“A Day in the Life” at Chrysalis

What would the perfect workshop look like?

I've been asking myself this question for years — as a performer, as a teacher, and as someone who has attended more workshops, festivals, and intensives than I can count. Some were wonderful. Some were overwhelming. A few changed the way I think about music. And when Joan, Louis, and I sat down to design Chrysalis, we started with the things that mattered most to us about the experiences that changed us — and left out everything that didn't.

Here's what we came up with.

Time to hone your skills

Your morning begins with warm-ups and technique refreshers — not the kind where someone lectures at you for an hour, but the kind where you're playing, moving, breathing, and waking up your hands and your ears. These sessions are designed to get you physically and musically ready for the day ahead, and to give you tools you can take home and use long after September. Whether you're a harpist, a flutist, or a composer, you'll start each day grounded in your ownmusic before you step into anyone else's world.

Time to get out of the practice room

This is where the real work of duo playing begins - and the fun too. If you've spent most of your musical life alone in a practice room, like a lot of harpists, this is the part that will surprise you, because it unlocks something that practicing alone simply cannot reach.

At Chrysalis, you'll be paired for duo coachings where Joan and I (and Louis, when the music is his) are in the room with you — not watching from a distance, but listening closely, asking questions, offering ideas, and sometimes just getting out of the way so you can hear each other. You'll also play in larger ensembles, which brings its own set of joys and challenges: balancing voices, following someone else's lead, finding your role in a texture that's bigger than you.

Time to explore

Chrysalis is a collaborative workshop, meaning it’s about cross-pollination. We've built in masterclasses, inter-disciplinary sessions, and panel discussions that are designed to stretch your thinking — not just your technique.

What does a composer hear when a performer plays something for the first time? What can a harpist learn from the way a flutist thinks about breath and phrasing? What happens when you stop thinking of yourself as "a harpist" or "a flutist" and start thinking of yourself as a musician who happens to play a particular instrument?

These are the kinds of questions we'll be sitting with together. Louis brings a composer's ear. Joan brings decades of experience listening across the ensemble. I bring what I've learned from doing both — performing and teaching — for most of my life. And the most interesting answers will come from you and the other attendees, because everyone walks into that room with a different set of experiences and a different way of hearing.

Time to play

There's a difference between practicing and playing. Practicing is private, focused, goal-oriented. Playing is what happens when you choose the music over the notes, the message over the mistake.

At Chrysalis, the open mic evening and ensemble sessions aren't recitals with pressure and expectations. They're invitations - a chance to share something you've been working on, try something you're not sure about, or just enjoy the experience of making music for people who are rooting for you. The atmosphere is warm. The audience is generous. And nobody is grading you.

Time to connect

Workshops can be lonely if they're nothing but classes and coachings. We've learned — from our own experience on both sides of the faculty table — that the conversations over dinner, the walks between sessions, the late-evening exchanges about a piece someone just discovered, are as valuable as anything that happens in the teaching room.

So we've built real breathing room into the schedule. You'll have time to eat together, explore Wildwood, walk the boardwalk and talk about music (or not talk about music), and simply be in the company of people who care about the same things you care about. Some of the most lasting professional relationships in my life started exactly this way — not in a masterclass, but over a meal, when someone said, "Have you ever played this piece?"

The transformation

Here's what I believe, and it's the reason we named this workshop Chrysalis: becoming a musician — the fullest version of the musician you already are — starts when you get out of your practice room and make music with others.

Not someday. Not when you're "ready." Now.

You have repertoire to discover that you don't even know exists yet. You have colleagues to meet who will challenge and inspire you. You have experiences waiting for you that will change how you hear, how you play, and how you think about making music.

That's what Chrysalis is. A few days of room to grow - supported by three faculty members who have spent their careers learning how to help musicians do exactly that.

We can't wait to see what you become.

You can view the “in progress” Chrysalis schedule here.

If a day like this sounds like exactly what you need — unhurried, immersive, and surrounded by musicians who genuinely want to help you grow — we have four of them waiting for you in September. Learn more and register at ChrysalisMusicWorkshop.com