Part 2
Take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work, please.
Well, routine is a rare pleasure, I would say. Each day has its own structure and tasks, so daily regularity of activities just doesn’t exist for me.
When my daughter was little, I suppose I had a bit more of an early-morning routine, but my work habits tend to be rather deep and immersion-stye. I’m not much of a bit-by-bit person. I practice for insanely long periods, I do projects in big chunks, and I teach long hours.
My one ritual, however, is that my day doesn’t start without my coffee – I go through phases where it has to be espresso, or I return to basic brewed. My brain just does not kick into gear without my coffee.
By nature, I am a night person and do my best work late. That means that my ideal schedule (if that might ever occur someday in the distant future!) would be to sleep between 3am and 10am, get up and have my coffee, do office work on the early end of the day, and then save all my creative work for the hours between 4pm and 3am.
Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece, live performance or album that's particularly dear to you, please?
I can think of no better example of my creative process than my most recent album, FIVE MINUTES for Earth, which combines several of my passions all at once: new music, creative exploration of the harp idiom, expansion of the harp repertoire, community involvement, and earth conservation.
I had the idea for the project before the pandemic, but I didn’t dive into the nuts and bolts until mid-2020. I asked fifteen amazing composers if they would consider composing and donating an Earth-inspired work of approximately five minutes for solo harp, which I would then record and premiere. I was blown away by the incredibly immediate and generous responses.
After the live and recorded premieres, the “pay-it-forward” part of the project will start. Future performances of the FIVE MINUTES works, by any artist, anywhere in the world, will result in monetary contributions to worthy earth-conservation organizations, sponsored by my non-profit foundation, Earth at Heart. As the works starting rolling in by spring and summer of 2021, I was practicing literally 12 hours a day to get the music in my hands in time to record them in October of 2021. By the skin of our teeth, we finished editing and post-production by February 1st in time for an April, 2022 release.
I can’t quite believe it all came together and we now have this diverse, musical representation of Earth in all its beauty and pain, fifteen new works for solo harp by some of today’s most iconic composers, and a revenue-generating source for earth conservation organizations that’s fueled by artistic generosity all the way down the line. It’s one of those super complicated, but worth-it-in-every-way projects that totally embodies all the things that matter to me right now.
Listening can be both a solitary and a communal activity. Likewise, creating music can be private or collaborative. Can you talk about your preferences in this regard and how these constellations influence creative results?
I do love collaborating with people, but I would say that my choice of career path – as a soloist, as opposed to opting for an ensemble-based career – reflects my love of the more solitary creative process.
The harp is an instrument where lots of practice is involved to deliver a great performance on all levels – musically, technically, and mechanically. Even as a kid, I was no stranger to 4-6 hours of practice a day. I think that the necessity of that private, personal practice time, as well as my own personality - which has always appreciated solitude - led me to appreciate the artistic space that exists within that clearing.
There might be a day somewhere down the line when I don’t perform as much, but I will always want to practice. The excitement of creating and experimenting in that space will always be appealing to me.
How do your work and your creativity relate to the world and what is the role of music in society?
I would not want to know a world without music.
As recent times have become more and more complex on a global level, I believe the arts, and music in particular, are more important than ever in shaping perspective, promoting healing, calling to action, and inspiring reflection. Music aligns the mind, and in some way, the universe. Sounds can define space and experience in a manner that changes atmosphere.
Sadly, the arts have always struggled for support, but I hope that in the decades to come, society will come together and re-commit to the idea that they define and reflect a civilized society. The arts are not a luxury or a non-essential service when compared to things that facilitate survival in a practical sense. Survival is both practical and spiritual; when we address both ends of that equation, we are all better for it.
Art can be a way of dealing with the big topics in life: Life, loss, death, love, pain, and many more. In which way and on which occasions has music – both your own or that of others - contributed to your understanding of these questions?
This question really picks up on the last one, where art minds the spiritual part of life. It keeps us centered, stimulated, elevated, and guides our focus to things that are bigger than the struggles or experiences of the moment, whether pain, loss, death, love, or simply happiness. It reminds us that our world has a portal to thoughts, actions, and emotions that transcend daily life and survival.
Music has always aligned me and reminded me that there is a higher plane – like a drone image from the sky, as opposed to a close-up shot. It allows us to process and reconcile – it’s both a stimulant and a tranquilizer. Music tends to give us whatever we need at the moment. What other thing in this world can we count on to do that consistently?
There seems to be increasing interest in a functional, “rational” and scientific approach to music. How do you see the connection between music and science and what can these two fields reveal about each other?
That approach is one of many new ways to see music and is part of its evolution. One benefit of that music/science connection that particularly interests me is the relationship between music and medicine. The exploration of that thread is one that deserves more attention and is a way, I believe, to help institutions start seeing both the artistic and the practical value of music in the world.
Music can be a tool for many important purposes and I think we are just beginning to scratch that surface.
Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?
That is an incredibly good question and this idea relates to my personality in a deep way. I have always had a hard time separating my approaches in degrees of importance.
To me, making a great meal, an incredible cup of coffee, or even a bed has elements in common with giving a great performance or creating a piece of music. There is intention, methodology, organization, and vision. Those structured thought processes and outcome goals are difficult for me to separate in some sort of totem pole of activity importance. I also tend to take considerable pleasure in little things, like a wonderful meal or the smell of lilacs, and I’m extremely metaphorical in all my thought processes.
In my mind, everything is connected and most experiences can be directly applied to others. When I play music, my mind sees, smells, and feels the life I’ve lived. I teach with a constant reference to life and metaphor. Everything is a figurative symbol for everything else in my lens.
I believe that this approach helps life make sense – not just in a mythological sense, but in a practical sense as well.
Music is vibration in the air, captured by our ear drums. From your perspective as a creator and listener, do you have an explanation how it able to transmit such diverse and potentially deep messages?
That question may be above my pay grade, but I do know that music forces me to open a portal in my sensibilities. That could have something to do with the very physical experience of vibration – or perhaps it is a function that is much more complex than that.
But what I do know is that I believe music is no different than food or water, but for the mind and the spirit. It is essential for the atmosphere of our existence.
