Artist Statement
For 22 years, I have been a freelance orchestral musician in the Twin Cities, playing cello on a regular basis with Minnesota Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Minnesota Opera Orchestra. It is an honor to be valued and hired by these esteemed organizations, where I have learned how to play collaborative music at a very high level. As orchestral players, we follow conductors for musical choices. These are not places for individual artistic expression.
To challenge myself and to find my individual musical voice, I spent almost two decades studying and performing music written for solo cello. I learned dozens of works and played them in churches, libraries and small concert halls, and on the radio at KFAI and MPR. Composers Timothy C. Takach, Jocelyn Hagen, David Evan Thomas and Carl Witt have written pieces for me.
My most noteworthy accomplishment in the past three years has been creating a multimedia solo cello presentation. Bearing Witness is a program of music for cello that reflects global racial injustice, genocide and cultural loss. It is a musical experience designed to promote learning and awaken empathy, inspiring authentic connections and deeper community engagement. It is an enlightening concert, weaving together history lessons from a worldwide perspective with an artistic focus. Between pieces, video narration provides real-life stories from marginalized cultures. The storytellers are teenagers, representing the next generation; our future. The juxtaposition of children with these important issues is powerful.
Creating Bearing Witness was a significant departure from my previous work of performing as a solo cellist. For this program, I wanted to create something with more impact than a traditional concert. The connecting theme of racial injustice causing deep trauma in all the musical pieces warranted more attention than written program notes. Video brings the history to life and silence between pieces gives the music and stories space to resonate. Work on this project spanned close to two years and included in depth historical research, writing scripts, and filming and editing narration. I also consulted with mentors from the Center for Victims of Torture, initially for content evaluation and later regarding audience feedback sessions, in order to engage more deeply with audiences. Learning and mastering the music was a several year process. I’m proud I was able to make a work of art that is compelling, timely and relevant.
The program consists of:
Thirty-Eight Tears by Timothy C. Takach, which honors the Dakota men executed in Mankato, MN by the US Government in 1862 (written for me)
Khse Buon by Chinary Ung, a Cambodian who lost family members during the Khmer Rouge regime
Sonata No. 1 by Mieczyslaw Weinberg, a Polish Jew who fled Warsaw as a teen during World War Two
Three Pieces for Solo Cello - Rosewood, Pickin’ and The Long Way North by John Williams, about the racially motivated destruction of Rosewood, FL in 1922
A commissioned work by Jocelyn Hagen with a video essay by Kao Kalia Yang is a work in progress, to be written for me as an addition to Bearing Witness
I performed Bearing Witness in 2019 in St. Paul, MN at the East Side Freedom Library, SpringBOX (the performance space for Springboard for the Arts), St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church and Gloria Dei Lutheran Church and in Minneapolis, MN at Gethsemane Episcopal Church. On each occasion, 30-40% of the audiences chose to stay for post concert discussions. Over 50% of the audiences submitted feedback via survey cards distributed at performances, on a survey form at kirstenwhitson.com or through personal emails.
Post concert comments included:
“Thank you for telling these stories, this history is important to remember.”
“The music was beautiful and made the stories more powerful.”
“I want to thank you for your wonderful work and for making such a contribution to our community.”
“Your choices of music were so powerful, a kind of meditation on darkness, on human suffering.”
“I would like to thank you for sharing your intellect, passion, and artistry at the East Side Freedom Library on June 4, 2019. Your performance educated and enlightened me.”
“I feel so fortunate to have had the chance to experience your performance in June. It was truly amazing; so powerful, poignant and intense—and also hopeful, with the young people’s readings and the sheer beauty of the music. Your creation of this program and your performances are a gift to us.”
One woman was almost in tears when she told me:
“I’m part Mexican and part Native American. The music and the stories touched me deeply. I’ve never heard cello
music before and I didn’t know these stories. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
Bearing Witness has been recognized with four awards. I am thrilled that the Minnesota State Arts Board awarded me an Artist Initiative Grant in 2018 to create and develop this. After seeing the final version, the McKnight Foundation selected me as a 2020 Artist Fellow. I was given a 2021 Creative Support grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board and a grant from the Metropolitan Consortium of Community Developers to support marketing and wide-reaching presentation of this program.
Discussions of systemic racial division and cultural bias are, and should be, at the forefront of our national consciousness. Bearing Witness offers the opportunity to consider how stories from history about loss and trauma can move us and awaken empathy, while expanding our knowledge and worldview. Highlighting these narratives from underrepresented cultures with unique and meaningful music for solo cello is compelling. The music and real-life stories create a hopeful space for healing and for building stronger relations with our neighbors. This is a heart-opening program that is intended to inspire resilience and hope.
I look forward to sharing this program with many future audiences.
