Hi everyone,
Welcome to my newly reinvented newsletter! This week's articles are all around one central theme: how we're fighting to create a new conception of ourselves that includes what we consume, participate in, how we structure our activities, and where it is that we intend to go, professionally and personally. Amidst all the turmoil of the news, this is one thing that might offer us a glimmer of hope in the coming months.
Finding activities that have a low downside and high potential upside can often provide the best opportunities. For those of us in the arts, starting a blog, podcast, YouTube channel, or newsletter are ways to add value and content, build a brand, have low barriers to entry, and all of these genres are currently under-served in my own field of music education and classical music. We also need to remember those who have lost their livelihood, and must either wait for the end of the pandemic in order to return to work or retrain for entirely new careers.
Here are the articles I published in the last few weeks:
- Reading a Lot Can Be Bad or Good, Depending on What You Read - For a while now I've been interested in why it is that news in large doses can be so damaging, at the same time that books in large doses can be so transformative. How does the nature of these types of media differ? How can we make the most of ingesting large amounts of information so as to improve ourselves rather than radicalizing? On the way, I found some interesting views from writers such as Daniel Kahneman, Nassim Taleb, Anne-Laure Le Cunff, Morgan Housel, Alan Jacobs, and Tyler Cowen.
- The 2021 Collaborative Piano Institute - Last year at Collabfest, I had a chance to present with Ana Maria Otamendi and Elena Lacheva and learned how they bootstrapped a major collaborative piano festival a few years ago, and then learned how to keep its activities meaningful through the pandemic. This year's institute will be online, but they are also planning a possible hybrid model that combines in-person activities at LSU with remote participation. Notable faculty include Kathleen Kelly, Warren Jones, Rita Sloan, Martin Katz, Jonathan Feldman, Christopher Turbessi, Elena Abend, and more.
- 100 Years of Chinese Art Song with Jialiang Zhu and Friends - Filmed in an empty Walter Hall during lockdown, Jialiang's final DMA recital is a retrospective of works from Chinese-speaking communities across the world. Lots of great playing and singing here, with excellent commentary from Jialiang.
Writing a newsletter shouldn't be only about my own stuff but also celebrating the work and ideas of others. Here are some links that you might find interesting:
- If you're going to survive your remaining time in lockdown, you need to know how to make good coffee on a budget.
- Anne-Laure Le Cunff writes about how lifelong learning is an educational and financial necessity.
- Advice from Thomas Waschenfelder on pursuing opportunities: make smart bets and aim for small wins that add up over the long term.
- When we get back to regular in-person interactions it might not feel better at first.
- Rhonda Rizzo's words on developing a beginner's mind can help us to develop a "middle way between expert knowledge and wide-eyed wonder."
- The scariest thing about classical music isn't that it's 2021. It's actually 2031.
- Think your sense of time has been messed up by the pandemic? Jesse Mittelstadt's short film Flyby shows that things could get much worse.
This week's painting is Wendy Hatala Foley's "Birch Beauties" (acrylic on canvas, 48x24). You can find more of Wendy's work on the Foley Music and Arts website.
How are you reinventing yourself? Feel free to drop me a line any time if you'd like to share what you're up to these days.
- Chris