Our Story
Hi and welcome to Insert Music Here!
Our names our Katelyn and Sam and here is a little more about Insert Music Here's story...
The inspiration for Insert Music Here came from our love for music and deep appreciation for the outdoors. We met while completing our college studies, in piano performance and civil engineering, and since then have traveled and supported each other through many adventures, from backpacking the Sierra and the Grand Canyon, enduring the first years of COVID lockdown together, and creating Insert Music Here. Our dream was to find a way to combine our passions for music and nature and to share this love with others in a unique way. After many months of brainstorming and planning, we decided to take a leap and founded Insert Music Here in June 2021.
Artists have always been at the center of communicating new ideas and helping people find connection through different mediums. Art speaks to and helps us confront issues both in our homes and in our world. One of the biggest challenges facing the human race is climate change. As musicians, Sam and I believe in the power of music to emotionally communicate on this issue and that by listening and creating music in natural spaces, we could forge deeper understanding and care for our environment amongst audiences. Our initial plan was to design and convert a van to house and transport a piano and to partner with different locations across California (National Parks, State Parks, nature centers etc.) to present outdoor piano concerts inspired by nature.
We presented our first year of in-person, outdoor events in 2022. This started with concerts at private residences in Pasadena and grew to include a series of performances at the Eaton Canyon Nature Center, a concert in the San Gabriel Mountains at the Mt. High resort, two jam-packed days at the LA Times Festival of Books, more music videos, and outreach events at the USC Village. The programs we presented included a solo piano program, “Bach to Nature”, performed by myself, featuring a combination of music by J.S. Bach interspersed with music directly inspired by nature, and a cello and piano program, titled “Silent Wood, Deep River” with cellist Annie Jacobs-Perkins. “Silent Wood, Deep River” also marked our first time commissioning music by composers to directly speak to climate change.
In 2023, both Sam and I took some time away from Insert Music Here to pursue different projects and new jobs. After this period of rebalancing our lives and work, we felt ready to return to Insert Music Here with fresh perspectives and energy to explore new directions.
At its heart, Insert Music Here was born out of a desire to return to a simpler state of being and combine our passion for music and nature. One of the best, and unexpected discoveries, from the first year of traveling with the piano in the van, was the amazing capability of being able to pull up to any location and play the piano. In particular, I remember one truly stunning afternoon at Goat Rock in Jenner, CA and practicing Bach while looking out at the ocean. As we enter a new chapter with Insert Music Here, we are restructuring our offerings to better suit the current strengths of the business with our own current personal abilities and time commitments. That afternoon at Goat Rock was the inspiration for Insert Music Here’s next chapter; a mobile music studio capable of reaching scenic, remote locations each year and of being completely untethered and off-grid. In turning this new page, our goal is to share Insert Music Here’s highly unique studio space with composers and musicians who have an adventurous spirit and need for a space with only the best distraction: nature.
