So, the idea of this summer in my head is comparatively totally free-wheeling. I admittedly have not been able to embrace it much yet, as I have been outrageously out of town and busy since leaving said job in May. That said, I am feeling incredibly fortunate to pick up as a full-time freelancer with a packed schedule. For July and August, I am trying to embrace some semblance of summer vacation living where I am.

So, happy July to everyone reading. Here is June in review and things I have coming up ahead:

VISUAL ART

This month I completed a commissioned piece. It’s not my place to release much information on it, as it is going to be an album cover :)!

The artists who commissioned me gave me the privilege of complete creative freedom over the piece. I had wonderful meditative experiences listening to the album each time I sat down to work, and allowed the music to fully inform my process start to finish.

Some sneak peek process images I took:

Due to commitments I had this month, I was unable to finish up my visual art website, but it is on the list for my July to-dos.

Until then - my commissions are still open!

I also did a small bit of star-patterned bass strap embroidery detail for one of my best ever friends, Anna Young (a star herself), before she hit the road for tour this summer.

MUSIC MAKING

I’M TOURING INTERNATIONALLY THIS SEPTEMBER!

The first announced date of this September 2026 tour in Asia with Rachael Yamagata is September 20 in Seoul, South Korea. Many more Asia dates coming soon.

In addition to playing violin, I’ll be singing background vocals, and playing some auxiliary percussion, synth, triggering samples, other fun things.

For my Hudson Valley friends and readers - the only East Coast date we are playing is Friday, August 21 at Maverick in Woodstock. Tickets linked here. You should come!

FIDDLE AND FOLK MUSIC

In June I participated in the inaugural year of Darol Anger, Bruce Molsky, Stash Wyslouch, and Jenna Moynihan’s Great Big Fiddle Hang. It took place at the Freshgrass Institute in beautiful North Adams, MA. It was an incredibly special week that musically pushed me in a number of ways as a violinist and fiddler.

I will be spending a lot of time in the studio digesting, practicing, and working initial blueprints for the album (!!!**!*!*!!yay!!!) Sam and I are making this year. I have had so much room to feel inspired by all of the things I’ve been lucky to work on this month. I’m thinking: fiddle/bass/mandolin/guitar electronic fusion… some ambient, traditional music, Bach?, variations on Irish airs?, some jazzy licks?, improvising, part writing, originals. What feels to be, conceptually illegal but am sniffing things out and building a common sonic thread. Art lives and breathes!

Two gigs open to the public in July: Friday, July 17th with Tiny Spores at Night Swim in Kingston. Our first show since November! And Saturday, July 18th with Max Waxlax at Brooklyn Music Kitchen. He released a great single, Carpet Town, last month which you should check out, linked here.

CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC

I was hired to participate in The Manhattan String Quartet’s KentMusic Conference at Colgate University from June 22-27. The week was spent digging into the entirety of Grieg’s String Quartet No. 1 Op. 27 with groups of intermediate adult chamber musicians. In the downtime many sight-reading parties over a bunch of other quartets (& Mendelssohn Octet) out of the standard western classical canon ensued. I remember listening to the Grieg a couple of times on my emo playlists during what I felt to be the most unfortunate time to exist in life for myself and many (aka middle and high school). ha! Over the week, it was fun to play some standard classical repertoire after years away. I found this experience to be most valuable to me as a teacher, more than as a performer, in a very positive way. I don’t super identify with being a classical musician much these days despite having gone to school for it. It was undoubtedly fun to reengage in that kind of intensive environment for the week. It felt most gratifying to help and work with adult players, and really appreciate the technical facilities learning classically has taught me. I left feeling more happy to be in the musically hybrid sphere I’ve been existing in as of late and discovering new things/dipping my toes in other spaces and styles.

RECORDING SESSION WORK

I finally got up to some remote recording work for people this month! I was finally pushed to buy a new laptop by leaving my job, and am happy to finally be learning some Ableton skills of my very own (usually my DAW wizard lovely partner Sam has done most all for me). It is hard - mentally, self-critically, and physically - to manage your own session, for someone else’s material, with a fierce deadline, at home, on the floor of your bathroom for the sake of NYC sonic isolation! But, I did it, I worked around, I enjoyed, and all was well. Excited to dig in deeper.

I had the pleasure of playing on some preliminary recordings of a friend’s funky chamber compositions back in the city. They are among the grooviest pieces I have had the pleasure of playing off a page. These takes were for application portfolio material, so not for sharing at the moment - but come autumn there may be more to say on this.

If you are looking for strings for a gig, song, session, jam, remotely recorded parts, anything, let me know!

VIOLIN PEDAGOGY

A few of my Hudson Valley students participated in the Rhinebeck School of Music Student Concert this past Sunday on June 28, which was a great capstone to the school year.

Teaching point emphasized this month: more 1) speaking and 2) singing parts out loud at all stages of learning to inform sense of groove, melody, harmony, rhythm, phrasing… everything good and musical…. etc.

SIMPLE PLEASURES IN JUNE

FOOD: Lentils!!! Ridgewood: While in Kathmandu, amazing lunch of pickings. The Porches Inn in North Adams: amazing celery salad, BLT, roasted vegetables, and other delightful foods for fiddle camp. Popcorn for dinner when Sam wasn’t home.

MUSEUMS: Popped into MASS MoCA for a bit during an afternoon while in North Adams for fiddle. I didn’t have enough time to spend the day. Loved Jeffrey Gibson’s POWER FULL BECAUSE WE’RE DIFFERENT and Sam Fresquez’s installation of the Spatial Poems exhibit. Anselm Kiefer’s exhibition building was incredibly profound. I finally got to check out the New Museum after its reopening this past spring. Extremely worthwhile if able.

TELEVISION/MOVIES: Howl’s Moving Castle. Bohemian Rhapsody. A couple of very bad and awesomely mind-numbing reality TV episodes (redacting titles)

LISTENING TO MUSIC: This month I was lucky to get soo soooo many awesome recommendations from many amazing folks I was fortunate to meet at fiddle camp. I was in a bit of a rut these past couple of months with regard to listening habits and discovering new things.

READING: Joan Didion’s Where I Was From was interestingly a combination of memoir (not as much as The Year of Magical Thinking though) and historical reflection/critique of the American West. Currently reading Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

In the fall I made the decision to switch from working a steady full-time job that had vested me with a real sense of stability in my ((so far short)) adult life, to making my teaching and artistic practice my full-time pursuit. Letting go of the job and leaping in to the hypothetical I have fantasized so many ‘what ifs’ around is exhilarating and disorienting in equal measure. I spent my first real day of this freedom feeling pretty sick and in bed…and today luckily feeling well enough to put this newsletter together.

I am feeling super excited about things!!! Despite leaving a whole part of my daily routine behind, it also seems that there is virtually no rest to be had considering the onslaught of June gigs, tasks, etc. Now for the news of that:

VISUAL ART

A painting a month - May

As described in the May newsletter, I got started on sculpting this piece out at the end of April. I just finished about a week ago. It’s giving happy pride !!! :)

In progress for June…

Building a website/online platform for my visual art - tba!

An album cover commission to be used for Ictus Novus’ upcoming record - tba!

Simple embroidery for a guitar/bass strap for one of my best ever friends Anna Young. She will be on the road taking on touring the US with Annabelle Dinda, opening for Lola Young (!!!) and Noah Kahan (!!!) all summer long and I am so happy for her and will miss her!! It’ll be my first time ever embroidering for someone beyond embroidery/sewing to construct my paintings.

VIOLIN PLAYING

May was home to my first ever three gig day up in the Hudson Valley (all completely unrelated to one another) which was a wildly fun experience. Recording session to wedding dinner to music video/recording session.

The first half of June will be spent mostly practicing 1) new advanced repertoire for teaching, but more largely 2) the parts/tunes for all of the happenings taking place during my second half of the month.

Other than a couple of recording sessions and gigs here and there, a majority of mid-end of June will be spent almost mostly on the road doing:

• June 14-18: Darol Anger, Bruce Molsky, and Jenna Moynihan’s Great Big Fiddle Hang at The Freshgrass Institute, neighboring MASS MoCA. I am approaching this week long intensive with a pedagogical mindset, intending to take in discussions and workshops to further develop my abilities and perspectives on traditional, old-time, and bluegrass as both a player and teacher.

• June 22-28: The Manhattan String Quartet’s KentMusic Quartet Conference as a hired violinist, taking place at Colgate University studying and coaching the beautiful Grieg String Quartet No.1, Op. 27 - Grieg’s only complete string quartet. Some of my favorite musical memories during my time as a classical-aspiring player when I was in undergrad were of summer intensives and festivals. Excited to come at it and give it another go a couple of years down the line with a substantially different musical outlook and identity.

VIOLIN PEDAGOGY

In May I said goodbye to my school-year teaching position upstate, and in turn took on some summer-term students - most of whom are adults with goals of working on specific projects or techniques. I am also a big fan of seasonal work/teaching and the sense of focus it tends to bring, especially for older students choosing to opt in to taking lessons for just a fraction of the year.

Teaching points I emphasized the most: Effectiveness of self-recording. Also mindful repetitions to resolve. More along the premise of restricting yourself on number of attempts (say, to 10 a day) then stating verbally — yes, out loud to yourself — what went or felt wrong in your eyes. (I.e. “sharp” or “flat”), then pivoting to doing correct repetitions in a row once solidified.

SIMPLE PLEASURES IN MAY

FOOD I LOVED: Tried Hellbender in Ridgewood. Amazing chocolate and other treats my mom brought Sam and I from her trip to Germany. Super Pollo always. Ice Cream Window in Ridgewood. Had a lot of Eveready Diner breakfasts with my Dad in Hyde Park this month on my upstate teaching/gig days.

PODCASTS I LOVED:

• Vanguard on Acquired by Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal

• Joanna Fong-Isariyawongse: The Science of Sleep for Musicians on Bulletproof Musician

• Master Self Control & Overcome Procrastination with Dr. Kentaro Fujita on Huberman Lab

• Michael Pollan — The Mystery of Consciousness on On Being

• Rachael Yamagata on Norah Jones is Playing Along

• Audrey Hepburn, Mega Episode on The History Chicks

BOOKS I LOVED: Finished A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

GIG I LOVED: Playing with Sam at the Poughkeepsie Cistern for their May 9 Open House…amazing experience. Video and audio coming soon

TTYL! I’m sure I’ll have more to say soon!

Cheers,

Caroline

I’ve realized how many trees there are around the neighborhood after their previous invisibility to me, having just moved to Ridgewood Queens at the beginning of winter. The arcs of potential and excitement are rebounding from the one and only dark and cold season I’ve experienced living here. At least having moved at the beginning of winter, things only get (or at least will hopefully seem) better with time as the hemisphere tilts warmer. In the Hudson Valley it felt like there was a little bit more of a point to winter. Just in the sense there was always some more of a consistent perceptible beauty. There was space, fields of snow, easier coziness. More appreciation for seasonal contrast. I lived alone, was fortunate to be able to exist and compartmentalize across multiple rooms, which in the city has been more challenging. More broadly in this winter season of adjustment to city living, the extreme cold and dark confronted me more heavily with the sense of being constantly embedded in a system and routine of so many other simultaneously occurring human experiences all over the place. Some great, some frivolous, some challenging, some heartbreaking, some enlightening, some in the middle, none of it all as just one.

VISUAL ART

A painting a month - two in April!

Third month in a row! Except there are two.

I laugh putting the photos together in this newsletter, the nearly matching color palettes were not intended but I guess was felt and had to be done.

Growing Copper Lichen on Dark Purple Primordium was conceptualized, constructed (burlap/plaster/embroidery wise), and painted completely from scratch this month. I feel really happy about this work.

And…I finished a second piece! This one is more dimensionally strange, coming in as a small 4x12 rectangle. Kind of a difficult embroidery process to build, considering the narrow window around the frame of the canvas. I started this one a while back, and brought it back to work to make some finishing touches and call it done enough this month -

I have got my next somewhat larger piece for May in the works already. I made a small 6x6 piece for a friend in 2024, which compositionally works from a more centrally focused growth than one that wraps around more of the canvas. Here is the never before posted actually (I don’t think - and I can’t believe it is again in totally the same color family!)) 2024 piece that I am referring to. Unfortunately I don’t have any great photos of it:

Stay tuned for next month’s piece! Subscribe!

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Just last weekend, from April 24-26, I had a small installation of my works exhibited for COPEFEST, a contemporary music festival in NYC

As I wrote about in my April newsletter, I had the honor of exhibiting some of my works at COPEFEST, a three day contemporary new music festival in NYC presented by the COPE Collective. I am a member of this NYC-based collective of composer, performers, and other creative professionals who center the creation of contemporary music without the time, financial, and creative restrictions of the music industry by running on a collaborative labor exchange basis.

Even with being unable to mount works to the wall, I was very happy with how the weekend’s display turned out. I am super thrilled to have had the opportunity to show work. It felt extremely enlightening and inspiring to get to interact with people (welcome to this newsletter for the people who signed up at the showing!).

I really hope to be able to do this again soon. I am additionally super excited to have sold a larger, few year old work of mine at the festival. This is one of the first large works I ever made after coming back to visual art post-undergrad in 2023. Inspired by the front yard garden of my childhood house of my mother.

As I work on building a stronger platform for my visual practice, commissions for any size, idea, and or color scheme are open. If you are interested in any specific piece, also always feel free to reach out!

MUSIC - NEW RELEASES

I’ll be recording and playing a bunch in May with different artists!! Couple of great new releases came out in April that my violin playing is featured on -

1. Live at the Avalon Lounge is an ambient improvised set with the Bernhardt & Kleinschmidt Quintet from November 2025, performed as part of the Upstairs Wednesday series put on at The Avalon Lounge in Catskill. The set was released as an album in April.

   1. Related live show this month…May 9 at 3:40pm at The Poughkeepsie Cistern - Sam and I will be playing a duo ambient set (violin and guitar) at the Poughkeepsie Cistern as part of their Open House on May 9.

2. Epitaph is a song I recorded violin on a couple of months back for Miles Taylour’s awesome latest EP Keep the Devil Off Your Back

VIOLIN PEDAGOGY

As summer approaches…I am taking some new students on for the season. I have a couple more spots in my studio in the Hudson Valley as the school year wraps up, and more in the NYC area. Send me a message if you or someone you know is interested in setting up some violin lessons. I work with all levels and ages (4+)!

Teaching point I emphasized lots in April - working back in to body awareness to create a grounding and relaxing experience musically, especially leading up to performances/evaluation. Anxiety and fear tend to breed the sensation of uncontrollable feelings and tension in our bodies, which makes playing violin more challenging physiologically than it should be!

Coupled with closing their eyes, and really picturing the space they would occupy to perform, these have been a few very helpful points of approach:

1. Wearing a tote bag on the bow side shoulder (right) with a couple of books inside. Not heavy. It provides immediate feedback for shoulder and back pronation, muscle tension, and over engagement/pressure around the shoulder and collarbone.

2. Exhaling and starting sound from the string. Not on inhale.

3. Both feet rooted on the ground, being able to sink in to our heels and balls of our feet without locked knees. Directly adaptable from use/idea of a balance board. We never want to be “chasing” after our violin or bow side. Especially isolating in sections of faster tempos, more technical passagework.

4. Coupling some sporadic cardio exercise movement (i.e. 20 jumping jacks) that replicates a raised heart rate and even some sweatiness to what might be felt during a performance. Then, being able to keep a leveled and balanced physical structure.

SIMPLE PLEASURES IN APRIL

FOOD: Super Pollo in Ridgewood with Sam - delicious, not sleepy after, super great value, can’t go wrong. As a treat: Rolo’s in Ridgewood. Sam and I split a delicious three courses. My second visit to Nami Nori (temaki style open style sushi rolls) in Williamsburg. Trader Joe’s Sour Scandinavian Swimmers. Kale and mushrooms. Boursin cheese.

MOVEMENT/WORKING OUT: Feeling super grateful to have a routine I can invest in, commit to, and genuinely love doing. Strength train at an all womens lifting gym and pilates.

PODCASTS: I finished the History Chicks’ three-part series on Laura Ingalls Wilder, amazing. Huberman Lab’s Cultivating Awe and Human Connection with Dr. Dacher Keltner. The Grey Area’s episode on The Pentagon’s AI war machine. Dialogues: The David Zwirner Podcast on Marcel Duchamp, troll of the art world, whose exhibit at MoMA I am curious to check out in the coming month. Time Sensitive’s episode interviewing Devon Turnbull on Elevating the Beauty of Sound.

BOOKS: Finishing Swing Time by Zadie Smith. Killing Commendatore finished. Wacky cool plot, I enjoy reading Murakami’s work, though I generally dislike his writing of women.

Thanks for reading! More soon!

Cheers,

Caroline

VISUAL ART

2026 PAINTING NO. 1 - MARCH

As stated (so briefly) in a set of resolutions in my March 2026 newsletter, creating at least one painting a month has taken a front and center place in my mind.

This piece’s canvas is one that I started and worked off of in July of 2024, and mysteriously totally abandoned it soon after. I uncovered the already texturally sculpted but mostly bare green/yellow/semi-leafed canvas when moving out of my house in Red Hook this December (when I had closets and space everywhere, and could live my ‘out of sight out of mind’ dreams). My partner convinced me to save it, bring it, and give it a shot at new life. I eventually saw the vision and am happy to say he was right.

Mowing the Lawn was conceptualized and completed with how I imagine that house, yard/fence, old studio room, and overgrowth all over my long neighborhood walks in mind. With the mood and routines of spring fresh in the air, one of the first things I felt myself missing from my old routine living upstate would be caring for and mowing the lawn and making use of my very own patio and yard. The backyard had a wonderfully expansive tree, tall wooden fence, and variety of flowering weeds that I would always allow to take over in the summertime.

I am super happy with how this piece came out. The the bright flow of roots and weeds and arms ready to grow are vivid in my imagination⭐️

I have a smaller scale work that I started about a week ago, and may have one more bigger piece in me this month, maybe a couple of other smaller ones. I am gearing up to actually show my work in just a few weeks, because I have gotten the opportunity to have …

MY FIRST SOLO EXHIBITION!

THIS MONTH IN NYC AT COPEFEST

I am very excited to share that I will be putting together a solo exhibit of some of my works! The exhibit will be on display during the weekend of April 24-26 at COPEFEST, taking place at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church (3 West 65th Street) in NYC. This festival has a super exciting three day lineup of new music, you can purchase tickets for a single day or a full weekend pass at this link.

The only other work I have ever displayed publicly is one that I have never shared on the internet, kind of forgot about, and is a piece I made for display in the Fisher Center at Bard College’s (my 9-5 job!) box office in 2024.

So, to be able to have my next opportunity as a whole solo exhibition of my work is something I am feeling extremely grateful for. Super excited about having this kind of deadline and purposeful sense of diving in this month. I will likely write a whole other article on how this process flows and ends up coming together here later in the month. If you can make it in person I would love to see you.

I have truthfully never been in a group show of any size either, so to take the plunge of all work being my own feels particularly unreal for me still.

VIOLIN - PERFORMANCE

PLAYING ON FIVE STRINGS

I bought a five-string fiddle just about a week ago, and I am totally over the moon!!! I’ve been very interested in doing this for this for the past year or so, and I was lucky to have the opportunity to trial and buy in the city from a private seller without having to take a trip to Nashville or Vermont. So far it has been everything I have dreamed of and more. Super excited to share more in the coming months.

LIVE SHOWS

April 11: New Folk Revival Presents Fresh Folk. At WIP Studios in Gowanus, I’ll be playing with Max Waxlax.

April 14: A show that I am not in but you should definitely go see: my incredibly talented friend Maddy Carroll’s show at Sleepwalk! Tickets here

April 24-26: COPEFEST - post-concert jam and my visual art exhibit!

Potentially a couple of more coming this month as sit-ins - TBA

VIOLIN - PEDAGOGY

Spring is great for so many reasons, but as a teacher it tends to be a point in the year that my students either build excitements or start to completely dread. As the spring and end of school year approaches, so does the season of performance as presentation of their work with me. March is a month of beginning the balance of excitement and fear around this setting in. It has the tendency to be the period of what I notice to be a lot more preparation based in panic over enjoyment.

There is generally an immense amount of both intrinsic and extrinsic pressure on outcome at this point in the year for many of my middle and high school students in particular for recitals/NYSSMA solos/etc. I remember the feeling all too well, as I was right in their shoes not all too long ago.

So, the teaching point I find myself emphasizing the most: making music at any level is and totally should be emphasized and practiced as an enjoyable experience. Making and playing music is an incredibly fun and fulfilling skill to express our own and shared humanity. The arts in all of their forms make up the coolest things we get to do as humans. There is so much beauty to be found in the journey of learning and skill development over a perfectly polished ability to play one single piece that will get you a perfect score without any joy or translatability down the line.

On another teaching note, I am very excited about having almost officially reached full capacity in my Hudson Valley based private violin studio. I have officially started a waitlist… I am up to teaching 13 students accross Thursday and Friday, and have only one 45-minute weekly spot open to spare until the school year ends and people’s schedules flex around over the summer.

So, if you’re upstate and reading this and want in-person lessons before summer with me, let me know!! My virtual and NYC in-person availability is still very flexible and open.

SIMPLE PLEASURES IN MARCH

MOVEMENT/WORKING OUT: Sticking to spring resolutions, I have been moving and hitting the gym in a way that feels seriously incredible. I have been rebuilding my workout routine at Wick Pilates in Ridgewood and as a founding member of Tension, a women owned and women’s only (hallelujah !) strength gym.

MUSIC: March was the first month I haven’t been subscribed to a streaming service in probably since I stopped using an iPod Nano in middle school. Bandcamped all the way, it was incredibly refreshing. It made me very aware of consumption and what algorithmic tendencies I have made habit without previously realizing it so much.

PODCASTS: Scattered around, no one specific show. The History Chicks’ episode on Odetta perfectly timed with my discovery and obsession with her music last month, pipelined me into other great recent episodes. Culture Study on Video Games making me revisit the vitality of play in our lives. A couple of shows from The Moth. Time Sensitive with Lucinda Childs and Jennie C. Jones.

MOVIES: Joel Haver’s film Email, made during the 2026 Oscars, followed by watching the other Oscar night prequels from 2025, The Call, and 2024, The Text. Also My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, and the first Night at the Museum

BOOKS: Almost finished with Haruki Murakami’s Killing Commendatore. Finished China Miéville’s The City & The City. Have read a couple of great Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude poems by Ross Gay before bed.

Thank you for reading! More soon this month :),

Cheers and hugs,

Caroline

A conversation last spring with my friend Max really fed my annual impulse, curiosity, and inquiry as to the sensibility behind a January versus March New Year, March being a much more logical start to the year. I tend to think that the ones who made the Roman Calendar had it right in marking March 1 as the start of a new year…even along with its consideration of the in-between sixty-something days of winter to be unnecessary to account for in the cycle of a year. As a non-farmer or agriculturalist of any kind myself, I do find myself feeling the dullness and dryness that occurs in the now counted months of January and February following what was considered the final relevant month to make as December in the Roman calendar! Haha

I will still admit, March typically is a month that holds that continued sense of a seasonal slog out of the rest of the year to me being a New Yorker. But, it is one that starts to let a sense of hope thrive a bit more easily. After really thinking about it, and compartmentalizing the year in to a 10 month call to action (Dec=10) rather than a 12 month long one…I find the sense of small beginnings/closeness of impending rebirth and new life in the natural world around us each year really kicks in around this time of year. Better yet, March is International Women’s Month & Women’s History Month!

New Year’s Resolutions

So, with my consideration of March as a more sensible start of the new year, a spring resolution system is obviously one of the core kickers. I love digging in on reflection and resolution setting. I am always hankering around non-complacency, sometimes to a fault. It is a much more delightful way to feel and be with spring just around the corner!

For 1/1 New Year’s, I have always had the tendency to overload my mind with a myriad of possibilities, and this year was no exception. I felt deeply paralyzed, so many aspects of “should/could/would” having just moved down to New York City in December, over thinking, over complicating, negatively attached to the internet, the news cycle pertaining to our dismal socio-economic-political landscape, you know…all the things.

More largely feeling the tendency to rush, with nowhere to be except for right where I am.

Aside from those mucky feelings during times that feel simultaneously challenging and stagnant, I seriously in turn notice the things that bring me joy come to an even brighter light. All of those things right now for me right now generally orbit around teaching, moving and strengthening my body, feeding spirituality/psyche, and creating.

So, for this March new year, I am finding it best as an exercise in ambition to attach goals, one large and one small, to each known point of joy, and go from there. Some of these include continuing to expand my violin studio down in the city, to keep honing specific teaching strategies, adopting a routine of meditative daily violin practice, being a consistent member of my local pilates gym, one painting a month, reading and writing more, making new music, and meeting new people through shared interests, etc.

Some New Recorded Music

For listening in the new new year! to start your spring off right!

Just this past Friday, February 27, Fawn Ridge released their very first EP - Every Little Thing! I had the privilege of not only recording violin on a couple of the songs for them (“Regret” and “Eliza”), but also performing live with them for the release show on Thursday at Alphaville in Bushwick. This EP is so beautiful and magical, and I can assure you that listening to it will definitely make your day a little sweeter.

Another track, Blue Ribbon Blues by The Old North came out just last week, which I also had the pleasure to record on this past fall. For this one, I tracked some background vocal harmonies on the choruses, with no fiddle involved! This was my first time recording just vocals, without the call of more primarily doing strings in general for someone. It was a short and sweet session, and I had a blast! You can listen on your prefered streaming service here.

Background vocals/singing at all is something I have only very recently started exploring, kicked off by touring with my friend Rachael Yamagata last fall on strings and some background vocals for her new album Starlit Alchemy released last October. Speaking of which, in light of this newsletter….is such a beautiful listen for a new years or end of winter walk. A beautiful exploration of galactic ties, grief, strength, terrestrial energy, ego, guidance from the universe, the stars, the moon:

I’ve been tracking for a few other different artists over the past couple of months since moving down to NYC, so I am looking forward to those upcoming releases over the next couple of months.

Upcoming Performances:

I don’t have a whole lot of public performances on the books for March down in the city at the moment. In line with shedding the weight of winter, I am looking forward to getting out an about in the city! Heading to some jams, spontaneous sit ins, and going to see more shows is something I am really excited about. If you have a show, song/album you’re tracking, an event, or anything in mind that I should go to or are looking to get violin involved with in NYC/the Hudson Valley…feel free to hit my line!

One show happening upstate in March - “Lilith at The Barn”, a tribute show to Lilith Fair put on by a bunch of amazing Hudson Valley based women musicians is happening at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock later this month on Friday, March 27. I will be sitting in on fiddle! Tickets linked here. A portion of the proceeds from the evening will benefit The Washbourne House and Grace Smith House, two amazing Hudson Valley nonprofits supporting women and families.

Teaching point I emphasized the most in February:

Conveying the importance of correct repetitions in a row. Repetition in practice is not just plainly about doing a certain number of good-enough repetitions in a row with some flunks mixed in that we plow through. It’s about sequencing a minimum number of repeated parts correctly, and otherwise starting over.

In tandem to that, since this can be an extremely tedious and frustrating moment for many - how to make repetition fun, especially for younger students. One game I used that was effective for quite a few students: going up one stair for every correct repetition (entire staircase or for the number of stairs they are old), and down one step or the entire staircase (depending on level and learning style) for every incorrect repetition in the sequence

Small things I loved in February:

MUSIC: Odetta - so much the past couple of weeks. She is such a force, so monumental and way under-recognized queen of American folk music. Do yourself a favor in this fucking crazy time, and absolutely go listen to some Odetta. You must.

PODCASTS: This month I spent the most time with Bella Freud’s Fashion Neurosis and Norah Jones’ Playing Along.

MOVIES: Watched the The Lighthouse and The Boy and the Heron during the blizzard…Willem DeFoe and Robert Pattinson in quite a funny back to back between the two films.

FOOD: Ridiculously, chicken wings since the SuperBowl. I Like Food at Aunt Ginny’s Bar in Ridgewood and Sorry Charlie in Kingston have most recently hit the spot.

BOOKS: Currently reading The City & The City by China Miéville. I have been in a real reading block lately. I have tried to read One Hundred Years of Solitude twice now, and I am disappointed in my unfortunate sluggish feeling for a work that so many consider a great literary masterpiece.

With love! Cheers and hugs,

Caroline

All of this along the lines of orbiting the self-talk around “good enough-ness” that my being has encountered in some way day in and day out since I was a kid. Waiting to finally feel ready to be “done”, “complete”, to feel I once and for all will be on a perfectly straight line to “success”, to be able to feel that I was “good enough”.

What would it mean for something to finally feel good enough? To finally fit all of the aforementioned criteria?

Well, speaking on an intrinsic level, absolutely none of those variables have ever quite come true for my internally rooted “good-enoughness” self talk since creating this account over a year ago. The one thing I do have strong faith in: that probably none of those things will likely ever come exactly true, consistent fruition. And that is totally wonderful and okay, and is actually a very exciting way to feel.

It is okay to enjoy things! What a privilege it is to be alive and well enough to create, be in community, play, write, and share. There is no better time than the present! The assumption of any kind of “ding ding! It is finally tIMe TiME TIME that you can do it!!!” that would just click in place is such a fallacy that is incredibly silly to consider for me to have happen, I think ever. I am just plain human — which can be a lucky kind of creature to be.

Anyways, Substack!

I am not settled on any particular sequence of content I intend to log or write on this page. I would love for you to follow along with me! I’m thinking about some newsletters, things I’m working on in my creative practice, recent musings, recent work, life as a violinist and violin teacher, multi-passionate-ism, maybe more thoughts like these. IDK.

Cheers and hugs,

Caroline

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