Sources of Inspiration

The two gowns designed for my Carnegie Hall and Suntory Hall solo recital debuts. 
Photographs by Stephen Sullivan at the Columbus Citizens Foundation, New York

It seems hard to imagine, but this is actually the 200th post I have written on this blog since I began it a little more than a year ago. In that time there have been many, many people who have helped with my progress as a musician, and to whom I owe a debt of gratitude.

While I have enjoyed the direct influence of many of those people, such as my teacher, Cosmo Buono, and my media manager, Eric Hemedes Bass, there are others whose influence has been no less powerful.

I would therefore like to dedicate today’s post to my designer Katsuya Ooe and his team: his pattern maker Ms. Mizuyo Uno, and the silk weaver and dyeing specialist, Mr. Masaru Naruse.

There is a real art to organizing and presenting a concert, as I was able to see though the work of people like Mr. Cosmo and Eric Hemedes Bass, and there is an enormous amount of collaborating that happens long before a performer like myself ever gets to the stage. Different teams of different people come together to define, create, and carry out every element of a concert presentation.

In the case of Mr. Ooe, I want to thank him for the kind of collaboration that proved amazing for me. There were of course fittings, discussions of colors, and what I needed from gowns in order to be able play comfortably.

What I was not expecting however was my discovery that creating a gown has a lot of the same elements of creating a piece of music. One does not have to just cut the fabric, one has to understand its personality and what it is capable of doing: how it moves, how it drapes on the body, and how it shines in the light and reflects it. Every stitch is like a note in a composition where it is not just important on its own, but has the capacity to affect the entire creation.

It was for me a rare and special privilege to have the opportunity to have gowns designed that were not only made for me, but to also work with Mr. Naruse so that the silks were also personally woven and dyed in order to reflect not just my personal wishes, but my spirit as a musician as well. Musical notes were put into the design, and the colors were chosen as a tribute to the composers I was performing, as well as their compositions.  Through a careful examination and understanding of my work as a musician and my own artistic temperament, Ms. Uno made sure that even the smallest detail of the patterns would show both myself and the fabrics to the highest and best possible advantage.

Combining the work of the composers, my study of the music and its presentation, the marketing of the concert with publicity and social media, as well as being able to express myself visually through the magic of Mr. Ooe’s magical gowns, made my Carnegie Hall debut for me go beyond a musical event. It became an endless source of happiness and inspiration that I honestly feel will continue to motivate me throughout my career. The concert revealed to me the power of collaboration on so many levels, from the music, to its performance, and the coming together of so many elements, seen and unseen, that continue to make me both happy and exceptionally grateful.

I will be sharing more details about the creation of these wonderful gowns in my forthcoming book, Practice, Practice, Practice, Volume 2, where I discuss details about the process by which these gowns were created, and my entire experience at Carnegie Hall. Please check back soon for more information.

I extend a heartfelt thanks to everyone involved in the creation of what has become one of the happiest moments in my life.  All of you, from my parents, to my teacher, my media experts, and everyone in the audience has given me a kind of joy I’m certain will last a lifetime.

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