Where are you from?
Buffalo, NY
How many years in the symphony?
Nearly 15!
Favorite spots around town?
There are so many! I am loving the restaurant Abhi right now. Since dining in person has been more or less off limits, we have occasionally splurged on take-out, and this restaurant always comes to mind first. Our family also loves Vecchia as a neighborhood favorite, and Back 40 Brewery. We are lucky to live right near Moss Rock Preserve, which has been amazing during quarantine. Some weeks we have been getting out nearly every day for a hike, and if I want to I can easily just go out for 10 minutes of nature and fresh air.
Hobbies?
I love to read, cook, and draw as my main hobbies. Although recently, I have tried to step up my game with my artwork and turn it into a side business. I have been selling a limited number of prints and notecards on my website, and have started taking portrait commissions and other special requests. It has been a huge investment of time and money, but it has been so worth it! Splitting my time between this new venture, practicing, teaching, and family has been a challenge, but it has pushed me in ways I couldn’t have imagined. I also recently started a blog about balancing life as a mother and professional musician that I periodically post on my website.
All time favorite piece to play?
This is so hard to answer as there are so many incredible works to play and listen to, but if you force me to choose, I will always choose Beethoven’s 9th Symphony (to play). I know this may seem like an obvious answer as it is one of the world’s most famous classical works, but in my opinion it holds this place of universal reverence for a reason. Beethoven broke all kinds of expectations and barriers when he composed this symphony, and every time I have the good fortune to play it I am overwhelmed by a sense of awe and wonder. For me it represents the pinnacle of Western culture, and the majesty of what we have yet to comprehend and fully realize as humans.
Why did you become a professional musician?
I became a professional musician because I refused to listen to all the people that told me how hard it would be to take this path! In all seriousness, I chose to pursue music because that was the number one way I wanted to spend my time — making music with others and for others. This current pandemic crisis has shown me how fundamental the sharing part of what we do is; in more normal times we have often talked about how the music doesn’t mean much without an audience to hear it, and now we are largely living in that reality! While I think you could make the argument that music can have a self-healing element, at the end of the day it is a form of communication unlike any other.
Why do you feel classical music is still relevant?
Building upon my previous response, I believe music plays a fundamental role in connecting us through our humanity. Do we dare to imagine a world without music? With classical music specifically we can get stuck on preconceived notions of what it is, or ways it has been narrowly represented in popular culture. Classical music will represent the trends and emotions of the times and people, just like any type of music. The works that endure, that we recreate to this day with such love and care, have stood the test of time for a reason. As performers at our best we can act as conduits for the emotion embedded in this shared universal experience — the aspects of being alive that transcend politics, class, religion, race, and time period.