One in Eight

One way to support and grow one's creativity is to support the creativity of others!

I have been blessed to play the role of support and cheerleader for my good friend, fellow dulcimer-player and teacher, one-time student and also a member of the cancer-survivor club, Deborah Hamouris.

In response to her cancer diagnosis, she turned to creativity and wrote a musical stage show with her friend and collaborator, Mimi Fox. 

The show is called 1 in 8 which represents the number of women in the USA currently diagnosed with breast cancer.

I was so tickled to see the debut performance of this show at the Monkey House in Berkeley last April with Mimi and the other supporting musicians. 

The show is the weaving together of these musical reflections on themes such as: Worthy, Strong Medicine, No Time to Waste, Glad and Grateful together with poetry and vibrant spoken reflections. 

While not shying away from the grit and fear of a cancer diagnosis, Deborah also gives full-throated laughter to the joy and surprise that comes as gift in the midst of recovery.

A video archive of that performance was captured and I helped by editing it for scenes and selections that were a part of her successful Kickstarter Campaign this fall to fund the recording of the CD of the music.

Deborah reports on Facebook that the recording is finished being mixed and it is GOOD!  It will be released to the public in December!

It is her (and my) hope that as a result of completing this recording, she'll be able to take the program around to wherever people are facing a new diagnosis, or are going through treatment, or are giving thanks for their years of survival, where caregivers are tired, in order show how a creative response brings about its own healing.

If you would like to bring 1 in 8 to your community, contact Deborah through her facebook page above!

Turkish Impressions, hammered dulcimer debut of a new chamber work.

I picked up the telephone in 2015 and Nancie Kester, a composer and teacher from Berkeley, California, was on the other end of the line asking if I, a hammered dulcimer player, would consider playing a piece she was composing (Turkish Impressions) that was inspired by a pilgrimage journey she and her husband took to Turkey recently. 

There, she was inspired by the Whirling Dervish dances, the grand geologic formations towering throughout Cappadocia and the accidental antiphonal effect of several Muezzins' "Calls to Prayer" from one mosque to the next throughout the day.

Cover Photo for Turkish Impressions by Nancie Kester

We had several discussions as I looked at her score to see what adaptations might be necessary to my tuning of my instrument, or what suggestions I could make for being certain that other players would be able to also play the part on their instruments in the future.

Time passed with intermittent connection, and then early in 2017, Nancie called to say that she had contracted with the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra to perform the piece in the Fall concert. 

This is an orchestra, I have learned, that is "composed" of composers who are eager to play each other's music.

I received the final score in September and began work in earnest to be ready for the orchestra rehearsals and performance.

In addition to the score and my dulcimer part, she sent an .mp3 file of the Sibelius file for me to listen and play along with.

In the Phrygian mode and in several different mixed meters, but especially in the traditional feel of 9/8 or 5/4 and 4/4, the piece is definitely outside of the listening framework of most western dulcimer players.

Her piece is written for 3 strings (violin, cello and bass) and 4 winds (clarinet, oboe, flute and piccolo) in addition to hammered dulcimer.

It changes keys several times as it states its various themes and then develops them and brings them all together in a climactic capitulation which the wends down to a more peaceful breath of release.

Last night (Nov 4) was the performance at St. Mark's Lutheran Church, a marvelous performance space with a rich historical character and, under the direction of Mark Alburger, the Turkish Impressions made an impression on all of us!

Do You Believe in Magic?

My friend, Lisa Sniderman (aka Aoede) writes "quirky folk pop" for teens and tweens. 

She has composed award-winning musicals that use classical mythological characters to tell stories with current-day application for secondary school-aged readers.

First she created audio books by composing music and working with a production team to record the music and sound effects that accompany the stories. 

Then she began polishing the scripts so that youth theater groups could rehearse and perform staged readings of the show.

I was able to attend a staged reading of What Are Dreams Made Of?  by the San Carlos Children's Theater in the summer just after we moved to California.

Soon after I began collaborating with Lisa to write the musical score for her musicals so that theater groups have the possibility of rehearsing to live accompaniment and have the written music as another tool for learning the singing parts.

I have spent a good part of 2017 working on the score for her next book, Do You Believe in Magic? which was just completed!

Working with another songwriter is eye-opening, exciting and sometimes confusing as I seek to be true to her vision for her music.  Being neighbors in San Mateo makes this partnership an ongoing one as we establish lines of communication and trust with lots of good humor thrown in.  

One thing that amazes me is how Lisa, who doesn't read musical notation, has such clear pitch memory for the songs she composes, that even when we are listening to the published recording, she can say, "I know they recorded it that way, but here is what I intended!"

And again, when I finished working on this collaboration, I found my own creative juices had been stewing and were all set to stir up and serve and I am delighted with what I've been able to produce just in the past month!

So, I suggest, if you ever feel like your creativity has dried up...go collaborate and support someone else's project and see what happens for yours.