[Music]
my name is Katie Carver and I am the
proud cellist of this bluegrass fan
behind me called Cisco and the racecars
and you might be thinking it’s weird to
have a cello in a bluegrass band and
you’d be correct it’s pretty unusual I
didn’t always play this type of music
for most of my life I sounded more like
this
hmm so I’ll tell you what happened back
in the winter of 2013 I had just moved
to Arizona from Michigan and I didn’t
know anybody I was a first year teacher
teaching ninth grade humanities at a
small charter school and I was doing the
best that I could I was waking up early
working hard and learning about that
incredible combination of Grace and
tenacity that it takes to be a good
teacher and on the surface it looked
like I was doing really well but in my
heart I knew that I was not well I felt
incredibly lonely and isolated and I
didn’t have much of a sense of purpose
other than just trying to make it
through each day this was quite
different from the environment I was
used to I started playing the cello when
I was six and looking back music was the
common thread that wove together all of
my most important childhood experiences
I met all of my best friends through the
orchestras and quartets that I played in
and practicing gave me a sense of
purpose and success in college I went on
to study music and liberal arts and in
both disciplines I found beauty
inspiration and once again tight-knit
communities so compare that sense of
belonging to the isolation I saw when I
moved across the country for a job for
which I felt ill-prepared and I had this
horrible feeling that I had made a huge
mistake with my life this is where
Craigslist comes in around this time
winter break of my first year teaching I
happened to watch a documentary and
called Craigslist Joe in which a
happy-go-lucky guy named Joe travels
across the country relying solely on the
goodness of strangers he meets on
Craigslist this gave me an idea I hadn’t
picked up my cello in six months and I
craved that community I had always known
through music so I thought I might
accomplish two tasks in one and I looked
for musical opportunities on Craigslist
I thought I might find a quartet or a
piano trio but at the time the only
posting for a cellist in the Phoenix
area was from someone named Francisco
who had a bluegrass band
now it’s a testament to Francisco’s
boldness that he wanted to include a
cello in his band at all it’s a concept
at which bluegrass purists would scoff I
on the other hand had no idea what
bluegrass music was other than having
seen oh brother Arthur with years
earlier
still I thought it was worth the shot
and so Francisco and I exchanged contact
information and he invited me to
practice with the band the next weekend
so on a rainy Saturday afternoon I found
myself standing on a front porch of a
house in Chandler and as I stood on the
front porch I hesitated and I listened
through the front door and I heard
something like this
[Music]
it was too late to turn back so I
knocked on the door and I entered and
the house was very interesting inside
there were photographs covering every
wall of people from all ages and
backgrounds and there were instruments
everywhere and child sized furniture and
teacups and snacks and it looked like
this strange combination of a living
room and a community center and I know
know that this home belongs to mrs.
Annie Beach who does in fact run a
children’s music group out of her living
room and has become a dear friend and
mentor at the time I just knew it was
one of those places that feels familiar
even though you’ve never been there
before so feeling slightly more at ease
I took out my cello and got ready to
play the first song and I looked around
for the sheet music only to realize with
horror that there was no sheet music and
I had no idea what to do I felt like a
six-year-old picking up a cello again
for the first time but instead of
excitement and anticipation
I felt only dread I was so worried about
making a fool of myself in front of
these strangers and I felt the anxiety
rising hot and fast in my stomach still
I felt that sitting there in mobile was
even worse than playing poorly and so I
listened to what the other musicians
were playing for about a minute and then
I picked out a very simple bassline and
through trial and error I found notes
that harmonized with theirs sounded
that first practice was both
exhilarating and terrifying but I came
back again the next week and the week
after that because I wanted to get
better and in particular I wanted to
learn how to play what I heard my fellow
musicians playing which was generally
rhythmic and quite fast so I learned a
bluegrass technique called the chop
sounds like this
so the chalk feeds me another tool to
use when I was learning my part in a
song but I saw wasn’t satisfied I also
learned the melodies of the tunes we
played and then slowly I began to
improvise on those melodies creating
variations that sometimes worked and
sometimes sit in here is a melody and
it was difficult and often frustrating
to learn these new styles but in doing
so I became more open and vulnerable
around my bandmates and more willing to
show them my mistakes it would be months
before I realized I had found my
community it happened slowly almost
without my realizing and then one day I
looked around and I knew that my
bandmates had become some of my best
friends and Chester that mandolin player
you heard he and I became more than
friends and he proposed to me in mrs.
Beach’s living room four years after we
this past summer our community expanded
even further across the ocean our band
had the opportunity to travel to Ukraine
on a musical diplomacy mission with the
Peace Corps it was an opportunity that
seemed to fall on us out of the sky and
initially some of us namely me were a
bit skeptical but as a group we decided
to take the journey together and for me
the defining moment came one night when
we were playing an outdoor concert in a
town called Kamel Netsky and it was a
show billed as a jam session with local
musicians and I found myself playing a
duet on my way by Frank Sinatra with the
most incredible saxophone player I’ve
ever heard it was an unlikely song and
an even more unlikely combination of
instruments and we couldn’t have spoken
two words in each other’s language but
somehow we understood each other on an
intuitive musical level later that night
I was still exhilarated with the
experience and I was reflecting on all
the decisions that had brought me to
that point my decision long ago to pick
up a cello and to continue studying
music through my life my decision which
I initially regretted to move to Arizona
by unlikely decision to seek music and
friends on Craigslist
the band’s decision to accept me and our
shared decision to travel to Ukraine
together
and finally that night my decision to
step forward on stage and improvise a
duet with a saxophone player whose
language I couldn’t speak I don’t
believe in fate but I do believe that
every once in a while we make the
decision to show up at just the right
time and just the right place that’s
what brings me here tonight I started
this journey because I was seeking a
cure for my loneliness and it took me to
people in places I needed desperately
even though I couldn’t have articulated
it at the time
a very wise friend once advised me look
fear in the eye and make it your friend
so as I conclude I ask you what is
something you’ve wanted to show up to
but I’ve avoided because of fear of the
uncomfortable or the unknown now what
would it feel like to embrace that fear
and show up anyway I promise you’ll find
something you needed to find thank you [Applause]
my name is Katie Carver and I am the
proud cellist of this bluegrass fan
behind me called Cisco and the racecars
and you might be thinking it’s weird to
have a cello in a bluegrass band and
you’d be correct it’s pretty unusual I
didn’t always play this type of music
for most of my life I sounded more like
this
hmm so I’ll tell you what happened back
in the winter of 2013 I had just moved
to Arizona from Michigan and I didn’t
know anybody I was a first year teacher
teaching ninth grade humanities at a
small charter school and I was doing the
best that I could I was waking up early
working hard and learning about that
incredible combination of Grace and
tenacity that it takes to be a good
teacher and on the surface it looked
like I was doing really well but in my
heart I knew that I was not well I felt
incredibly lonely and isolated and I
didn’t have much of a sense of purpose
other than just trying to make it
through each day this was quite
different from the environment I was
used to I started playing the cello when
I was six and looking back music was the
common thread that wove together all of
my most important childhood experiences
I met all of my best friends through the
orchestras and quartets that I played in
and practicing gave me a sense of
purpose and success in college I went on
to study music and liberal arts and in
both disciplines I found beauty
inspiration and once again tight-knit
communities so compare that sense of
belonging to the isolation I saw when I
moved across the country for a job for
which I felt ill-prepared and I had this
horrible feeling that I had made a huge
mistake with my life this is where
Craigslist comes in around this time
winter break of my first year teaching I
happened to watch a documentary and
called Craigslist Joe in which a
happy-go-lucky guy named Joe travels
across the country relying solely on the
goodness of strangers he meets on
Craigslist this gave me an idea I hadn’t
picked up my cello in six months and I
craved that community I had always known
through music so I thought I might
accomplish two tasks in one and I looked
for musical opportunities on Craigslist
I thought I might find a quartet or a
piano trio but at the time the only
posting for a cellist in the Phoenix
area was from someone named Francisco
who had a bluegrass band
now it’s a testament to Francisco’s
boldness that he wanted to include a
cello in his band at all it’s a concept
at which bluegrass purists would scoff I
on the other hand had no idea what
bluegrass music was other than having
seen oh brother Arthur with years
earlier
still I thought it was worth the shot
and so Francisco and I exchanged contact
information and he invited me to
practice with the band the next weekend
so on a rainy Saturday afternoon I found
myself standing on a front porch of a
house in Chandler and as I stood on the
front porch I hesitated and I listened
through the front door and I heard
something like this
[Music]
it was too late to turn back so I
knocked on the door and I entered and
the house was very interesting inside
there were photographs covering every
wall of people from all ages and
backgrounds and there were instruments
everywhere and child sized furniture and
teacups and snacks and it looked like
this strange combination of a living
room and a community center and I know
know that this home belongs to mrs.
Annie Beach who does in fact run a
children’s music group out of her living
room and has become a dear friend and
mentor at the time I just knew it was
one of those places that feels familiar
even though you’ve never been there
before so feeling slightly more at ease
I took out my cello and got ready to
play the first song and I looked around
for the sheet music only to realize with
horror that there was no sheet music and
I had no idea what to do I felt like a
six-year-old picking up a cello again
for the first time but instead of
excitement and anticipation
I felt only dread I was so worried about
making a fool of myself in front of
these strangers and I felt the anxiety
rising hot and fast in my stomach still
I felt that sitting there in mobile was
even worse than playing poorly and so I
listened to what the other musicians
were playing for about a minute and then
I picked out a very simple bassline and
through trial and error I found notes
that harmonized with theirs sounded
that first practice was both
exhilarating and terrifying but I came
back again the next week and the week
after that because I wanted to get
better and in particular I wanted to
learn how to play what I heard my fellow
musicians playing which was generally
rhythmic and quite fast so I learned a
bluegrass technique called the chop
sounds like this
so the chalk feeds me another tool to
use when I was learning my part in a
song but I saw wasn’t satisfied I also
learned the melodies of the tunes we
played and then slowly I began to
improvise on those melodies creating
variations that sometimes worked and
sometimes sit in here is a melody and
it was difficult and often frustrating
to learn these new styles but in doing
so I became more open and vulnerable
around my bandmates and more willing to
show them my mistakes it would be months
before I realized I had found my
community it happened slowly almost
without my realizing and then one day I
looked around and I knew that my
bandmates had become some of my best
friends and Chester that mandolin player
you heard he and I became more than
friends and he proposed to me in mrs.
Beach’s living room four years after we
this past summer our community expanded
even further across the ocean our band
had the opportunity to travel to Ukraine
on a musical diplomacy mission with the
Peace Corps it was an opportunity that
seemed to fall on us out of the sky and
initially some of us namely me were a
bit skeptical but as a group we decided
to take the journey together and for me
the defining moment came one night when
we were playing an outdoor concert in a
town called Kamel Netsky and it was a
show billed as a jam session with local
musicians and I found myself playing a
duet on my way by Frank Sinatra with the
most incredible saxophone player I’ve
ever heard it was an unlikely song and
an even more unlikely combination of
instruments and we couldn’t have spoken
two words in each other’s language but
somehow we understood each other on an
intuitive musical level later that night
I was still exhilarated with the
experience and I was reflecting on all
the decisions that had brought me to
that point my decision long ago to pick
up a cello and to continue studying
music through my life my decision which
I initially regretted to move to Arizona
by unlikely decision to seek music and
friends on Craigslist
the band’s decision to accept me and our
shared decision to travel to Ukraine
together
and finally that night my decision to
step forward on stage and improvise a
duet with a saxophone player whose
language I couldn’t speak I don’t
believe in fate but I do believe that
every once in a while we make the
decision to show up at just the right
time and just the right place that’s
what brings me here tonight I started
this journey because I was seeking a
cure for my loneliness and it took me to
people in places I needed desperately
even though I couldn’t have articulated
it at the time
a very wise friend once advised me look
fear in the eye and make it your friend
so as I conclude I ask you what is
something you’ve wanted to show up to
but I’ve avoided because of fear of the
uncomfortable or the unknown now what
would it feel like to embrace that fear
and show up anyway I promise you’ll find
something you needed to find thank you [Applause]
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