We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Teagan Faran a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Teagan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
I recently released my second studio album, Middle Child, on Navona Records. It was the culmination of many years of work and learning, as well as a major celebration of so many people important to my own sense of identity. I have always loved studio recording and released my first solo project, Little Things, while I was living in Argentina in 2019. I had planned a US release tour in Spring of 2020 which of course was cancelled, so this new project that shares six more years of growth feels like a triumph on many levels.
“Middle Child” reflects on the feeling of split identities and homesickness. As I have navigated my own sense of self in the contexts of mediums like race, gender, and genre, I have been bolstered by those in my life carving out new welcoming spaces. This album is a thank you to them and an invitation for more to join us.
The throughline of the album is a favorite intermezzo of mine, the Op. 118 No. 2 by Brahms, originally for solo piano. I arranged and recorded this for violin choir, then passed the stems to several friends who remixed the piece in their own style. These remixes act as connection points between the rest of the album, pieces which have been good companions for me as I explore my own questions of identity. The sensation of finding myself caught between spaces like race, gender, and even genre drove this project.
This was definitely not a solo effort, either! The entire creative team includes producer Matt Albert, recording engineers Ritchie Faran and Jason O’Connell, flutist Leo Sussman, and composers Julián Graciano, Jens Ibsen, Nathalie Joachim, Leilehua Lanzilotti, Grace Ann Lee, Xenia St. Charles Iris Llyllyth, Carlos Simon, Abby Swidler, Misha Vayman, and Davis West. I also got immense support from DePauw University, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Ithaca College, and The Doc’s Inn in Greencastle, Indiana. I celebrated with a release show in NYC in collaboration with the band “tonguetide” and look forward to more live performances of this work in the months to come!
Teagan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I grew up as a Suzuki student and ice hockey player in Buffalo, New York. Buffalo is an amazing arts city for the curious, and I soon found myself playing jazz and tango alongside my Vivaldi concertos. After going to school in Ann Arbor, I moved to Argentina on a Fulbright research grant to further study music and social identity – a period of my life which influences almost everything I do now.
I currently teach violin at Ithaca College and am a Co-Artistic Director of Palaver Strings, a GRAMMY-nominated string ensemble based in Portland, Maine. When I’m not playing violin (or tinkering with a violin-shaped-object), I’m usually making a mess in my kitchen with experimentations in fermentation.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I have been motivated for much of my educational life to be self-sustainable in all I do. As much as that quest has driven me, one of the biggest lessons I am still learning is when and how to ask for help. There is so much power in collaborative creative work and meaning can expand exponentially when even one other perspective is added to the narrative voice. I am grateful for all the literal classes I was able to take that have guided my theoretical practice around curation, such as lighting design and composition, but I am even more grateful for the practical experience I have had with thoughtful and patience artists who help me recognize my limitations as opportunities to ask for help. There is a vulnerability and trust that enters the space when any of us can acknowledge that the task at hand is beyond what we can do on our own, and that is what creates some of the most impactful art.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I try to keep curiosity at the center of all I do. I learned this from my dear duo partner, Nicole Brancato, who sparks wonder wherever she goes. Being inspired by her constantly open heart, ears, eyes, and mind, I have been motivated to find the thoughtful question in the environment at hand.
In my teaching, I encourage my students to be curiosity-driven – to consider practicing a fact-finding mission of creative solutions. As a practicing artist, curiosity pushes me often to ask “what is missing?” Sometimes it’s vibrato, sometimes it’s a specific perspective left out of the conversation. I’m also reminded of a influential conversation I had with Johnathan Kuuskoski at the University of Michigan EXCEL Lab years ago, where he introduced to me the concept of the “5 Why’s.” He brought it up as a means of better developing the mission statement of the ensemble I ran at the time, and it’s continued to be a helpful thought practice to routinely re-establish my own creative foundation.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://teaganfaran.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teagbby/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/teaganfaran369
- Twitter: https://x.com/teagbby
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8wTwOtOvsCvaRLsQ6dVSwA
- Other: https://www.navonarecords.com/catalog/nv6704/
Image Credits
Amanda Hoffman Art