Category: music

creativity, dreams, imagination, inspiration, music

Step 282: Imagine John Lennon at 70

Christa Avampato

“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.” ~ John Lennon

Phineas and I took our morning walk to Strawberry Fields on West 72nd Street in Central Park. Under a great span of American Elms, you’ll find a small space akin to a cathedral for anyone and everyone who loves music, loves the Beatles, and loves John Lennon, who today would turn 70. His legacy is elegantly preserved there in a gorgeous reproduction of a Pompeii mosaic, a gift from Naples Italy, with one simple, powerful word “Imagine”. Just steps away at The Dakota, the singer lost his life almost 20 years ago and we lost a great spirit of peace and creativity.

I stood there this morning, just as the sun started to peak up and over New York City. Already, the memorial was scattered with flowers, offerings, candles, letters, and pictures. He was right – he wasn’t the only dreamer. He inspired a whole world full of dreamers, creators, and people who want to live peacefully. He might not be here anymore, but what he stood for and what he believed are still very much alive in the hearts and minds of so many, especially here in New York City, and most especially in this neighbor that he made his home for 17 years.

Decades from now, there will still be hundreds of thousands of people who will visit this very same spot and imagine, in honor of John Lennon. He lived a creative, passionate life, and the best way for us to pay tribute to his memory is to do the same. I think we should have a national day of creativity in honor of John Lennon, an annual marker that reminds us that our imagination is our greatest, most powerful asset. We could all do with a little more dreaming.

art, determination, museum, music

Step 263: Hahn-Bin and the Art of Darkness

Christa Avampato

“After my very deep depression, I feel really lucky to have had experience with something so dark and sad. It helps me paint the brightest colors.” ~ Hahn-Bin, violinist

My friend, Sara, invited me to Hahn-Bin’s violin concert on Sunday night at the Rubin Museum. After a productive day (a.k.a. a Sunday that was too busy for my liking), I joined Sara at the concert that turned out to be part performance art, part theatre, part visual design – all orchestrated by a 22-year old virtuoso musician with a very strong sense of himself and his vision. He is stunning, in appearance and in his musicality.

Already blown away by his nearly 2-hour performance, Hahn-Bin gave a very personal talk-back in which he talked about his fascination with world religion, his belief in the highly personal nature of art interpretation, and his struggles with and triumphs over depression. Watching him play with such ease and grace, I was confused by his depression. With a packed house and such a highly individual, refreshing voice in the highly stuffy world of classical music, what is he depressed about? And then I considered how difficult it must be to fight against the traditional music scene, filled with conservatories that are filled with professors who tell you what art and music mean. He must have had many moments of extreme self-doubt, of worry and concern for his future. He placed all his chips on his music – to fail at this would be mean failure in the highest degree.

Hahn-Bin’s story now is a triumphant one – someone who went for his art along his own path because it was the only thing he wanted to do. With his life and his art, he is teaching us an incredible lesson. To create his life, he just followed his interests. And along any path, even one we choose with all our heart, there will be highs and lows. There will be successes and failures and moments of extreme discomfort. Just because we’re going in the right direction doesn’t mean we’re immune to pain.

The right path isn’t the one filled with sunshine and roses; it’s the one where we feel most alive, where we can experience the great depth and breadth of the human experience. It makes us strong without hardening our hearts. It gives us courage and teaches us grace. And if we can make a go of the life we truly want to live, then we also have the opportunity to inspire others to do the same.

Photo above of Hahn-Bin by Morgan Freeman.

faith, music, yoga

Step 137: The Sound of Faith

Christa Avampato

“All major religions carry basically the same message. That is love, compassion, and forgiveness. The important thing is they should be part of our daily lives.” ~ Dalai Lama

Last night I hopped over to Sonic Yoga’s kirtan to make up a few teacher training hours that I’m going to miss on Saturday. I attended the first kirtan in March and was excited to see how the event was evolving. Most of the people there were involved with the teacher training currently or were alumni of previous trainings. Sonic has done an incredible job of keeping its teachers in touch and bridging the divide between classes. My friend, Courtney, leaned over to me at one point and said, “I’d really like to just roll out my mat and sleep here because it feels so good to be in this.” I felt the same way.

Though Sanskrit is a foreign language to me, I feel like I’ve spoken it before. The words have so much power and vibration in them, sometimes subtle and sometimes so strong that I think my heart might leap out of my chest. I’ve heard some people express the same feeling about their religious faith or going to their church. For me, yoga is my church, and kirtan is the soundtrack to my experience on the mat.

Last night as I walked to the subway with two other friends from my teacher training class, we talked about how alive we felt after the kirtan, about how it swept away our tired, worn-out feelings. Somehow that song that is almost entirely improvised breathes life into us in a way that food and water and even relationships cannot. It’s the sound that awakens something in us that is very tangible but somehow still too elusive to put a name on. It is a feeling we can take out into the world and infuse into everything we do.

We walked out into the night wanting very much to bring the peace and confidence and creativity we found at the kirtan out into the world. Even this morning I am still humming the melodies, sometimes purposefully and other times subconsciously. Sound and song have been a part of so many revolutions throughout time. I wonder if our little kirtans at Sonic, in some small way, are helping to shift the world’s energy in a way that we so desperately need it to shift.

music, yoga

Step 80: Kirtan

Christa Avampato

As part of my yoga teacher training, we attend Kirtans, a lovely, free-form mash-up of music, call and response, and chanting. There is an aspect of spirituality to a Kirtan, though the beauty of the spirituality is that it can be entwined with any other religious beliefs (or non-religious beliefs as the case may be.) Our voices and the music blended together, often in rounds, to the point that I could no longer distinguish my own voice from the collective. By the end of the two hours we were all in sync.

As I glanced around the room during the different chants, I could see people in many different emotional states. Some were swaying with their palms open to the sky, completely in the flow of the rhythm. Others were teary-eyed. And still others were just trying to keep up with the sanskrit. I was struck by all of the emotion in those chants, and I was amazed with how we could all come together with such spontaneity and make something so beautiful right there on the spot.

I left the Kirtan humming, thinking of the lessons of Hanuman and Shiva and Ganesha. Thinking about the unifying power of music. Most of all, I felt grateful, so so grateful, to receive and provide joy in equal amounts.

The image above is not my own. It can be found here.

dreams, friendship, music, New York City

My Year of Hopefulness – New York as Neverland

Christa Avampato

If you’re looking for a fountain of youth, consider living in New York City. If it’s your fervent desire to grow up, be a realist, and take life very seriously then this might not be the place for you. This week in particular I’ve noticed the dreamy quality of New York. It’s a place that cultivates and perpetuates dreams of all kinds. In New York, I always feel possibility just around the corner. You really can be anything here.

During the summer, the many outdoor events remind me of everything that New York has to offer and how many people there are to meet just outside the front door. This week, the New York Philharmonic performs their two annual free concerts in Central Park. In all the years I’ve lived in New York, I’ve never seen one of these concerts until this year. My friend, Brandi, left New York this week for greener pastures in DC and a group of us got together for the concert to bid her a fond farewell which none of us are happy about. Brandi goes to this concert every year, and wanted to make sure to catch this one, her last as a New York City resident.

Brandi arrived first, getting us an excellent space in the middle section. From that vantage point we were in the middle of a wonderfully positive energy. The Park was packed, and during the evening I grew more and more grateful for the great diversity housed in this tiny island. Even on our small blanket, different groups of friends joined together from different walks of life to enjoy the event.

In the middle of the Park, I was reminded just how many people live in New York, and how unique each of their stories are. I could hear the laughter from every corner mixing with the music. People were sharing the details of their days. Reminiscing. Talking about what they hoped for and dreamed of. Some people were celebrating and others explained their gratitude for the amazing weather and the opportunity to be together. Flashbulbs were going off all around us as people snapped photos to remember the occasion.

The New York Phil’s concerts represent New York at its best. The many voices coming together, paths converging. Before we left the park, I took a look around, happy to live in a place that constantly changes and yet always feels like home, a place where anything and everything is possible. As the closing fireworks went off, for a moment I actually believed that I could reach out and touch them if I really wanted to. It’s the happy side effect of being a city that makes you feel like you can fly.

business, career, entrepreneurship, Examiner, music, New York City

NY Business Strategies Examiner: Interview with Mike Cannady of Scratch Music Group

Christa Avampato

About a year ago, I met Mike Cannady, Chief Strategy Officer and CFO of Scratch Music Group, at an alumni volunteer event. Scratch Music Group is a company based in NYC with the mission to train and promote both aspiring and name brand DJs. Since its inception, Scratch Music Group has developed DJ’ing academies in New York, Miami, LA, abroad three cruise ships, and in four Caribbean locations. The company has also developed a suite of products and services related to its core business, developing a full service music consulting group.

For the full interview, please click here.

Photo credit

art, books, music, silence, writing

My Year of Hopefulness – It’s what’s missing that counts

Christa Avampato

Today I started reading In Pursuit of Elegance by Matthew May. May’s premise in the book is that what’s not there – in a product, a service, a piece of art, a book – often trumps what is. 12 pages in and I am completely hooked. It’s about what we choose not to do that shapes as our lives as much as what’s on our to-do list. It’s about editing, making decisions, and taking away the unnecessary so that the necessary can shine.

May quotes a lot of sources, referencing everything from ancient Chinese proverbs to pop culture. It never feels contrived, forced, or overly ambitious. He is making connections between seemingly disparate ideas, and teaching us how to live a more valuable, satisfying life in the process.

Early on, May quotes Jim Collins’s now infamous essay that he wrote for USA Today on the subject of “stop-doing.” Collins says, “A great piece of art is composed not just of what is in the final piece, but equally what is not. It is the discipline to discard what does not fit – to cut out what might have already cost days or even years of effort – that distinguishes the truly exceptional artist and marks the ideal piece of work, be it a symphony, a novel, a painting, a company, or most important of all, a life.”

It’s these last two words that got me. I understand editing a novel, a piece of music, a company. We spend a lot of time, maybe most of our time, stuffing our lives full of experience, people, places, and things. We do more and more and more to the point that we can’t remember what we did 10 minutes ago. So what if we did and said less and less and less. What would our lives look like then? What if we only put the precious time we have with one another toward things that passionately, ardently interest us? How would we be different, and how would the world around us be different? Could we actually have a greater positive impact by focusing on the precious few things that really matter to us rather than the mediocre many?

Jazz great John McLaughlin said, “All the music that was ever heard came from the inner silence in every musician.” I extend that quote to say that every human accomplishment has come to be because someone took something from their inner being, from their own personal silence, and gave it to the world. It’s really the only work we ever have to do: strip away the fascades, the excess, what we can live without so that we can know and nurture the handful of things that really count.

entrepreneurship, Examiner, music, technology

NY Examiner.com: An interview with Steven Cox, CEO of TakeLessons.com

Christa Avampato

Inc. Magazine featured TakeLessons.com a few months ago. The company capitalizes on the growing trend of learning an instrument through the use of technology to match up music teachers with music students. From guitar to voice to trombone, in cities that stretch across the U.S., TakeLessons.com connects people with a mutual love for learning and music. It simplifies and enhances the quality of the experience of finding the right music teacher and ensuring that the student’s needs are being met with 100% satisfaction.

To read my interview with Steven Cox, CEO of TakeLessons.com, please visit: http://www.examiner.com/x-2901-NY-Business-Strategies-Examiner~y2009m6d22-An-interview-with-Steven-Cox-CEO-of-TakeLessonscom

music, New York City

My Year of Hopefulness – The NY Philharmonic at Saint John the Divine

Christa Avampato

When I was at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine on Saturday, I noticed that the NY Philharmonic was playing a free concert at the Cathedral on Memorial Day. On Memorial Day I ventured up there around 7pm and was shocked at the line that wound all the way down 110th street to the East as far as I could see. The Cathedral’s big, but it’s not that big so I cut my losses and headed for the sculpture garden where I could sit in the grass, take off my shoes, read my book for an hour, and enjoy the music as the sun set.

I was one of the first people to arrive in the sculpture garden, though it filled up quickly. I looked around to see that everything I love about New York was on that lawn with me: the diversity of color, race, creed, age, social-economic level, and orientation. Men and women, families, friends, and single people, several languages all rising at once as we all waited for the main event. Though we couldn’t see the show, we were well aware when David Robertson, the conductor for the evening, took the stage. The applause was thunderous.

I marveled that I should be so lucky to be in a city where this kind of event was free, practically held in my own backyard. It was comforting to see the cares of the world melt from people’s faces, to see them lay down in the grass, staring up at the stars that started gathering, focusing all of their attention on the music. For that hour that the Philharmonic played, I couldn’t think about anything except each note as it whizzed by me with so much emotion and passion. It has been a long time since I stopped thinking about any cares and worries – I was grateful for the break.

The concert reminded me of how much we need art and music in our lives – how critical it is to our happiness, health, and well-being. I used to make my living working in the arts, and on occasion I miss it. I miss being part of something that takes us to another world. Thankfully, there are organizations like the Philharmonic that can transport us all away from our lives, even for just a little while. The only requirement is that we show up and listen with an open mind and open heart.

The image above features Maestro Lorin Maazel as he conducts the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in September 2006 in New York. (Stephen Chernin/Associated Press)

business, entrepreneurship, innovation, marketing, music, new product development, Seth Godin

My Year of Hopefulness – Small Audience

Christa Avampato

Seth Godin wrote a terrific post today relating the contrast between concert opening acts and rock stars to the different grades of marketers. He has some very good advice for all of us: Seek out a small audience who thinks you’re a rock star and then grow that audience. Don’t go out into the market as an opening act and have the market shape your work based upon something else they love (the rock star). You want to stand on your own two feet and have customers who love you and will back you exactly the way you are.

Many companies are so hungry for growth, so hungry for fast, quick wins, that they do whatever they have to do to their products and services to make them appeal to everyone. Of course some other companies focus so closely on one tiny piece of the market that they exclude others who might also benefit from their products with just a few weeks. So what’s a company to do?

A few ideas:
1.) The “Me-conomy” seems endless. The personalization trend can be seen everywhere in the market. Is it possible for a customer to customize some piece or your product or service to make it suit them perfectly? This allows you to serve a number of different groups with just a few minor changes to your product. Think about what adding colors and engraving to the ipod did for that product!

2.) There are a lot of ways to slice and dice a market into segments. Is there a segment that you can serve that’s small enough to provide something special to them while also having a wide enough appeal to enough people to meet your costs and profit goals?

3.) Look for holes in the market. Many companies are set on being fast followers. They don’t want to get out there, innovate, and build something new. Fear holds them back. They’d prefer to watch others, copy, and paste. The saddest part about this kind of ambition is that it never allows you to be the first in the market to fill an unmet need that makes consumers grateful and loyal to your brand. You’re just an opening act in that scenario. You want to be the first association a customer makes with a new product or service. You don’t want people to say, “Oh yeah, there’s that option, too” about your brand. So get out there, talk to people, and find a way to provide a service or product that makes their lives easier.

While it’s fun to play in the market, it’s more fun to build a market and delight customers with a product or service they never even thought was possible. Your following will be filled with early adopters at first so learn from them, get their input, improve your offering, and other people outside of that early adopter segment will catch on. Be a rock star.