Origin Stories

One thing I love more than performing with Coloratura is talking about Coloratura, and I recently had the opportunity to do both! I received an invite from Kansas City Oasis, a secular humanist congregation, to serve as the featured musical artist and keynote speaker for the November 27 Sunday service.

Even though I’ve been working on Coloratura for years, this was the first time I’d been afforded the opportunity to speak at length about the project in front of an audience. Prior to this, I don’t think I’d carved out the time to pause and reflect on the weird and wonderful journey that’s led me to this point. How did I get here? What inspired me initially and what continues to inspire me to move forward? Answering these questions and fielding other questions from the enraptured audience was such an enlightening experience. My favorite comment from a KC Oasis member was: “I don’t know what is more beautiful, your work or yourself. Thank you for sharing with us”. My heart melted. I love creating bits of beauty and joy in our increasingly chaotic world, and I’m so glad that my work resonated with this woman and so many other members of the group.

Many many thanks to Jason Radford for reaching out with this opportunity, and thank you to all of the wonderful, supportive members of KC Oasis for providing me a platform to share my story. You can watch my Coloratura performance and keynote speech below: