How many times a day do we use the word “leader?” As an educator and as a parent I use this word regularly, writing recommendations, thinking about my family/friends/colleagues, assigning students to positions. It is part of my daily life and routine to empower people with leadership roles (i.e.“X is really showing leadership in this area, I feel like we can take a chance on her ability to rise to this challenge…”). However, while we aid people to become leaders and find their leadership potential we also fearlessly criticize those in power. We constantly question their actions on just ab ..read more

Painting with colored sea ice What is it about a fresh ice cube that makes us eager to touch it? Or the satisfying feeling of plunging a paint brush into a new set of watercolor paints? The inviting sound of someone’s voice that compels us to join singing? The Afield, Anthony Hawley's and my collaboration, spent a week as Artists-in-Residence at the beautiful and forward-thinking Aster Montessori School in Cambridge, MA, investigating these universal impulses. Our program through four visits to Aster during the 2017-18 academic year is entitled Water Partitas, based on Byron Au Yong’s eponymo ..read more

Studio improv with video by Anthony Hawley “You put yourself into some kind of trance to receive certain songs. You know, it’s like setting a trap for a song.  It’s like fishing or anything else.  You have be real quiet to catch the big ones.” –Tom Waits Since its inception I have been obsessed with the podcast Meet the Composer on WQXR’s Q2 station.  Not just because I love and admire the host Nadia Sirota (our families have been close through multi-generations) and I know some of the show's guests, but mainly because of the way it challenges me.  This podcast lays b ..read more

Photo of the Chiara Quartet at Greenwood Music Camp by Liz LInder, 2010 By the time of this post, the news of the Chiara Quartet disbanding in September 2018 after 18 professional seasons together will be public.  Whenever I hear about a quartet ending I worry about the personal health of the members and their families, I am concerned and curious about the relationships within the group, and I hope that all is well.  I feel compelled to let everyone know that all is well.  In fact, all is better than well.  The four of us in the Chiara Quartet came to our decision in April ..read more

  “Artistic growth is, more than it is anything else, a refining of the sense of truthfulness.” Willa Cather, The Song of the Lark   Artists know all about refinement.  This is a large part of what we do every day, constantly retooling our craft, whether it is bouncing a bow on the string just the right way or getting the lighting to work beautifully on a portrait.  The Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of refinement for this purpose is: “the improvement or clarification of something by the making of small changes.”  As important as minute, delicate changes are t ..read more

Performing Rodney LIster's "Explanatory Notes: The Only Difference Between" at the Lied Center in Lincoln, NE.  Photo credit: Rana Young There is a lot of singing in my family.  Not just singing in church and school choirs but extensive Gilbert and Sullivan, Amahl and the Night Visitors type of sing-alongs over extended family gatherings.  When I was a kid my father sang in opera productions in summers off, and both sets of grandparents revered vocal expression.  Perhaps it’s not surprising that my sister Abby Fischer became a professional singer.  What began as her a ..read more

When I was a child my grandparents lived in Lawrenceville, NJ.  We drove down from my childhood home in Vermont on a regular basis to visit them, trying not to miss the tricky exit off of the New Jersey Turnpike.  I have vivid memories of arriving at my grandparents’ house, running up the steps to their home while hearing their poodle barking and of the smell of that unmistakable mix of bourbon and maraschino cherries.  My grandfather would be waiting at the door holding two Old Fashioned cocktails, one for each of my parents.  He had mixed them at his bar made of teak wood ..read more

Sunset over the Maine ocean, June 2016. In June 2016 I spent a full week on Vinalhaven, a relatively large, year-round island in the mid-coastal region of Maine.  This was under the auspices of DesignInquiry, an organization for artists, mostly graphic designers, who come together each year to work on projects and enjoy the community of other artists.  My husband Anthony and I submitted a collaborative application and we were accepted to spend time on the island, sans children and wifi.  The conference/residency was entitled “Productive Counter-production” which certainly peake ..read more

Blackboard image from Teaching Artist class at UNL, January 2016 “Imagination is what, above all, makes empathy possible." - Maxine Greene It is mid-morning on a Friday in Texas in the early 2000’s. I have never been so nervous in my life waiting backstage. I go over my key questions, thinking about blasting my sound into the large crowd. Connect, connect, connect is what I WANT to be thinking, but what I am actually thinking is: I hope they don’t totally hate this music, and ME. I run onstage with my string quartet in an auditorium packed with 800 middle school students, all in varying ..read more

I have always been an active person, but it took me a long time to be interested in yoga.  My husband and many friends had been doing headstands for years, and I always admired them and thought I should do yoga.  I also had enough people telling me “you know that would really help you A LOT” that it was a little annoying but I thought I would try it.  Enter early morning classes, online classes via YogaGlo and soreness for weeks on end.  Much of the time I was excited and fulfilled and part of the time I felt mortified at my apparent lack of flexibility.    Somewh ..read more