[img]541|left|Carter Dewberry||no_popup[/img]I grew up rebelling against this statement.
Yet as I prepare for my tour, I find myself wondering if people are going to like me, my playing, my music. After all, I am going into wildly different settings. Most significantly, I will perform and speak at two different universities. I, who deliberately chose not to use my doctorate degree to seek tenure.
Academia. Am I afraid of it? Or do I just not like all it implies? Hmm… an old story just popped into my mind…
I still remember a certain professor stopping me in the hallway in graduate school to offer his esteemed opinion on my dissertation topic. He didn’t believe I should be allowed to graduate on the merit of my study into innovative performance approaches; he thought a prolonged examination into one of the great dead white guy’s works would have been much more appropriate. I may have laughed it off at the time, but I’ve obviously been carrying the weight of those words ever since.
(Ah, there’s that bone peeping through… I can always count on the writing process to excavate my psychological skeletons.)
Tearing Down the Hedges
I don’t fit into a box or live in black and white. I like classical music, but not too much. I like silence before a piece… and telling a story. I love the sound of solo cello and cello looped a dozen times over. Sometimes I want to perform in all black. Other times, I prefer jeans and a bright red top. It just depends.
Thankfully, I have been asked to speak at these two venues precisely because of my wandering artistic tendencies.
Of course there will be those who do not share my opinions on performance, interpretation… or composition. In these instances, I will be much better served asking myself not “What will the neighbors think?” but “What do I care what they might think?”
So what? Live and let live.
Ms. Dewberry, an accomplished cellist, completed her DMA in Chamber Music Performance from UCLA in December 2005. She received her MM in Cello Performance from UCLA in June 2002 and her B.M. in Cello Performance from Western Michigan University in April 1998. She also holds a B.A. in French with a minor in Women's Studies and Philosophy.
Her website is www.carterdewberry.com
She may be contacted at carter@carterdewberry.com
