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PIVOTAL PERFORMANCE
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Artists have a unique way of shining through the darkness, using their creativity to spread joy and bringing hope for a better tomorrow. But, at a time when their light was needed the most, circumstances separated artists from their audiences, prompting a pivot from performance in the traditional sense.
“I was on my phone the other day, scrolling through my pictures from this year, and suddenly, I realized I had hit January,” said Shana Tucker, cellist, singer-songwriter and Wortham Center Artist-in-Residence for the 2019-2020 season. “I see January, February — and then there’s nothing. I can’t believe I don’t have more pictures of this year. There was just this big shift in everyone’s lives, and life as we knew it was obliterated.”
Tucker’s performance at the Wortham Center, originally scheduled for April 4, 2020 in the Diana Wortham Theatre, would have been the pinnacle of her season-long residency, which began in September 2019 and included a hikeout performance in nature, as well as songwriting and performance workshops for both adults and children. After building relationships with the Asheville community all season, her highly anticipated concert was among those postponed when the country went into lockdown in the spring.
“It just felt like the other shoe had dropped. Once we realized everything was shutting down, it just became a big ball of stress. But,” Tucker said, “we didn’t cancel. We rescheduled. It felt like hope. People were like, ‘No, we’re going to see this through. We know it’s going to get better, and we need to have something to look forward to when it does.’”
In the meantime, with venues unable to host performing artists for live, in-person shows, artists like Tucker found a space in the virtual concert movement.
“I never thought I would do a whole concert on live-stream,” Tucker said. “But by allowing change and evolution to be a welcome space, I found a way to make it something worth doing. And, through that, I realized that it’s OK to sit still for a second and think about what does and does not make me happy — and to say when things don’t resonate with me.”
And at first, she admitted, the virtual live format wasn’t her ideal solution. Because each artist navigates the medium in a different way to match their personal style, the format comes with a built-in learning curve, taking quite a bit of trial and error to get right.
“I just thought, ‘Either you’re going to sit in this purgatory and be paralyzed by what you can’t do or you’re just going to try — and trying allows you to see what you’re actually capable of, what works for you and what you’re good at,” Tucker explained. “And hopefully you can find your space and have the courage to do it again.”
Eventually Tucker found her niche among the new virtual world, recording concert segments in advance to preserve the quality of her performance, while jumping in live between songs to chat with her audience in a more personal way.
But the massive shift of 2020 also made Tucker reinvent herself in another way.
“I took a look at what my world was this year, and realized I don’t want to keep myself waiting to do the thing that I know I’m meant to do,” she said. “So I had to take a look at what other things I’m meant to do. I want to spend time showing up and sharing the gifts of joy — and who needs the most joy right now, you know?”
In October, Tucker accepted the executive director position at KidzNotes in Durham, a nonprofit dedicated to engaging children and teens in educational enrichment through music.
“One of the pillars of philosophy for the organization is to teach children how to access joy through their instruments. And I was like, ‘I can get down with an organization like that!’” Tucker said. “It’s something that brings them joy and brings joy to those at home with them. It gives them confidence, and it’s not something that their parents can help with. They can say, ‘You did that all by yourself.’ And it’s a productive and rewarding way to spend their time. For me, that was the best way that I could continue making an impact in this world.”
Tucker’s concert, rescheduled from spring 2020, is set to take place at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021 in the Diana Wortham Theatre as a virtual concert, and possibly a limited-capacity in-person event, if state health and safety guidelines allow for it at that time.
“I’m really excited that I get the chance to come back to the Wortham Center for one more big show to finish out this part of my life (as a full-time performer),” Tucker said. “It’s really been an honor. Having this Artist in Residence opportunity afforded me the privilege and the blessing to really get to know Asheville — from supporters of the Wortham Center to the larger community, to finding out how residents support creativity and the arts in Asheville.”
