August 2019

This month, I found myself doing a few things I don’t normally do.

First, there was the inspiration to write a few short poems on the back of my boarding pass on a plane-ride south. When I came home, I pulled the texts out of my bag in between lessons one afternoon and sat at the piano, sketching them into a few short choral pieces (more to come!).

Then there was the invitation to play with the Music Educators’ Wind Ensemble at Eastman for a reading of a new piece. I sat behind the piano on a Tuesday evening - counting measures and trying to come in on time - and participating in a collective, shared experience that I don’t normally have the privilege of being part of.

Then there was the Summer Sing at Eastman - a gathering of community members to sing (read: sightread!) a major work. This particular week, they read Brahms’ Nänie, Op 82 (in German!) and Vaughan Williams’ Toward the Unknown Region - two works I’d never sung before. I was particularly struck by the text in the second work, a poem by Walt Whitman:

"Darest thou now, O soul,
Walk out with me toward the unknown region,
Where neither ground is for the feet
nor any path to follow?

No map there, nor guide,
Nor voice sounding,
nor touch of human hand.

I know it not O soul,
Nor dost thou, all is a blank before us,
All waits undream'd of in that region,
that inaccessible land.”

- Walt Whitman (selected stanzas)

Yes, that’s it, I thought.

That’s what this month has been about. Walking out “toward the unknown region,” exploring the bounds of creativity in new contexts, where “all is a blank before us.” And in the process, I’m finding that the more I step away from what's familiar, the more creativity I seem to discover (or, is it uncover?).

I recently read Keith Sawyer’s Zig Zag: The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity. One of my favorite takeaways was this: “Never turn down a chance to learn something . . . . no authentic, thoughtful experience, no new glimmer of knowledge, is ever wasted.”

Here's to a month of stepping away from what’s familiar and discovering something new. ✨

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