ChelseaLiuHawkenProjects2022

 In the last couple of days of Hawken Project, Jamie and I were able to visit the Avenue at Medina assisted living facility. At the Avenue at Medina, we had one of our largest crowds in addition to the Mulberry Gardens Facility. This was one of my favorite performances of the past couple of weeks because the crowd was incredibly enthusiastic about our visit. The activities coordinator was incredibly kind and we were also able to interact with several of the patients. One of the people in our audience asked us about our instruments as well as the way we are able to play. We explained how to instrument works as well as how the instruments were created. We explained that some basses are made of a special type of wood in France that is eventually imported into the United States. We also explained that some instruments are created from one slab of wood rather than several pieces stitched together. It was really fun explaining the details of our instruments to the patients. I was very gl...

 We visited serval new facilities in the last couple of days. Some of these new facilities include the Mulberry Gardens as well as the Avenue at Medina. It was fun engaging with a new community, and I was able to learn a lot from the people at each community. At the Mulberry Gardens, we were in the memory care unit of the facility. It was one of our largest audiences for our performances within our Hawken Project. We played our standard repertoire and the patients really enjoyed our songs. One of the crowd favorites was the Waltz Katzen as well as Tale as Old as Time. This performance in particular was special because several of the employees and nurses were able to listen in. This performance was also special to me because it had a significant reaction in the crowd. After playing S omewhere Over the Rainbow and Can’t help Falling in Love , several people in the audience started crying. Oftentimes, I forget that music can have a huge impact on people. Also, I sometimes underestimat...

 One of the other experiences that really stood out to me this week was when we performed at the Maplewood at Twinsburg. For this experience, we had a slightly different set-up than past performances. Usually, we perform during lunch hours or during activity times. When it comes to lunch performances, we play as background music when the patients are setting up and eating lunch. Meanwhile, during activity times, the workers help bring in the patients to a living room or activity room so that we can play for the community. This time around, we did a lunch performance specifically for two couples. We got a text from Brandy Turner the morning of our performance explaining that they were celebrating the couples within the Maplewood at Twinsburg facility. Jamie and I decided to set up our performance repertoire with some lovely songs to help the two couples in their celebration! They were in a separate dining area from the rest of the patients, and we played personally for the two coupl...

 This past week was my first time doing a separate activity from performances and talking with patients. Jamie and I helped Ms. Brandy Turner lead a Tai Ji morning class with the patients. We went through basic movements that helped the patients stretch out and keep up movement. It was really fun engaging with the patients and I really enjoyed our conversation during the Tai Ji lesson. It was very heartwarming seeing all of the patients interact with one another and help each other during the different movements of our class. Although Jamie and I do not know too much about Tai Ji, we learned a lot about guiding these kinds of movement classes. Brandy guided us through leading the Tai Ji classes by explaining a couple of the adjustments we have to make in order to make the experience easier for the patients. One thing that we did was mirror our movements so that way it would be easier for the patients to learn the Tai Ji moves. For example, we would say to lift the right hand, but w...

 Jamie and I have continued to improve our duet pieces. We have also expanded our repertoire for future performances as well. We added a couple songs including the duet piece, "Saint Seya" as well as my own solo piece, "Gavotte." Mostly our adjustments were to eliminate notes that sounded awkward or were unplayable in our duet sheet music. These challenges were because some of our duet pieces were initially written for the piano or the violin and cello rather than the bass and cello. Our performances are beginning to sound a lot stronger, and we have also decided to improve the organization of our performances. For example, we had a pre-planned performance repertoire in our most recent performance for the Pearlview assisted living facility. In the last couple of days, I have found it more natural for Jamie and me to talk with patients.  At Brunswick, we had a striking conversation with a patient named June. She told us that she was one of the oldest residents in the...

By the second week of our performances, Jamie and I began to get the hang of playing together. For the past couple of days, we began printing new pieces to work on for our duets. These pieces include “One Summer Day” as well as Disney duet pieces like “A Tale as Old as Time.” We had also prepared our own solo pieces. We have continued to adjust the pieces in order for the songs to accommodate for cello and bass. In the last couple of days, we also changed project mentors from Ms. Zabrosky to Brandy Turner because Brandy oversees the music therapy coordination across assisted living facilities. It was incredibly fun visiting new facilities that we have never been to. We visited the Avenue at Lyndhurst Care and Rehabilitation Center where we were able to visit one of the patients and also play a couple pieces. The patient talked to us about her favorite TV show, Friends, and Brandy guided us throughout the experience. It was shocking for me to see Brandy talk with patients because it was...