Ensembles

Section Violin, Salt Lake Symphony

For the last three years, I have had the privilege of playing with the Salt Lake Symphony. This volunteer organization includes people from every walk of life who want to continue studying and performing high quality music.

Founded in 1976, the Salt Lake Symphony is one of the area’s most highly respected volunteer driven orchestras. The Salt Lake Symphony is a non-profit organization dedicated to performing quality classical music concerts for the Wasatch Front community. The Symphony performs around 15 concerts per year.

The approximately seventy-five hard-working musicians of the SLS volunteer roughly 10,000 hours annually to accomplish this goal. Although the members of the Salt Lake Symphony come from all walks of life and frequently work full-time in other professions, they hold one thing in common: They play for the love and passion of music. Their dedication as volunteers sets them apart and creates a unique bond.

Violin, Hoofless

Hoofless is an ensemble founded by cellist and vocalist Halee Jean and myself. We both came to the conclusion that we needed a medium to express and process some of the pain of our past, and that doing so would require courage to visit some of the places in our minds that were previously inaccessible.

Hoofless was born out of a need to use my new found musical voice to express and process certain experiences which required an immense amount of vulnerability and safety to explore. It is the first ensemble where I am able to clearly articulate what I need to say with my instrument. It is both refuge and catharsis. Beautiful and terrifying. Gentle and furious.

Hoofless is, for me, musically uncensored. When I play with Hoofless, I get to explore every part of my individual experience. Unabridged and unedited.

The band currently includes myself, on violin. Halee Jean; Vocals, Cello, Loop Pedals. Brian Lord; Guitar, Loop Pedals. David Payne; Drums. In terms of instrumentation- the closest thing it resembles is a rock band, but with a cello and violin. The soundscape quickly informs its listeners that it is not a rock band. It’s something else. The music is often in disorienting, irregular times, with huge thematic structures that divide themselves among inner movements of one continuous performance. Our sets can last anywhere from 20 minutes to over an hour, and intentionally exclude introductions to invite listeners to draw their own conclusions. Typically without warning, Hoofless will begin by layering textures with a certain key and sentiment in mind. This escalates into an indiscernible “sound wall,” which we use to clear the acoustic space, and set the audience for whatever is to follow.

Violinist-in-residence, Beachaus interdisciplinary art Jam

I Include Jam in my list of ensembles because it has been and continues to be transformative in it’s effect on my abilities as a musician. Jam occurs bi-monthly at an artist community called BeachHaus, near the University of Utah. These events call artists from all medium to join in the creation of spontaneous music, movement, visual inspiration, and poetic muse. Throughout the evening, anywhere from one to upwards of thirty artists, musicians, dancers, and poets combine their intention towards unrestricted creative output. This culminates in the Jam, which, for the last few years has served as something of a musical laboratory for me. An awareness practice that is different from that of the classical music I study and perform.

In Jam, you are responding to everybody in the room, because they are all contributing in one way or another to the total expressive output. You are playing off the moods and intentions of these creatives, as they each bring their voice to the table. You get to explore shifting dynamics, rising tides, and a healthy amount of uncertainty. In Jam, you are only focused on the present moment. And just as you become aware of it, it’s gone, and we are off to the next moment.

Classical music inherently insures a predictability and a stability that the Jam does not. In Jam, nobody comes prepared. Nobody is playing from music, and nobody knows what will happen next. If you have decided to participate, then you must do that, and ONLY that.

Jam was where I learned how to seek and utilize my musical voice. The lessons I have learned in these jam sessions have been indispensable, and have been instrumental in teaching me my worth as an artist. Jam teaches me to be flexible, compassionate, daring, inclusive, and open minded. It has opened a branch of musical experience to me that I once thought was lost.