We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Madeline Cawley a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Madeline, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The most meaningful project I have had the privilege to work on is the Harvest Arts Hymn Tour. It took years to figure out exactly how I fit into the classical music world – where was my place, what need could I uniquely fill, how could I organically combine my passion for music with my passion for feeding the souls of people. That may sound dramatic, but that is what art is for! I am first and foremost a follower of Jesus, and my worldview is inextricably linked with my faith. In order for me to feel purposeful in my work, I must feel that I am contributing to the spiritual flourishing of people.

When I graduated from New England Conservatory with my Masters, I started playing small chamber music concerts (for readers who may not be familiar, chamber music is performed by a small ensemble with one person on each part). We played for small audiences composed almost exclusively of people who do not frequent classical concerts. We closed each concert with a hymn that we improvised on simple chords, and that was always the audience’s favorite piece on the concert. I frequently received requests to play a whole concert of hymns (most of the audience members were active churchgoers, and hymns are very meaningful to them). Unfortunately, there are not any hymn arrangements that exist for classical ensemble that are also “high art”, so my response for years was, “If only we could!” Fast forward a few years into playing these concerts, and the size of our ensemble had grown to five people – with that many people it was not so easy to throw together a hymn, so I decided to make an arrangement ahead of time. We were opening that concert with “Winter” from Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons”, so I thought it would be lovely to add some symmetry to the concert and arrange a hymn with “Winter”! I was so pleased by how it turned out, and the audience absolutely raved for it. I spent the next 4 months arranging an entire concert of this concept – hymns fused with classical music. Now, I tour that concert all over the country, and next year we are taking it to Europe!

What is so meaningful about the Hymn Tour is not only do I have the opportunity to share great masterworks from the classical repertoire, but I also get to share the great hymns and the beautiful stories behind them. The whole concert from start to finish guides the hearts of the musicians and the audience through an order of worship in a beautiful, musical way. We bask in beauty and we fix our eyes on Jesus – by the end of every concert, everyone’s faces are shining more than they were before the concert began. At the Harvest Arts Hymn Tour, we “taste and see (and hear) that the Lord is good” – what could be more meaningful than that!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I studied music and the flute specifically for many years in college and graduate school, but I found my specific niche in the vocation through my response to the disaster that was 2020. When all cultural events (and many churches) were closed down and canceled in the lockdowns, I observed how negatively that affected myself and the people that I knew. I knew that if we could go to the grocery store, there had to be a way to have a small private concert. So that is what I started doing! Artists live and operate under the belief that their work is necessary to the flourishing of human beings, and what happened in those concerts made the truth of that belief more evident than ever – people who had been starved of social connection and cultural events thrived at those concerts, and they do to this day!

Those humble beginnings have turned into a global mission by the grace of God and by our tiny and imperfect acts of walking in faith. I have created a quintet concert of all original arrangements of hymns fused with classical music called the Hymn Tour. My company Harvest Arts tours the concert nationwide, and next year we are taking the concert to Europe! I have also begun releasing a children’s book series that goes along with the concert, each book tells the hymn writer’s story behind that hymn. The first book titled “The Voice” was published earlier this year, and it tells the story behind “O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus”.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Part of being a creative is being a constant advocate for the value of your art. I come from a family of non-creatives, so art advocacy has been a natural part of my journey. The reason that advocacy for the arts is so important is because the arts are expensive! In my experience there is a common misconception amongst the more pragmatic and non-creative parts of society about how many hours of hard work a finished creative experience takes, hours of work that are never seen by the people who consume the product. If someone does not pay for those hours, then the art will cease to exist. I do not begrudge the general public for having this misconception, so I hope this answer does not come across as entitled or bitter (remember, I come from a non-musical family). This is why it is so, so important for a creative to have an artistic project that they truly believe in – it is difficult to advocate fiercely for a product you don’t believe in!

Have you ever had to pivot?

I never thought I would arrange music – I never knew I could! I started arranging out of necessity: we needed a hymn arrangement, and none (that were good) existed for our instrumentation. There is that saying “necessity is the mother of invention”, and that was true here. In the end, I wish I had started arranging sooner, because the market had been demanding it for years. I took so long to do it because of fear: I was fearful the product would not be any good, and I was fearful of trying something I had never done before. Now I look back and laugh at that fear because of how much joy and creative fulfillment I find in arranging.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.harvestartsllc.com
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