To be honest, the Utah tour has been difficult and maybe the least “successful” chapter far, however you define success. Especially in the last week, turnout has been depressingly low, and sometimes I got the distinct feeling that no one was really listening. Maybe they didn’t know what to make of this not-from-here Asian girl, who’s talking about Black Lives Matter and playing weird music from Brooklyn. You hope the intensity of the music and your good intentions move them beyond that, but sometimes, they just don’t.

But there’s ALWAYS at least one person there who is an anomaly. Someone who’s enthusiastically/visibly eating up every note I’m playing. Someone who writes me a note afterwards about how much their soul needed this. Or someone like Anna in this picture, who is a city janitor but is also a musician & the passionate administrator of the city’s regular music series. I was their first piano concert in their 15 year history, maybe the first classical concert. It was a tough crowd. But Anna loved the music, told me “we need CULTURE here” and even wanted to book me right away for the next concert even though I was clearly not a popular act.

There are so many insurmountable forces. Honestly, having been out there, my gut feeling is that the political climate today is worse now than in 2016. I’m not really sure what shape the future of Gather Hear will take - I’ll have to think about it. But for now, I have tons of positive nuggets from this tour to share on here ❤️