Meet Karen Hall | Cellist, Educator and Occasional Clown

We had the good fortune of connecting with Karen Hall and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Karen, why did you pursue a creative career?
I ask myself this question on the regular! It’s printed in my fifth grade yearbook that I wanted to be a musician when I grew up. I think I’ve achieved that goal but the lines of “creative career” blur a lot. The dictionary defines a career as “an occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person’s life and with opportunities for progress”. I’ve been playing and teaching cello for my income for over 20 years now, which is a significant period of my life, but I often wrestle with the feelings of being a “has-been” over my prior successes and wondering where the new challenges and opportunities for progress lie or how to get to them. A 2016 study out of the UK published that, “music making is therapeutic, but making a career out of music is destructive.” To be honest, there are many days when I deeply understand and relate to that. The only way I maintain my pursuit of this career has been through my faith. I’ve always resonated with and believed in God as creator and like that I can reflect my spirituality and faith by emulating him in being creative too. It doesn’t make the career path easier, but it does give me a sense of purpose and perseverance through trials.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
It’s not a secret that the pandemic was a tough time for musicians. Half of my work disappeared overnight and I’m grateful the teaching half remained. I really enjoy teaching and have always valued having a career balance between it and playing. I think there’s a stigma that a teacher is someone who couldn’t make it as a great player or that a great player will automatically be a great teacher. They’re very different skill sets and I spend a lot of time thinking about communication needs in both. “What do I want my audience to experience?” or, “What can my students benefit through this?” are the driving questions behind my work.

Becoming a classical musician is such a perfection-driven path. It really sabotaged me because, shocker, I can’t be perfect. The mentality still slips in though. I’m grateful for all the time I spend in comedy and clown and presenting failure as opportunity. It helps me communicate that to my students and also give myself grace when I experience it professionally. I was so fortunate when I was 24 to find myself with the dream job of being the on-camera cellist for the TV show Glee. A union job straight out of school is a rare gift. It’s been a difficult process though the last few years of not holding that up as a success I may never experience again. It made other gigs feel less fulfilling because they didn’t have the status and it left me with a huge weight of feeling like a has-been who’s currently failing.

Reframing and communicating those feelings of failure honestly to myself, my students and other musicians is, I think, one of the most important things I can do because it is the never-ending battle of life, not just of a freelance career. And of course, so much of it is in the mind. I have had many amazing opportunities and know I’ll continue to have them. In September I’ll be opening the 2021-2022 season at A Noise Within Theatre in Pasadena performing as the Cellist/Muse in a production of, “An Iliad” by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare. Not only do I get to perform in it, but I live-scored and composed the music which is something I’d been doing for free and fun with clowns for six years. It’s also an equally rare gift that your joy becomes your paycheck. You have to jump on and love those opportunities when you get them without looking backwards.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’m always in nature so I’d take them to Griffith or on a hike in the Santa Monica Mountains. Or a walking tour of DTLA. Hauser & Wirth, the Broad, the MOCA, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Grand Central and Angels Flight, the list goes on… Plus all the tasty cocktail bars.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Can I thank the mountains? Maybe the Angeles National Forest? I have a hard time maintaining any level of sanity without the ability to access the outdoors and am on a trail at least three times a week. I’ve also been fortunate to have many different communities in LA invest in helping me grow. I’ve found a wonderful silliness and ability to play from my time in improv, comedy and clown and stages like Second City or the Clubhouse became safe spaces to take risks. And of course, I wouldn’t have lasted as a cellist in Los Angeles without my first teacher in LA, Stan Sharp, who passed away a few years ago. He told me honestly what a beast this city is and told me equally honestly that I could make it regardless of my gender or age or anything else if I put in the work and looked for the opportunities.

Website: www.inforthelonghall.com, www.musicianhealthresource.com

Instagram: @inforthelonghall, @musicianhealthresource