Together Again
It’s been nearly a month now since the premiere of my piece Together on the In Harmony Tour, and in thinking back on that magical stretch of days, I keep finding instances of life imitating art. Lately, I’ve been thinking about just how essential community is — not only to making these moments of gathering happen, but to making the art itself.
Prologue
The night before the In Harmony Tour began, I enlisted my husband Tyler, my mom Wei Hong (visiting from Florida), and my Creators Corps partner Seare as guinea pigs ahead of my very first clay instrument building workshop. We gathered around my dining table to practice making shakers, an instrument I’d made a dozen times and felt pretty comfortable producing. Yet, we quickly realized that a few things needed adjusting. Most urgently, we needed to figure out a way to keep the beads from sticking to the inside of the globe forms, especially given the workshop’s limited two-hour timeframe.
After a brief moment of existential panic, I grabbed cornstarch from the kitchen. We rolled the shaker beads around in the white powder, popped them back into the globe forms, and voilà! A beautiful rattle-y sound! And a crisis averted, thanks to a little collective brainstorming and troubleshooting.
Day 1 of Tour: Elizabethtown (Thursday)
I drove down that morning from Louisville to the Hardin County Public Library with my family and a bajillion clay supplies in tow. At each stop, we would have an hour or less to set up each library’s community space for the clay instrument workshops. In my head, that would be plenty of time. In actuality… not so much.
Jacob (LOCC manager) and Tyler cut tablecloths for the tables while my mom and aunt (also visiting from Florida!) portioned clay balls and I distributed tools. Because the event was free and did not require registration, we didn’t know how many people would show up. I told myself I’d be happy with 20 attendees. Yet altogether in Elizabethtown, there were 54!
Suddenly, leading the workshop felt more like performing for an audience and I found myself strangely nervous. I asked Mallory, I asked Mallory, LO’s Director of Marketing and a fellow ceramicist, to help me do my demonstration at the kids’ table (the only empty table left). And just like that, the first workshop had begun!
I’d imagined strolling between the tables, Great British Bakeoff-style, helping participants bring their musical and artistic visions to life. Due to the sheer size of the room and high turnout, I’m sure it started to look more like I was running laps around the space. Without my even needing to ask, LO staff quickly stepped in to help participants with their creations (special shout-out to Mallory, Lydia, and Layah)!
As participants finished up, I got a good look at their creations and was truly impressed by everyone’s creativity and technical ability, especially from the kids. Some of my favorites at this stop were a Bluey, a very ornate werewolf, and a cutie-pie fox.
After lunch and a brief jaunt to the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Park, I realized I wasn't exhausted, as I'd expected, but surprisingly energized — and already thinking of ways to make the next iterations of the workshop better.
That evening, Seare and my friends from Lexington — Anna, Phil, and their daughter Edi — joined us for dinner before heading over to the Freeman Lake Bandstand for the concert. There was something so serendipitous about watching the world premiere of Together from a picnic blanket at a waterfront park, surrounded by my family and close friends.
Day 2 of Tour: Frenchburg (Friday)
Another day, another drive! On the way, we stopped for lunch at Nolo’s on the Levee, a very unassuming restaurant with barbecue and soup beans so good that my mom wanted to take some home for later.
We arrived at the Menifee County Public Library to a very kind welcome from the staff. Since the space was cozier than the day before, my family left to do some sightseeing so we could keep as many tables and chairs open as possible.
With a crowd about half the size of the previous day, I felt a lot calmer and more collected. I also got to spend a lot more quality time with the participants, talking about my time living in Mt. Sterling and Tyler’s extended family that lives in the area.
Afterward, I drove down some winding roads with no cell phone signal to my mother-in-law Shanell’s house nearby. I had a lovely home-cooked dinner together with Shanell, Tyler, my mom, and my aunt, and then left for the concert at Menifee Central School.
The concert unknowingly ended up being more or less a family reunion, with about 2 dozen of Tyler’s (and now also my) extended family, childhood friends, etc. coming out to see what the Louisville Orchestra was all about!
Perhaps I’m a little biased, but this was my favorite performance of my piece Together on the tour. Something about being in the company of so many family members and friends, getting to bring my music to them, and being so close to Mt. Sterling, KY (where my piece “began”) made the school gymnasium feel absolutely effervescent.
Day 3 of Tour: Bardstown (Saturday)
Last drive! We only had 30 minutes to turn the room over in Nelson County Public Library due to Once Upon an Orchestra happening in the same space moments prior. Yet, by this third iteration, producing the workshop began to feel more like a choreographed dance: everyone knowing what needed to be done, weaving in and out, and making it happen seemingly effortlessly.
Attendance was higher than in Frenchburg, but with all the streamlining over the past few days, it felt just as smooth as the day before. There were the most small children out of the three tour stops here, and somehow they seemed to finish the quickest — with some making their shakers in just 60 minutes!
Afterward, we stopped by My Old Kentucky Home State Park, then went to Heaven Hill Distillery for dinner and on to the concert at Stephen Foster Story. As Tyler, my mom, my aunt, and I sat there for the final tour performance, I found myself reflecting on the wonderful trifecta of days we’d just had: three tour stops, three beautiful performances of Together, three instrument building workshops, and over 100 clay musical instruments made!
Denouement: Side by Side Workshop #1 (Sunday)
Surprise! The next day I had one more clay instrument building workshop, but this time not on tour. This was the first in a series of four drop-in workshops I’m hosting at Side by Side Studio, where we’ll explore making a different clay musical instrument at each session. Naturally, the first workshop at Side by Side would also focus on shakers.
Though we used air dry clay on tour so participants could take their instruments home right away, we used actual ceramic stoneware clay at Side by Side since the studio is able to fire the clay instruments in its own kiln. This also meant that participants could add glaze/color to their creations.
Despite adding the extra glaze component, the workshop went even smoother than the previous ones. Again, I was taken aback by the unbridled creativity and technical ability of everyone who attended! Among the shakers left on tables for us to dry and fire, I spotted a Ninja Turtle, Mandalorian, and pumpkin.
Epilogue
After a few days of catching up on sleep, I was back to work on more music, including Groundswell which will premiere at Music Without Borders in February, and a new piece for MakingMUSIC in March. I don’t want to give any spoilers, but I will say this: it certainly helps to be working so much with clay!
In the meantime, there’s more making to be done. These clay instrument building workshops at Side by Side Studio will be every third Sunday of the month from 2-4 pm from now through December! We’ll continue to explore instruments ranging from ocarinas to guiros, and more. I can’t wait to see what creative forms everyone comes up with.
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Somewhere near the end of my piece Together is a tempo marking: “Together Again” (quarter note = 120). I’ve affectionately called this section the afterparty: the earlier sections, “Coming Together” and “Afterglow,” have given way to a second push and a renewed sense of energy—metaphorically, something to sustain us after the moment of gathering has passed.
We traveled out to Elizabethtown, Frenchburg, and Bardstown, but the experience (and the clay shakers!) traveled home with us. It’s never been more obvious to me that community isn’t just necessary to make moments of gathering happen — like concerts and events on the In Harmony Tour — but vital to the making of the art itself. It energizes us. It inspires us. It carries us forward. It gives us the desire and courage to try something new. And eventually, it brings us together again.
Acknowledgements
This tour and these workshops would not have been what they were without the generosity, hard work, time, and care of so many people. It truly takes a village!
A few special thanks:
- BLICK Art Supplies, for their generous monetary support.
- Queen City Clay (my former clay studio in Cincinnati for 6 years), for generously donating clay tools.
- The library teams at Hardin County Public Library, Menifee County Public Library, and Nelson County Public Library, for their warm welcomes and for sharing their community spaces with us.
- Jacob and Elizabeth (LO), for your daily, endless support in helping me bring this vision to life.
- Mallory, Lydia, and Layah (LO), for not only documenting everything so beautifully but also stepping in to help teach and make the workshops run so smoothly.
- Photographer O’Neil Arnold, for the gorgeous photo documentation and going above and beyond to help with setup and teardown.
- THE Louisville Orchestra and conductor Gabe Lefkowitz, for being such generous collaborators, believing in me and my vision for Together, and putting on 3 stellar performances of a piece that means so much to me.
- Tyler, 妈妈, and 阿姨, for all the ways you showed up for me throughout these days — and for always being part of the community I carry with me.
Photo Credit: O’Neil Arnold