,512 I wear many hats, but I started my musical life as a pianist. 48 00:04:39,512 --> 00:04:45,118 I grew up in Small Town, Minnesota. 49 00:04:45,285 --> 00:04:48,254 As I was growing up, I was always... 50 00:04:48,288 --> 00:04:49,989 This happens in a small town. 51 00:04:50,023 --> 00:04:54,961 I was always the piano girl in town. 52 00:04:54,994 --> 00:05:00,166 When it came time to choose what to do for going to the university, 53 00:05:00,199 --> 00:05:05,405 I decided to get a music degree, went to the University of Kansas, 54 00:05:05,438 --> 00:05:08,408 which is still in the Midwest, but a very different part of the Midwest 55 00:05:08,441 --> 00:05:12,178 from Minnesota, for my undergraduate, 56 00:05:12,178 --> 00:05:15,848 and got a degree in Piano Performance, and then moved to Cincinnati, 57 00:05:15,882 --> 00:05:19,952 where I started grad school, master's and doctorate here. 58 00:05:19,952 --> 00:05:22,155 I didn't think I would... 59 00:05:22,155 --> 00:05:24,691 When I moved here, I didn't think I would stay in Cincinnati. 60 00:05:24,691 --> 00:05:28,928 But once I got here, got to know the city, I loved it here. 61 00:05:28,961 --> 00:05:34,200 And so once I finished my graduate work, I did everything I could to stay 62 00:05:34,200 --> 00:05:41,974 and was very lucky to find a position at a small liberal arts school nearby to Cincinnati. 63 00:05:42,008 --> 00:05:44,711 That's where I teach now. 64 00:05:44,944 --> 00:05:47,046 But you don't only teach, right? 65 00:05:47,080 --> 00:05:49,849 You do so many different things. 66 00:05:49,882 --> 00:05:52,051 That's right. 67 00:05:52,952 --> 00:05:59,959 My specialization as a performer is what has led me 68 00:05:59,992 --> 00:06:02,595 to all the other work that I do now. 69 00:06:02,628 --> 00:06:07,066 All through grad school, one of the things that I did a lot 70 00:06:07,100 --> 00:06:13,773 was collaborate with the composers who are also going to school with me. 71 00:06:13,806 --> 00:06:16,042 They'd have a new piece that they'd written for piano, 72 00:06:16,075 --> 00:06:21,814 and they needed someone to perform it, to record it, whatever it might be. 73 00:06:21,848 --> 00:06:26,185 And I didn't think that... 74 00:06:26,185 --> 00:06:29,389 As I was doing that in grad school, I didn't think that that would 75 00:06:29,389 --> 00:06:32,692 ever be professionally viable for me. 76 00:06:32,725 --> 00:06:36,462 But then as it came time to finish grad school, 77 00:06:36,496 --> 00:06:44,003 some of my mentors encouraged me to develop some projects that 78 00:06:44,003 --> 00:06:49,742 involved me commissioning new music from composers 79 00:06:49,776 --> 00:06:53,679 and performing that and developing those projects 80 00:06:53,713 --> 00:07:00,219 in a way that was conscious of not only being innovative in an art sense, 81 00:07:00,219 --> 00:07:06,225 but also innovative in how it involved the community. 82 00:07:06,259 --> 00:07:11,831 That work of commissioning composers gradually expanded to commissioning 83 00:07:11,831 --> 00:07:17,336 other artists as well and working with other community organizations. 84 00:07:17,370 --> 00:07:22,475 Just by necessity of being able to make those projects happen, 85 00:07:22,475 --> 00:07:27,246 I learned how to fundraise and how to be an arts administrator. 86 00:07:27,280 --> 00:07:32,485 Over time, I've been asked to step in to leadership roles 87 00:07:32,518 --> 00:07:34,520 in some various arts organizations. 88 00:07:34,554 --> 00:07:38,791 Now, I'm lucky enough to serve as 89 00:07:38,791 --> 00:07:42,428 the executive director for something 90 00:07:42,461 --> 00:07:47,133 called concertnova, which is a chamber music concert series 91 00:07:47,166 --> 00:07:50,703 and collective here in Cincinnati. 92 00:07:50,736 --> 00:07:54,407 I also am the President and CEO of the International Foundation 93 00:07:54,440 --> 00:07:56,409 for Contemporary Music. 94 00:07:56,442 --> 00:08:01,047 Our flagship program is something called the Cortona Sessions for New Music, 95 00:08:01,080 --> 00:08:06,252 which is a two-week summer music educational program for emerging 96 00:08:06,285 --> 00:08:11,324 professional performers and composers working on contemporary classical music. 97 00:08:11,357 --> 00:08:15,127 That happens in the Netherlands every year. 98 00:08:15,161 --> 00:08:20,233 I also - this project of commissioning artists and composers 99 00:08:20,266 --> 00:08:22,835 is called the Response Project. 100 00:08:22,835 --> 00:08:25,938 I'm the Artistic Director of that project. 101 00:08:25,938 --> 00:08:29,442 So yes, I do stay very busy. 102 00:08:29,442 --> 00:08:34,814 concertnova, it has been around for many years, right? If I read correctly on the website. 103 00:08:34,981 --> 00:08:36,816 Yeah, that's right. That's right. 104 00:08:36,816 --> 00:08:43,956 This is our 18th season, which is amazing. 105 00:08:43,956 --> 00:08:47,793 Founded 18 years ago. 106 00:08:48,294 --> 00:08:55,301 The thing that's so interesting to me about concertnova is it was started 107 00:08:55,334 --> 00:09:01,674 with the idea to take classical music out of the concert hall and to put it 108 00:09:01,707 --> 00:09:09,315 in unexpected contexts and to do interdisciplinary collaboration. 109 00:09:09,715 --> 00:09:15,621 At the time when that happened, 18 years ago, they were one of 110 00:09:15,655 --> 00:09:20,359 the only organizations that I know of anywhere doing that work. 111 00:09:20,393 --> 00:09:23,596 Now, that's become a much more common thing. 112 00:09:23,629 --> 00:09:30,069 But when concertnova started, they were on the forefront of that idea. 113 00:09:30,102 --> 00:09:31,537 So where are you going? 114 00:09:31,571 --> 00:09:38,044 What's the typical example of a concert by concertnova outside the concert hall? 115 00:09:38,044 --> 00:09:43,049 When people ask me that question, I don't have an answer for you because 116 00:09:43,082 --> 00:09:46,319 every concertnova event looks different. 117 00:09:46,352 --> 00:09:48,688 If you've been to one concertnova event, then you've been 118 00:09:48,721 --> 00:09:50,156 to one concertnova event. 119 00:09:50,156 --> 00:09:52,425 There's nothing typical about it at all. 120 00:09:52,458 --> 00:09:54,727 We perform in the forest. 121 00:09:54,760 --> 00:09:57,296 We perform at the beer brewery. 122 00:09:57,296 --> 00:10:00,766 We perform in the art museum, on the street corner. 123 00:10:00,800 --> 00:10:05,605 Whatever the idea is behind the music, however we want to bring it 124 00:10:05,638 --> 00:10:10,176 to the community, that's where where we bring it. 125 00:10:10,209 --> 00:10:11,944 Everything's different all the time. 126 00:10:11,978 --> 00:10:13,346 That sounds very nice. 127 00:10:13,379 --> 00:10:14,947 It's really fun. 128 00:10:14,981 --> 00:10:21,053 I just had a meeting this morning about our next season, Season 19. 129 00:10:21,087 --> 00:10:27,226 One of the ideas for a concert is to do a roller-skating rink concert. 130 00:10:27,226 --> 00:10:29,629 (Laughs.) 131 00:10:29,629 --> 00:10:32,631 We'll see if we can make that happen. 132 00:10:33,199 --> 00:10:36,736 What about the Response Project? 133 00:10:36,769 --> 00:10:40,806 What led you to create that project? 134 00:10:40,840 --> 00:10:43,409 I mentioned that a little bit earlier. 135 00:10:43,442 --> 00:10:49,348 I was finishing grad school, and I had done a lot of work 136 00:10:49,382 --> 00:10:51,150 with composers through grad school. 137 00:10:51,150 --> 00:10:57,690 I didn't think it was viable as a professional avenue. 138 00:10:58,491 --> 00:11:03,863 But I knew that also what I had been studying for 139 00:11:03,896 --> 00:11:09,535 my doctoral degree recitals and things like wasn't that interesting to me. 140 00:11:09,535 --> 00:11:12,905 When you get a degree in piano performance, you study Bach and Brahms 141 00:11:12,938 --> 00:11:15,341 and Beethoven and Chopin and Liszt. 142 00:11:15,374 --> 00:11:16,308 Great music. 143 00:11:16,308 --> 00:11:21,447 I love to play that music, but I didn't feel artistically authentic 144 00:11:21,480 --> 00:11:24,683 in performing that myself. 145 00:11:24,717 --> 00:11:27,853 I didn't feel fully myself. 146 00:11:27,953 --> 00:11:32,291 So this was 2014. 147 00:11:32,892 --> 00:11:39,732 In 2013, as I was approaching the end of my studies, I went to a music festival 148 00:11:39,732 --> 00:11:44,036 here in Cincinnati put on by a person 149 00:11:44,070 --> 00:11:47,540 named Bryce Dessner, who's the guitarist 150 00:11:47,573 --> 00:11:53,145 for a rock band called The National, and also a classical composer. 151 00:11:53,179 --> 00:11:58,117 He, for this festival called MusicNOW, brought together 152 00:11:58,117 --> 00:12:01,187 artists and musicians from all genres. 153 00:12:01,220 --> 00:12:04,924 It was sort of... genre went out the window for this. 154 00:12:04,957 --> 00:12:08,527 He just brought together all these musicians he thought were interesting 155 00:12:08,561 --> 00:12:12,865 and put them on the stage together to make music together, performing their own 156 00:12:12,898 --> 00:12:18,070 projects, but also making new projects specifically for that festival. 157 00:12:18,070 --> 00:12:22,975 Maybe it sounds silly to say now, but I really didn't realize 158 00:12:23,008 --> 00:12:30,049 up until I saw that festival that that kind of creativity was possible, 159 00:12:30,082 --> 00:12:37,723 something that was alive, was very relevant, very contemporary, and 160 00:12:37,957 --> 00:12:42,628 irrespective of genre, just existed as a creative product. 161 00:12:42,661 --> 00:12:44,864 I was really inspired by that. 162 00:12:44,897 --> 00:12:50,803 That was where I began to come up with the idea for The Response Project. 163 00:12:50,836 --> 00:12:52,238 It grew from there. 164 00:12:52,271 --> 00:12:55,307 I knew I wanted to work with other creative people 165 00:12:55,341 --> 00:12:57,209 to make something new together. 166 00:12:57,243 --> 00:13:01,847 The model for that generated out of 167 00:13:01,914 --> 00:13:06,085 that initial spark of an idea. 168 00:13:06,118 --> 00:13:11,323 Over time, it started out - The first response project I ever did, 169 00:13:11,357 --> 00:13:16,629 I just e-mailed five of my friends who were composers that I had 170 00:13:16,629 --> 00:13:20,933 worked with before and asked them what they would like to respond to. 171 00:13:20,933 --> 00:13:27,473 They ended up selecting a piece by Karlheinz Stockhausen called Mikrophonie One. 172 00:13:27,473 --> 00:13:29,909 Not to get too in the weeds about it, but 173 00:13:29,942 --> 00:13:35,948 it's experimental electroacoustic music making. 174 00:13:36,115 --> 00:13:43,889 They wrote a response to that for me to perform five new pieces on solo piano. 175 00:13:43,923 --> 00:13:49,695 At the end of that project, after I had premiered it, 176 00:13:49,695 --> 00:13:55,100 somebody said to me, Brianna, this could be The Response Project. 177 00:13:55,134 --> 00:13:59,772 This is great. This is a great model. This could be the thing that you're known for. 178 00:14:00,606 --> 00:14:05,244 I hadn't realized that that was what I had made, but somebody else said that to me. 179 00:14:05,277 --> 00:14:07,213 I decided to do another one. 180 00:14:07,246 --> 00:14:11,584 I chose a different response point, a different set of composers, and then 181 00:14:11,617 --> 00:14:15,855 brought in some visual artists for the next one. 182 00:14:15,855 --> 00:14:20,426 Again, it went really well, was able to get some grant funding. 183 00:14:20,459 --> 00:14:22,228 Then I did another one. 184 00:14:22,261 --> 00:14:24,129 And another one and another one. 185 00:14:24,163 --> 00:14:27,266 More people came to me and said, I want to be part of this next Response Project. 186 00:14:27,299 --> 00:14:30,035 That's how it's grown over the years. 187 00:14:30,035 --> 00:14:31,937 It has been 10 years. 188 00:14:31,971 --> 00:14:34,173 It has been 10. 189 00:14:35,741 --> 00:14:37,376 I can't believe it. 190 00:14:37,376 --> 00:14:43,849 So every set of Response Project has its own name or its own setting? 191 00:14:44,116 --> 00:14:49,255 Yeah. Every response project is centered around a pre-existing artwork or pre-existing 192 00:14:49,255 --> 00:14:53,959 idea that I choose as the response point, and all the artists involved 193 00:14:53,993 --> 00:14:57,229 in the project are free to create new artwork in response 194 00:14:57,263 --> 00:15:01,333 to that in whatever way they wish. 195 00:15:01,667 --> 00:15:04,236 Is there one of these pieces? 196 00:15:04,236 --> 00:15:07,973 It's very hard because all of these pieces, you 197 00:15:08,007 --> 00:15:14,313 interpreted them and you gave something from yourself in these interpretations. 198 00:15:14,313 --> 00:15:19,385 But if there is one of these or two of these that really marked you, 199 00:15:19,418 --> 00:15:21,754 what would be these pieces? 200 00:15:21,754 --> 00:15:24,690 Out of all the response projects... 201 00:15:24,723 --> 00:15:31,931 Well, you reached out to me for this because of one of the Response Projects, 202 00:15:31,964 --> 00:15:35,668 my most recent one, the Tremor Project. 203 00:15:36,335 --> 00:15:40,706 That's certainly what comes to mind when you ask this question, because 204 00:15:40,739 --> 00:15:46,578 the Tremor Project is my most personal Response Project by far. 205 00:15:46,612 --> 00:15:50,115 All the other Response Projects were responses to... 206 00:15:50,115 --> 00:15:55,688 We did a response to a Bob Dylan album. 207 00:15:55,721 --> 00:16:02,895 We did a response to the compositions of Pauline Oliveros. 208 00:16:02,928 --> 00:16:06,465 But for this one, Tremor, I asked 209 00:16:06,465 --> 00:16:11,236 all the artists to respond to something about me. 210 00:16:11,270 --> 00:16:14,173 Should I tell the story of Tremor? 211 00:16:14,173 --> 00:16:17,743 Oh, yes, please. 212 00:16:17,776 --> 00:16:24,049 In 2020, I was diagnosed with a neurological condition 213 00:16:24,083 --> 00:16:27,152 called essential tremor. 214 00:16:27,152 --> 00:16:30,889 This is a condition that causes 215 00:16:30,923 --> 00:16:35,928 parts of the body to shake, and 216 00:16:35,961 --> 00:16:40,966 it affects - Everyone who has essential tremor, it affects them differently. 217 00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:46,505 For me, it causes my hands to shake most often. 218 00:16:48,440 --> 00:16:52,144 When I was diagnosed in 2020, I'd been visibly shaking 219 00:16:52,177 --> 00:16:53,612 for quite a while before that. 220 00:16:53,612 --> 00:16:57,816 But once I was officially diagnosed and I knew what it was, 221 00:16:57,816 --> 00:17:01,353 it really freaked me out. 222 00:17:02,888 --> 00:17:09,795 I wasn't sure how to process it, I didn't know how to move forward, 223 00:17:09,828 --> 00:17:13,432 if I should start telling people or if I should keep it a secret. 224 00:17:13,465 --> 00:17:16,035 I was very afraid for my career. 225 00:17:16,068 --> 00:17:21,206 I was afraid of the stigma associated with 226 00:17:21,240 --> 00:17:24,476 having shaking hands as a professional 227 00:17:24,510 --> 00:17:30,048 performing classical musician, and also just the stigma of having 228 00:17:30,048 --> 00:17:35,020 shaking hands in general and what people assume when your hands shake. 229 00:17:35,054 --> 00:17:39,091 I decided that the best way for me to move forward 230 00:17:39,124 --> 00:17:43,562 and process what was happening to me was to do the same thing that I always do, 231 00:17:43,595 --> 00:17:47,433 which is use creativity and collaboration to figure out the world. 232 00:17:47,433 --> 00:17:53,071 I decided to do a Response Project about tremor. 233 00:17:53,071 --> 00:17:57,976 The first person that I called 234 00:17:58,010 --> 00:18:00,813 to develop the idea for Tremor, 235 00:18:00,846 --> 00:18:04,783 once I knew I wanted to do a Response Project, was Molly Joyce, 236 00:18:04,817 --> 00:18:11,490 who had already been a collaborator with me on two other Response Projects. 237 00:18:11,523 --> 00:18:17,863 Molly is a wonderful composer and creative performing artist herself who 238 00:18:17,896 --> 00:18:20,766 uses disability as a creative source 239 00:18:20,799 --> 00:18:24,937 in her work and uses her creativity 240 00:18:24,937 --> 00:18:29,541 to illustrate and illuminate and dispel 241 00:18:29,575 --> 00:18:33,612 misconceptions about disability. 242 00:18:33,879 --> 00:18:39,751 I called her because I knew I wanted to use this project to explore 243 00:18:39,785 --> 00:18:45,124 ideas of ability and disability as it relates to artistic expression. 244 00:18:45,157 --> 00:18:50,629 But I didn't know if my condition 245 00:18:50,629 --> 00:18:54,867 qualified to enter that space. 246 00:18:55,601 --> 00:19:00,939 And I talked with her about it. I said, Can I do this? 247 00:19:01,673 --> 00:19:06,411 Is it okay if I make a project about ability and disability? 248 00:19:06,445 --> 00:19:10,816 She said, Yes, please! Please do this. 249 00:19:11,016 --> 00:19:14,086 She helped me shape it a little bit. 250 00:19:14,119 --> 00:19:18,390 Then I selected, with her consultation, I selected some more composers 251 00:19:18,423 --> 00:19:22,394 to write music for me in addition to her contribution. 252 00:19:22,394 --> 00:19:28,867 I sought out a community organization to work with for visual art for the project. 253 00:19:28,901 --> 00:19:32,604 I'm so lucky they said, yes, the organization who worked with this 254 00:19:32,638 --> 00:19:35,274 is called Visionaries & Voices. 255 00:19:35,407 --> 00:19:39,912 It's an art studio for adults with disabilities here in Cincinnati, where 256 00:19:39,945 --> 00:19:45,584 they can go and be mentored and supported in their career as a visual artist. 257 00:19:45,717 --> 00:19:50,722 It's a wonderful place, and they helped me find five artists to work with there. 258 00:19:50,756 --> 00:19:55,827 I also got to work with a sound artist named Britni Bicknaver, 259 00:19:55,861 --> 00:19:57,663 who lives with a stutter. 260 00:19:57,696 --> 00:20:02,000 She interviewed all of the artists from Visionaries and Voices and developed 261 00:20:02,034 --> 00:20:05,804 these lovely audio interview portraits that have become a part 262 00:20:05,837 --> 00:20:08,640 of the project as well. 263 00:20:08,640 --> 00:20:15,213 Tremor turned into as the final product 264 00:20:15,247 --> 00:20:17,215 a multimedia concert where 265 00:20:17,215 --> 00:20:20,752 I play the piano, we look at the visual art, we listen to the interviews 266 00:20:20,786 --> 00:20:26,825 with the artists, and I talk about the project a bit as a whole. 267 00:20:26,858 --> 00:20:32,764 I've taken that concert on tour around the US. 268 00:20:33,432 --> 00:20:37,869 It was very scary to present this at first, very vulnerable 269 00:20:37,903 --> 00:20:43,141 to admit what I was going through. 270 00:20:43,175 --> 00:20:49,748 I have been just blown away by how people have been reacting to it and 271 00:20:49,781 --> 00:20:53,719 their curiosity and their gratitude. 272 00:20:53,719 --> 00:20:55,954 It's been really wonderful. 273 00:20:55,954 --> 00:20:59,925 Were you able to exchange with, 274 00:21:00,592 --> 00:21:06,732 I guess, the surroundings of these visual artists, for example? 275 00:21:06,765 --> 00:21:13,538 Because being part of a project with multiple artistic practices 276 00:21:13,572 --> 00:21:18,377 is something that they might not see every day or live every day. 277 00:21:18,410 --> 00:21:22,614 Were you able to exchange with the teams who work with them, 278 00:21:22,614 --> 00:21:27,486 with the other artists, and maybe the families, something like that? 279 00:21:27,519 --> 00:21:28,186 Yeah. 280 00:21:28,220 --> 00:21:35,160 The process of developing the visual art component of this was really fun. 281 00:21:35,160 --> 00:21:40,098 I visited visited the space, the studio, for Visionaries & Voices 282 00:21:40,098 --> 00:21:44,770 multiple times, and started out just having personal 283 00:21:44,803 --> 00:21:50,542 one-on-one conversations with the artists, talking about their experience 284 00:21:50,542 --> 00:21:54,146 with art and their disability 285 00:21:54,179 --> 00:21:58,216 and how they related to my tremor 286 00:21:58,216 --> 00:22:04,356 and how they felt that it would manifest in their art making to respond to the fact 287 00:22:04,356 --> 00:22:06,858 that I have a tremor as a musician. 288 00:22:06,892 --> 00:22:08,393 Those conversations were great. 289 00:22:08,427 --> 00:22:15,167 Then from there, the artists listened to some of the music 290 00:22:15,200 --> 00:22:17,469 that I've made in the past 291 00:22:17,502 --> 00:22:24,476 and used that as a creative generation 292 00:22:24,509 --> 00:22:27,779 for their own visual art making. 293 00:22:27,813 --> 00:22:33,885 Then we put all of the art pieces 294 00:22:33,919 --> 00:22:37,456 up in an exhibition here in Cincinnati, 295 00:22:37,456 --> 00:22:43,195 and we invited all the artists to the opening reception for the exhibition. 296 00:22:43,195 --> 00:22:45,964 They got to come and bring their loved ones with them. 297 00:22:45,997 --> 00:22:51,603 We performed some music at the exhibition and shared the 298 00:22:51,603 --> 00:22:55,307 audio interviews from the artists with the audience. 299 00:22:55,340 --> 00:22:58,110 It was really lovely. 300 00:22:58,143 --> 00:22:59,611 Yeah, a lot of interaction. 301 00:22:59,978 --> 00:23:02,614 The composers were there? 302 00:23:02,647 --> 00:23:07,018 The composers were... 303 00:23:08,353 --> 00:23:13,258 No, I don't think any of the composers were at that reception. 304 00:23:13,291 --> 00:23:16,428 The composers for this project, unlike the visual artists, the composers 305 00:23:16,428 --> 00:23:20,332 for this project are located all over the country, and 306 00:23:20,332 --> 00:23:23,902 it was difficult to get them all there for that particular event. 307 00:23:23,935 --> 00:23:27,939 They've been at different performances of this project. 308 00:23:27,939 --> 00:23:31,343 I've met all the composers somewhere along the line, 309 00:23:31,376 --> 00:23:32,511 but they weren't there for that. 310 00:23:33,645 --> 00:23:36,982 So where did you tour with this project? 311 00:23:37,015 --> 00:23:42,421 I've done all over different parts of Ohio. 312 00:23:42,421 --> 00:23:45,223 I got to go to Boston and Vermont. 313 00:23:45,257 --> 00:23:50,962 I've done Chicago, Minnesota, and Kansas City. 314 00:23:50,996 --> 00:23:56,701 I'm so lucky that I was granted a sabbatical for my teaching 315 00:23:56,701 --> 00:24:03,442 at the college this last fall, and that was my project to go on tour. 316 00:24:03,442 --> 00:24:09,381 Those were all the performances that I managed to squeeze in one semester. 317 00:24:09,414 --> 00:24:13,185 I'll be performing it one more time in a few weeks here at the end of... 318 00:24:13,218 --> 00:24:16,688 We're talking on January 20th, and I'll be performing at the end 319 00:24:16,688 --> 00:24:20,258 of January here in Cincinnati again. 320 00:24:20,892 --> 00:24:24,496 I don't have any other dates booked for this project, but 321 00:24:24,496 --> 00:24:26,932 I'd love to continue performing it. 322 00:24:27,999 --> 00:24:31,269 It's certainly worth taking to other parts of the country and world. 323 00:24:31,303 --> 00:24:32,437 We'll see what happens. 324 00:24:32,437 --> 00:24:33,705 Very nice. 325 00:24:33,738 --> 00:24:37,976 Well, you're also traveling outside the States 326 00:24:37,976 --> 00:24:43,582 for the International Foundation for Contemporary Music, as you were mentioning. 327 00:24:43,682 --> 00:24:47,786 This is in Holland for the Cortona Sessions. 328 00:24:47,819 --> 00:24:49,120 That's right. 329 00:24:49,120 --> 00:24:56,962 How did you manage to do that in your academic year every year? 330 00:24:56,962 --> 00:25:01,833 Well, I'm really lucky with that position 331 00:25:01,867 --> 00:25:05,804 that I have a team of people 332 00:25:05,837 --> 00:25:08,440 working alongside me to make that happen. 333 00:25:08,473 --> 00:25:16,414 Everyone really generously gives of their time and energy to support 334 00:25:16,448 --> 00:25:19,951 the administration of that project. 335 00:25:21,519 --> 00:25:24,022 I'd certainly would not be able to do it alone. 336 00:25:24,055 --> 00:25:27,626 No, it'd be impossible. 337 00:25:27,659 --> 00:25:30,762 Can you tell us a bit more about that, the Cortona Sessions, 338 00:25:30,795 --> 00:25:33,598 and also the foundation itself? 339 00:25:33,598 --> 00:25:36,134 Sure. I'd be happy to tell you. 340 00:25:36,167 --> 00:25:42,440 The Cortona Sessions, like I said, it's the flagship project of the IFCM. 341 00:25:42,474 --> 00:25:46,311 It was founded in 2010. 342 00:25:46,344 --> 00:25:49,381 It's called the Cortona Sessions because it used to happen 343 00:25:49,381 --> 00:25:52,117 every summer in Cortona Italy. 344 00:25:52,117 --> 00:25:56,755 It's a program for composers and performers who are interested 345 00:25:56,788 --> 00:26:01,293 in contemporary music to come together and be mentored 346 00:26:01,326 --> 00:26:02,694 in that professional interest. 347 00:26:02,727 --> 00:26:04,729 It lasts for two weeks. 348 00:26:04,763 --> 00:26:10,669 The composers write a brand new composition for a performance premiere 349 00:26:10,702 --> 00:26:15,140 at the sessions, and the performers come with interest in collaborating 350 00:26:15,140 --> 00:26:19,244 with the composers on the premiere of those works. 351 00:26:19,277 --> 00:26:22,380 One thing that makes us stand apart is 352 00:26:22,380 --> 00:26:27,519 we offer a conducting track of study 353 00:26:27,519 --> 00:26:31,156 as well, so young conductors can come and be mentored. 354 00:26:31,156 --> 00:26:36,628 There's very specific skills that come along with conducting contemporary chamber music 355 00:26:36,628 --> 00:26:38,630 that we mentor them in. 356 00:26:38,663 --> 00:26:44,703 We also offer a track of study for preformed chamber music ensembles 357 00:26:44,736 --> 00:26:47,772 who want to specialize in contemporary music to come and study with us 358 00:26:47,772 --> 00:26:51,876 and be mentored and coached, not only in their music making, but also 359 00:26:51,876 --> 00:26:58,917 on the more business side of what it takes to run a chamber music ensemble. 360 00:26:59,551 --> 00:27:04,823 One thing that we pride ourselves on 361 00:27:04,856 --> 00:27:08,593 at the Cortona Sessions is... 362 00:27:09,794 --> 00:27:13,498 Our focus is on artistic excellence, absolutely, 363 00:27:13,498 --> 00:27:18,069 but we never sacrifice the feeling of safety, 364 00:27:18,103 --> 00:27:21,773 welcoming, warmth, friendship, compassion 365 00:27:21,806 --> 00:27:26,244 for the sake of some artistic ideal. 366 00:27:26,277 --> 00:27:30,582 Our focus is on community. 367 00:27:30,615 --> 00:27:35,487 My first interaction with the Cortona Sessions back in 2018, 368 00:27:35,487 --> 00:27:40,225 I came as their resident piano fellow, so I was more on the student side of things. 369 00:27:40,258 --> 00:27:45,764 I was so surprised to find that the faculty at the Cortona Sessions, 370 00:27:45,797 --> 00:27:49,534 they didn't hold themselves separate from the students. 371 00:27:49,567 --> 00:27:53,738 It wasn't like this hierarchical feeling where it's faculty up here and students 372 00:27:53,772 --> 00:27:56,875 down here, and we must pay homage or something like that. 373 00:27:56,875 --> 00:27:59,277 It was not like that at all. 374 00:27:59,310 --> 00:28:04,883 It was a feeling of collaboration and mutual support, mutual interest. 375 00:28:04,916 --> 00:28:06,785 We're all learning from each other. 376 00:28:06,818 --> 00:28:09,621 The only thing that sets the faculty apart is just 377 00:28:09,621 --> 00:28:12,691 that they've been doing this longer. 378 00:28:12,724 --> 00:28:19,964 I found that so helpful and welcoming and supportive. 379 00:28:19,998 --> 00:28:25,103 I have continued to try to operate in that spirit, and I'm really proud that 380 00:28:25,103 --> 00:28:28,773 we continue to offer that spirit of community. 381 00:28:28,807 --> 00:28:32,677 How many applicants do you take each year? 382 00:28:32,677 --> 00:28:36,014 Our program has room for about 45 people. 383 00:28:36,047 --> 00:28:41,286 That breaks down to three or four 384 00:28:41,319 --> 00:28:45,990 preformed ensembles, about 12 composers, 385 00:28:45,990 --> 00:28:49,861 two or three conductors, and then the rest are performers. 386 00:28:49,894 --> 00:28:55,600 The instrumentation that we focus on is what's known as the bureau ensemble. 387 00:28:55,600 --> 00:29:02,507 That would be flute, saxophone, clarinet, violin, cello, 388 00:29:02,540 --> 00:29:06,811 percussion, piano, and voice. 389 00:29:06,845 --> 00:29:09,614 Very impressive. 390 00:29:09,614 --> 00:29:17,055 Thank you. It's a really interesting challenge to run a program like that because 391 00:29:17,088 --> 00:29:22,894 I'm talking about issues of welcoming and 392 00:29:22,927 --> 00:29:25,396 trying to create a feeling of safety for 393 00:29:25,430 --> 00:29:29,334 as many identities as we possibly can. 394 00:29:29,367 --> 00:29:31,136 It's difficult to... 395 00:29:31,169 --> 00:29:34,072 Nobody can ever do that perfectly. 396 00:29:34,105 --> 00:29:36,908 We can always try to do better. 397 00:29:36,941 --> 00:29:42,013 But from a financial standpoint, making a summer program of study 398 00:29:42,046 --> 00:29:47,619 like that financially accessible to people is a continual challenge. 399 00:29:47,652 --> 00:29:54,692 There are not many institutions out there who are interested in 400 00:29:54,692 --> 00:29:58,129 supporting a program like that financially. 401 00:29:58,163 --> 00:30:03,067 It just is not the priority of a lot of foundations or philanthropists 402 00:30:03,101 --> 00:30:05,503 for whatever reason. 403 00:30:05,537 --> 00:30:08,873 But it does cost money to run a program like that. 404 00:30:08,907 --> 00:30:11,276 That's been an ongoing challenge. 405 00:30:11,276 --> 00:30:14,445 It's the financial side of the accessibility. 406 00:30:15,313 --> 00:30:17,215 Well, yeah. 407 00:30:17,248 --> 00:30:23,121 Especially right now, you have someone who's coming to the game who is not 408 00:30:23,154 --> 00:30:27,592 really fond of arts, your new president 409 00:30:27,625 --> 00:30:32,430 who is really today as we are speaking. 410 00:30:32,463 --> 00:30:36,701 You know, I was so grateful that 411 00:30:36,734 --> 00:30:40,905 we decided to schedule this interview 412 00:30:40,939 --> 00:30:42,140 on Inauguration Day. 413 00:30:42,173 --> 00:30:47,011 For me, it's a welcome distraction. 414 00:30:48,046 --> 00:30:51,416 I'm not focusing on those ceremonies right now. 415 00:30:51,449 --> 00:30:53,918 Very good. 416 00:30:54,319 --> 00:31:02,493 Well, I have also a question about you as a pedagogue, as a music educator. 417 00:31:02,961 --> 00:31:06,264 So I will... 418 00:31:06,264 --> 00:31:10,602 You mentioned that you have this tremor. 419 00:31:10,602 --> 00:31:17,108 As an educator, how did it change your own education practices or 420 00:31:17,141 --> 00:31:19,377 your conversations with the students, maybe? 421 00:31:19,377 --> 00:31:21,012 Did it change something? 422 00:31:21,779 --> 00:31:23,548 Oh, that's a really interesting question. 423 00:31:23,548 --> 00:31:26,684 I've never thought about that before. 424 00:31:28,152 --> 00:31:31,723 Here's what I can tell you it did change for me. 425 00:31:33,057 --> 00:31:36,594 I'll have to think about the educator part of it. 426 00:31:36,628 --> 00:31:41,633 But when I started the Tremor Project, 427 00:31:41,633 --> 00:31:47,038 I admittedly had not directly 428 00:31:47,038 --> 00:31:52,810 interacted with ideas of disability 429 00:31:52,844 --> 00:31:55,380 or research around disability, 430 00:31:58,116 --> 00:32:02,186 really at all, not very much at all. 431 00:32:02,220 --> 00:32:09,294 I had a wrong belief in my head 432 00:32:10,795 --> 00:32:13,398 before I started the Tremor Project, 433 00:32:13,398 --> 00:32:16,701 and this was wrong, but I really did think 434 00:32:16,734 --> 00:32:21,606 that people who lived with disability, 435 00:32:21,639 --> 00:32:26,511 it was a firmly defined category. 436 00:32:26,544 --> 00:32:29,647 There are people with disability and people without disability. 437 00:32:29,681 --> 00:32:37,322 It was separate categories that could be defined. 438 00:32:37,689 --> 00:32:43,394 As part of that separateness, I think I thought that there was some outreach 439 00:32:43,428 --> 00:32:49,000 that needed to happen to connect those two separated categories. 440 00:32:49,033 --> 00:32:56,974 But what I discovered is actually disability is a part of everybody's life, 441 00:32:57,008 --> 00:32:59,477 and there's no separation at all. 442 00:32:59,510 --> 00:33:03,314 It's a spectrum of a sort. 443 00:33:04,382 --> 00:33:08,820 But I realized how closely we all live with it every day. 444 00:33:08,853 --> 00:33:15,860 It's just these unjust, poorly designed social structures and things 445 00:33:15,893 --> 00:33:19,664 that separate us from each other. 446 00:33:19,697 --> 00:33:26,104 And so I guess as an educator, that realization, 447 00:33:26,137 --> 00:33:29,273 perhaps over time, it's changed how I 448 00:33:29,307 --> 00:33:37,348 approach my students just to realize 449 00:33:38,983 --> 00:33:44,555 you never know what somebody is going through 450 00:33:44,555 --> 00:33:48,793 internally, in other parts of their lives, whatever it might be. 451 00:33:48,826 --> 00:33:54,432 You don't know when there's neurodivergence or chronic pain or somebody else 452 00:33:54,465 --> 00:33:59,137 in their family who's dealing with things and they're a caregiver. 453 00:33:59,170 --> 00:34:04,842 I think I just operate with a different baseline of compassion and understanding 454 00:34:04,842 --> 00:34:07,011 as a result of doing this project. 455 00:34:07,211 --> 00:34:11,449 It's too bad that I didn't realize that before, but I'm glad 456 00:34:11,482 --> 00:34:13,985 it brought me to that realization. 457 00:34:14,018 --> 00:34:15,920 I hope that this project is bringing 458 00:34:15,953 --> 00:34:19,724 other people to that realization as well. 459 00:34:20,458 --> 00:34:27,131 Also, I think that with the conversations you must have had with Molly Joyce, 460 00:34:27,165 --> 00:34:31,335 who's really working on the idea of duality, 461 00:34:31,335 --> 00:34:35,773 of how do we conceive disability, 462 00:34:35,773 --> 00:34:38,876 the part that is working vs the part that is not, 463 00:34:38,876 --> 00:34:41,979 the part that we say vs the part that we don't say. 464 00:34:42,013 --> 00:34:47,085 She does such an amazing job in trying to conceptualize that 465 00:34:47,118 --> 00:34:49,787 into her music compositions. 466 00:34:49,821 --> 00:34:53,391 As a musician then, 467 00:34:53,391 --> 00:34:57,295 more than as a pedagogue, as a music educator, 468 00:34:57,328 --> 00:35:04,135 these conversations must have been the triggering point of you trying to change 469 00:35:04,168 --> 00:35:07,472 your own conception of disability, right? 470 00:35:07,472 --> 00:35:09,006 Yeah. 471 00:35:09,040 --> 00:35:16,380 Once I started telling people that I have essential trauma, one of the questions 472 00:35:16,414 --> 00:35:21,352 that immediately comes up as the next question that they have 473 00:35:21,352 --> 00:35:24,055 when I say, Well, I have essential tremors. 474 00:35:24,489 --> 00:35:27,758 People always say, Oh, my gosh. 475 00:35:27,792 --> 00:35:30,328 Well, how do you play piano then? 476 00:35:30,595 --> 00:35:35,099 How? That must be really difficult. 477 00:35:36,167 --> 00:35:41,772 And my answer is actually, 478 00:35:42,139 --> 00:35:45,042 it's not that difficult 479 00:35:45,076 --> 00:35:48,446 because I live with it every day. 480 00:35:48,479 --> 00:35:53,351 I'm never not shaking. 481 00:35:53,384 --> 00:35:58,523 If the tremor is affecting my artistry, 482 00:35:58,556 --> 00:36:02,260 I don't really know that it is because 483 00:36:02,260 --> 00:36:06,797 I'm just not aware of it because I don't know what it means to play piano without shaking hands. 484 00:36:08,599 --> 00:36:14,238 It's possible that if I woke up tomorrow 485 00:36:14,272 --> 00:36:15,873 without the tremor, I would have to 486 00:36:15,907 --> 00:36:19,143 relearn my artistry and develop a new approach to the piano. 487 00:36:19,143 --> 00:36:25,216 That would be actually more difficult than just living with the tremor. 488 00:36:25,249 --> 00:36:31,155 One of the composers for this project is this wonderful woman named Adele - 489 00:36:31,188 --> 00:36:37,395 Adeliia Faizullina, who's a blind from birth composer. 490 00:36:38,529 --> 00:36:43,901 When we were chatting about the project, she said to me, Well, you know, Brianna, 491 00:36:43,901 --> 00:36:46,537 it's not like when I wake up in the morning, the first thing 492 00:36:46,537 --> 00:36:48,839 I think is, Oh, no, I'm blind! 493 00:36:48,839 --> 00:36:51,576 You know... (Laughs.) 494 00:36:52,610 --> 00:36:57,481 Most of the time, these conditions, 495 00:36:57,848 --> 00:36:59,984 we don't think about it. 496 00:36:59,984 --> 00:37:07,592 The difficulty comes in when the world is not able to welcome us, 497 00:37:07,592 --> 00:37:12,330 even though we're fully comfortable in our own bodies. 498 00:37:13,931 --> 00:37:19,503 Again, that's another point that I'm trying to illuminate with the project. 499 00:37:19,537 --> 00:37:24,375 When it comes to performing and working 500 00:37:24,408 --> 00:37:27,812 in classical music, specifically, 501 00:37:27,845 --> 00:37:33,584 there's an obsession with virtuosity in classical music. 502 00:37:33,618 --> 00:37:37,922 I hate the way that it's traditionally 503 00:37:37,922 --> 00:37:41,959 defined as physical mastery, playing 504 00:37:41,993 --> 00:37:45,296 faster and louder than anybody else. 505 00:37:45,329 --> 00:37:52,803 I think that's boring, and I think it's a harmful way to look at mastery. 506 00:37:53,704 --> 00:37:57,208 It separates us from humanity, I think, 507 00:37:57,208 --> 00:38:01,545 and I'm much more interested in a virtuosic - 508 00:38:01,545 --> 00:38:04,382 a virtuosity of expression and authenticity 509 00:38:04,382 --> 00:38:10,187 and vulnerability and heart-to-heart connection through the music. 510 00:38:10,221 --> 00:38:11,889 Anyway, these are all things... 511 00:38:11,922 --> 00:38:16,193 I'm rambling now, but those are all things that I think about with this project, definitely. 512 00:38:17,128 --> 00:38:21,666 Well, I have a question that is kind of related. 513 00:38:21,666 --> 00:38:31,776 In the way we conceive a disability in our social life today that is, as you say it, 514 00:38:31,776 --> 00:38:37,448 people discover that it's not really the conception that they had for a long 515 00:38:37,481 --> 00:38:43,220 time because in society, we are taught that this is the way. 516 00:38:43,254 --> 00:38:45,289 There are organizations 517 00:38:45,322 --> 00:38:50,327 with multiple artists who work in 518 00:38:50,361 --> 00:38:53,798 the field of disability and music. 519 00:38:53,798 --> 00:38:58,636 We frequently speak when we meet, I'm one of them. 520 00:38:58,669 --> 00:39:01,772 I'm a wheelchair user, I'm a singer. 521 00:39:01,939 --> 00:39:07,511 Some people say, Okay, so how do you sing if you're not standing? 522 00:39:07,511 --> 00:39:09,780 Things like that, which is what? 523 00:39:09,780 --> 00:39:13,718 Okay, I just sing. Oh, yeah. 524 00:39:13,718 --> 00:39:20,691 But it triggered conversations about the way accessibility and disability 525 00:39:20,725 --> 00:39:23,494 is seen in the arts itself. 526 00:39:23,527 --> 00:39:29,200 I love this question because everybody has a different answer to this question. 527 00:39:29,200 --> 00:39:33,704 What does accessibility or working in a world where you have 528 00:39:33,704 --> 00:39:37,975 touched disability culture, what does it mean to you? 529 00:39:40,211 --> 00:39:42,179 Hard question, I know. 530 00:39:42,179 --> 00:39:44,615 It's a big question. 531 00:39:45,416 --> 00:39:48,686 How to put it into words? 532 00:39:48,886 --> 00:39:55,192 The more we can welcome... 533 00:39:56,060 --> 00:39:57,194 and... 534 00:39:58,195 --> 00:40:01,298 Gosh, even the word welcoming bothers me sometimes 535 00:40:01,332 --> 00:40:06,804 because there's a connotation of otherness in the word welcome. 536 00:40:06,837 --> 00:40:09,073 You were out here, and now we brought you in here. 537 00:40:09,106 --> 00:40:19,583 Welcome. I just mean that beautiful things to me... 538 00:40:19,617 --> 00:40:24,388 Art to me is about accessing beauty, but beauty to me is not something 539 00:40:24,422 --> 00:40:25,956 that's perfect. 540 00:40:25,956 --> 00:40:32,530 It's not something that is virtuosic. 541 00:40:32,763 --> 00:40:38,602 This effort of accessibility and welcoming, 542 00:40:40,337 --> 00:40:44,675 it makes everything more beautiful. 543 00:40:45,176 --> 00:40:48,746 The artistic possibilities 544 00:40:48,779 --> 00:40:53,551 when all voices are included, are... 545 00:40:54,084 --> 00:40:57,922 it's just artistically more interesting. 546 00:40:58,122 --> 00:41:04,795 I'm not being very good with my words about this, but 547 00:41:04,929 --> 00:41:10,367 it makes everything better. 548 00:41:10,968 --> 00:41:13,437 Molly's work is actually such a great example of this. 549 00:41:13,437 --> 00:41:17,508 She taught me about how 550 00:41:18,742 --> 00:41:22,213 when you are creating an artistic product 551 00:41:22,246 --> 00:41:27,618 and you include accessibility measures in the artistic product, it enhances 552 00:41:27,618 --> 00:41:30,588 the artistry of that product. 553 00:41:30,588 --> 00:41:32,857 It's not a distraction from it. 554 00:41:32,857 --> 00:41:35,993 It's part of the artistic interest of it. 555 00:41:36,861 --> 00:41:41,532 Even just something as simple as the programs that I printed for 556 00:41:41,532 --> 00:41:48,105 my Tremor program have braille on them. 557 00:41:48,138 --> 00:41:51,876 Braille is beautiful. 558 00:41:51,909 --> 00:41:56,447 It's a beautiful thing to touch and experience. 559 00:41:56,447 --> 00:41:59,116 It's a beautiful thing. If you can see it, it's a beautiful thing 560 00:41:59,149 --> 00:42:03,187 to see that texture added to the paper. 561 00:42:03,787 --> 00:42:06,790 And so it's only enhancing what we're doing. 562 00:42:06,824 --> 00:42:10,261 It's not an accessory. 563 00:42:10,294 --> 00:42:16,433 I don't have a succinct way to say what I think about this, but 564 00:42:16,433 --> 00:42:19,169 man, does it make things more beautiful. 565 00:42:19,336 --> 00:42:20,538 It can only be better. 566 00:42:21,005 --> 00:42:25,809 Right. There are many notions. 567 00:42:25,843 --> 00:42:32,449 For example, there is this concept of universal design, which I really like. 568 00:42:32,483 --> 00:42:38,188 Some people are struggling a bit with this concept of universal design. 569 00:42:38,222 --> 00:42:44,395 But if you think of a product or a building or something that you use 570 00:42:44,428 --> 00:42:51,335 every day and you don't think about making it accessible, you think about 571 00:42:51,368 --> 00:42:53,971 making it usable by everybody. 572 00:42:54,004 --> 00:42:58,709 Whatever you are, whatever if you're a child or if you're an adult 573 00:42:58,742 --> 00:43:02,613 or if you are big or if you're tall or if you have, I don't know, 574 00:43:02,613 --> 00:43:04,682 four fingers, it doesn't matter. 575 00:43:04,715 --> 00:43:10,688 Everybody should be able to use this entrance or this building or this product 576 00:43:10,721 --> 00:43:16,927 the same way, or at least an equivalent way, not exactly the same way. 577 00:43:17,394 --> 00:43:20,364 I like that in arts, too. 578 00:43:20,397 --> 00:43:27,438 There are some foundations or organizations right now working on 579 00:43:27,438 --> 00:43:33,110 inclusive concerts or adaptive concerts 580 00:43:33,143 --> 00:43:37,614 where you have as many 581 00:43:37,848 --> 00:43:43,320 possible elements in the room that makes you feel good attending a concert, 582 00:43:43,354 --> 00:43:47,891 whatever where you're coming from or what 583 00:43:47,925 --> 00:43:52,496 you identify yourself with, whatever. 584 00:43:52,529 --> 00:43:56,900 You come here and you feel good and you have fun and you enjoy the music. 585 00:43:56,934 --> 00:44:00,037 I love that concept, really. 586 00:44:00,237 --> 00:44:01,705 Yeah. Yes! 587 00:44:02,139 --> 00:44:08,278 Ok, good, you're jogging my brain a little bit with this spot because, 588 00:44:08,445 --> 00:44:11,815 again, this is a lesson I learned through this project and something I feel 589 00:44:11,815 --> 00:44:16,320 passionately about now is 590 00:44:16,920 --> 00:44:21,992 you never know who has something to gain 591 00:44:22,026 --> 00:44:26,030 from creating a universally designed experience. 592 00:44:26,230 --> 00:44:28,599 You know, you can't... 593 00:44:28,932 --> 00:44:32,002 If you go just to the idea 594 00:44:32,036 --> 00:44:34,838 of an artistic product, you create 595 00:44:34,872 --> 00:44:40,778 an artistic product, you cannot control how somebody receives that product. 596 00:44:40,811 --> 00:44:45,416 You cannot control how they're going to connect to it. 597 00:44:45,449 --> 00:44:47,785 I think that's also true for... 598 00:44:47,818 --> 00:44:51,021 In my case, I do a ton of concert production. 599 00:44:51,055 --> 00:44:56,727 You cannot control how someone's going to respond to that concert production. 600 00:44:56,760 --> 00:45:00,831 Sometimes an accessibility measure that's designed to reach a specific 601 00:45:00,864 --> 00:45:07,771 audience, it's valuable for other people for all kinds of reasons. 602 00:45:08,672 --> 00:45:12,509 You just never know how that's going to strike somebody 603 00:45:12,543 --> 00:45:15,179 and open them up to something. 604 00:45:15,212 --> 00:45:16,747 I think it's really important. 605 00:45:16,780 --> 00:45:20,117 Yeah, the universal design of concert experiences. 606 00:45:20,117 --> 00:45:21,552 Absolutely. 607 00:45:22,252 --> 00:45:23,087 Well, thank you. 608 00:45:23,120 --> 00:45:27,658 I know it's always a tricky question, but in a way, it's... 609 00:45:27,658 --> 00:45:32,396 people just have their own experience of it. 610 00:45:32,396 --> 00:45:35,199 I'm very interested in learning about that. 611 00:45:36,100 --> 00:45:41,739 Well, I have a last question for this interview, and it's about people 612 00:45:41,739 --> 00:45:48,412 who might have motivated you or have brought something to your life. 613 00:45:48,445 --> 00:45:51,815 Sometimes I say inspire you, 614 00:45:51,849 --> 00:45:56,954 even if it's not always the inspiration like we... 615 00:45:57,788 --> 00:46:00,991 Everybody has a different notion of inspiration, too. 616 00:46:01,024 --> 00:46:05,796 But if you had people to think of who brought you something in your career 617 00:46:05,829 --> 00:46:10,434 and launched you in a way where you are today, who would it be and why? 618 00:46:10,434 --> 00:46:11,602 Yeah. 619 00:46:14,905 --> 00:46:19,243 The person that immediately comes to mind 620 00:46:19,276 --> 00:46:23,981 always is my first piano teacher. 621 00:46:25,816 --> 00:46:29,853 I started lessons with her when I was seven years old 622 00:46:29,853 --> 00:46:33,390 and continued until I was 16. 623 00:46:33,390 --> 00:46:37,094 And she... 624 00:46:38,428 --> 00:46:42,766 Growing up in Small Town, Minnesota, 625 00:46:42,833 --> 00:46:47,938 for better or for worse, I felt 626 00:46:47,971 --> 00:46:55,345 a little bit alone in who I was as an artist in that surrounding. 627 00:46:55,379 --> 00:47:00,517 It's just by nature of a small population, I didn't feel that there were a lot 628 00:47:00,517 --> 00:47:07,057 of people who felt the way about music and art and beauty the way I did. 629 00:47:07,191 --> 00:47:11,528 But she was my sort of window. 630 00:47:12,829 --> 00:47:18,068 Not only my window to the outside artistic world and what 631 00:47:18,101 --> 00:47:21,471 was possible, but also she was my window 632 00:47:21,505 --> 00:47:27,377 into myself and what I was capable of. 633 00:47:27,411 --> 00:47:32,749 She was the one more than anybody else in my life who said, You can do this. 634 00:47:32,783 --> 00:47:35,419 You have something to offer. 635 00:47:35,452 --> 00:47:39,289 The world needs what you have to say. 636 00:47:39,323 --> 00:47:43,694 And it took me a long time to believe her. 637 00:47:43,727 --> 00:47:45,996 But man, to have that consistent voice 638 00:47:46,029 --> 00:47:51,835 in my life for 10 years was everything. 639 00:47:51,835 --> 00:47:57,708 When I was a little girl, I wanted so much to just be exactly like her, down to 640 00:47:57,741 --> 00:48:00,110 wearing the same perfume and everything. 641 00:48:00,143 --> 00:48:03,380 I still, in many ways, feel like that 642 00:48:03,413 --> 00:48:09,553 about her, that the way that she lovingly 643 00:48:09,586 --> 00:48:15,192 held a standard up for me and kept consistently telling me what was possible 644 00:48:15,192 --> 00:48:17,861 for me in my life was really important. 645 00:48:17,894 --> 00:48:19,563 What's her name? 646 00:48:19,796 --> 00:48:22,466 Her name is Georgia Hanson. 647 00:48:22,466 --> 00:48:26,470 She had cancer and passed away a few years ago. 648 00:48:26,503 --> 00:48:31,108 It was really sad, but I remember her so fondly. 649 00:48:31,108 --> 00:48:34,044 I'm lucky to still be in close touch with her whole family, and I'm 650 00:48:34,077 --> 00:48:38,215 really grateful to know all of them. 651 00:48:38,882 --> 00:48:40,450 It's important. 652 00:48:41,251 --> 00:48:46,189 I think teachers in our lives are so important. 653 00:48:46,323 --> 00:48:52,462 They form us and they make us what we are later in life. 654 00:48:52,496 --> 00:48:58,368 We cannot value enough the position of a good teacher Yeah, for sure. 655 00:48:58,402 --> 00:49:00,370 It's true. 656 00:49:01,505 --> 00:49:06,176 You know, I do a ton of teaching. 657 00:49:07,044 --> 00:49:13,483 The thing that I've been thinking about lately in my role as a teacher 658 00:49:13,483 --> 00:49:20,424 is how the voices of my teachers are still in my head. 659 00:49:20,457 --> 00:49:24,895 20, 30 years later, they're still there. 660 00:49:24,928 --> 00:49:28,832 When I'm interacting interacting with my students, I try to interact 661 00:49:28,865 --> 00:49:33,403 with them with that idea in mind. 662 00:49:34,438 --> 00:49:38,008 It's easy to get frustrated as a teacher and feel like, 663 00:49:38,041 --> 00:49:39,409 Oh, they're not getting it. 664 00:49:39,443 --> 00:49:43,347 But maybe they'll get it in 25 years and 665 00:49:43,380 --> 00:49:48,218 it's still a gift that you've given them. 666 00:49:48,251 --> 00:49:53,657 I have to say, when it comes to being a teacher, 667 00:49:53,690 --> 00:49:57,094 that was how I - 668 00:49:57,094 --> 00:50:01,031 my original conception of my adult self was as a teacher. 669 00:50:01,064 --> 00:50:04,568 When I was little, that was how I saw myself was as a teacher, 670 00:50:04,601 --> 00:50:06,703 a piano teacher, specifically. 671 00:50:06,737 --> 00:50:09,740 Even now, in all of the work that I do, 672 00:50:09,773 --> 00:50:12,943 I think I'm still very much 673 00:50:12,943 --> 00:50:17,014 deeply fulfilled by my work as a piano teacher. 674 00:50:17,047 --> 00:50:19,916 The privilege of getting to sit 675 00:50:19,916 --> 00:50:24,454 across from somebody week after week 676 00:50:24,454 --> 00:50:28,725 after week for 45 minutes, dedicated time for years in their life. 677 00:50:28,759 --> 00:50:33,897 You get to watch them grow from a child into an adult person. 678 00:50:33,897 --> 00:50:38,602 You get to watch them discover themselves, and you get to see them use music 679 00:50:38,635 --> 00:50:42,205 to form their identity and see where it falls into their identity. 680 00:50:42,239 --> 00:50:46,810 They get to use music to express their place in the world. 681 00:50:46,843 --> 00:50:51,715 That is such a cool, wonderful, privileged position to have. 682 00:50:51,748 --> 00:50:55,385 I love that part of my job. Man, is it wonderful? 683 00:50:55,419 --> 00:50:56,753 It's very inspiring. 684 00:50:56,953 --> 00:50:59,089 Yes, I feel the same. 685 00:50:59,122 --> 00:51:03,260 I know exactly what you're talking about. 686 00:51:03,293 --> 00:51:08,131 Then leave a trace in these children 687 00:51:08,165 --> 00:51:13,737 or adults that will make them think, 688 00:51:13,737 --> 00:51:15,906 Oh, yeah, that was a great time. 689 00:51:15,939 --> 00:51:19,810 I learned a lot. 690 00:51:19,843 --> 00:51:23,980 Well, thank you so much for this conversation. 691 00:51:24,014 --> 00:51:28,218 Have a good concert at the end of January 692 00:51:28,251 --> 00:51:32,456 with the last date of your project. 693 00:51:32,489 --> 00:51:36,726 I hope I can see it one day live. 694 00:51:36,760 --> 00:51:38,428 Oh, that's so cool. 695 00:51:38,462 --> 00:51:40,931 Yeah, that'd be wonderful. 696 00:51:41,131 --> 00:51:43,733 Okay, Well, have a wonderful day 697 00:51:43,733 --> 00:51:49,172 and have a great time 698 00:51:49,172 --> 00:51:52,609 teaching and doing everything musical that you're doing. 699 00:51:52,609 --> 00:51:55,145 Thank you so much. It was an honor to speak with you. 700 00:51:55,145 --> 00:51:57,414 Thank you. Take care. 701 00:51:57,514 --> 00:51:58,682 Bye. 702 00:51:59,549 --> 00:52:04,688 [Closing theme music]