We recently connected with Caitlin Hickey and have shared our conversation below.

Caitlin, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Founding Brass Beyond Binaries NFP – nonprofit that uplifts female and gender nonconforming voices in brass playing.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Currently: Chicago-based trombonist and college prof. Founder of Taller Trombones Panama, Butter Chicken southeast Asian brass band, Brass Beyond Binaries NFP.

One of very few women in jazz, also as a trombonist, also expressing queer identity – had to leen to take up space and not assimilate.

First job out of music school = Mexican orchestra (adapt/language learning is important!)

Second job – Foothills Brass Quintet (getting along is frequently more important than being “right”).

Third job – state university professor (absence of community/loneliness of academia).

Laid off! Had to pivot, learn identity in a much larger freelancer pool.

Prioritized teaching work while gaining freelancing connections, through brass band trying to build new work in an untapped space.

Brass Beyond Binaries NFP is an effort to build an affinity network for folks who have reached out seeking mentorship. Three main branches are the summer professional development workshop hosted in Chicago, the gender friendly jazz jam sessions, and the Winter Warmup masterclass aimed at younger students.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Had to unlearn the need to be “right” and focus on band relationships

abandoned in front of the Dinosaur Statue in Drumheller, Alberta while on tour with Foothills Brass because I wouldn’t budge on a tempo/groove dispute.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Was teaching college in rural southern Illinois while also on tour with brass quintet. Was making plenty of money, but on the road constantly and social life suffered. Woke up July 7, 2012 to a layoff notice (after resigning contract) and the news they the brass quintet had almost no work for the following year. Had to stay in Illinois to collect unemployment money, so I packed up life’s possessions in my Honda Civic and moved to Chicagoz

Contact Info:

• Website: www.catiehickey.com
• Instagram: @catiehickey

Image Credits
Formal headshot – Todd Rosenberg