Why Do I Create?

Why do we create music? I believe that this is a question that many musicians, including myself, often wrestle with throughout their careers. Many musicians often feel that they need to have one unwavering reason for why they create. However, after almost four years of conservatory training, I have come to think that there is truly no need for this to be true. Careers evolve, new experiences arise, available opportunities come and go, and the reasons for which we create music change as an adaptation to this changing landscape. 

Personally, throughout my last four years of study at Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music, my reasons for making music have changed more times than I can count. Early in my undergraduate career, my reasons for creating were strictly focused on doing whatever I could to make a living. As a result, I was involved in a wide variety of creative projects, ensembles, and performed a wide range of music on multiple instruments, solely to build the experience necessary to create a career that would financially support me. After some time of embracing this mentality of "musical diversity", my standards changed, became higher, and I often felt as though I was spreading myself too thin to create a musical product that was at a high enough artistic level. Consequently, a change in 'Why I Create' was bound to occur...and it did. Over time, I found that my interests narrowed, in terms of musical styles that I performed, gigs that I took on, and creative projects that I took part in. As a result, my standards continued to increase, and my playing began to steadily inch closer to those higher standards as my more limited workload allowed me to commit more to the opportunities that I truly desired. Finally, I felt, I was nearing the reason for 'Why I Create'. Not quite...

As a result of being so focused on my own practice and performance, I lulled myself into thinking that music was always performer centered, with audiences sitting neatly in a concert hall, glued to the technical virtuosity that was taking place on stage. As I've recently discovered, this is far from the truth. In today's cultural landscape, classical music ensembles such as symphony orchestras, and chamber music collectives are struggling to maintain an audience with the standard symphonic repertoire of Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, and alike. Likewise, when these musical institutions attempt to jump to the other end of the spectrum and program new works of contemporary music, they struggle to attract an audience that enjoys and will pay to hear this style of music. As a classically trained musician that also frequently performs contemporary and new music, I have recently wrestled with how to perform both of the styles of music in conjunction in such a way that attracts, engages, and speaks to the modern audience. In searching for the way to accomplish this goal I found my 'Why I Create'. 
​
I create to serve an audience through music. I create to connect to an audience, and for the audience to connect to one another. I create to lift audience members from the darkness that they may have in their lives, and give them a temporary moment of peace and tranquility in which they are engaged with music to the point where the rest of the world does not exist. This is why the title of this blog is Creating to Connect. I create to connect through the unique blending of classical and contemporary styles, the incorporation of multi-sensory artistic elements, through audience participation, and also through audience feedback. It is my goal to use this blog to share my experiences, my successes, and my failures in trying to connect the music I perform with modern audiences. It is also my hope that this blog will help to spawn a conversation about how we program music in the 21st century, and the place of music in our evolving culture. 
​
If you are interested in this topic and would like to learn more please leave a comment, connect with me via social media, or contact me through my contact form. To stay up to date with future blog posts and performances, please also subscribe to my email list at the bottom of this page for more exciting information!