I am excited to join Tonality not to just make marvelous music, but to be a part of an ensemble that has a purpose for each piece and program that goes beyond music for music's sake. It's that intention and engagement that drew me in, and gives me hope for what choral music can be in years to come.
I feel that it's important to grow from the discomfort of leaving the status quo, which is what I've witnessed and experienced Tonality do by lifting up the voices and stories of the marginalized. In a world that can feel continually divided, it's important for us as musicians to sing into new perspectives, and for that same world to hear them.
In an event where Tonality sang between several panel discussions on gun violence, seeing my friends and fellow musicians sing "The Seven Last Words of the Unarmed", embodying the desperation and confusion of each of those words so viscerally - right after hearing high school students' first hand accounts and their simple yet absolute truth that "Liking a tweet doesn't help us" - is a moment that will stay with me forever.
