Interview with Katherine Lewis, Founder of Musician-able
I had the great pleasure of interviewing Katherine Lewis, flutist and founder of https://www.musicianable.com/, regarding her work in advocacy, inclusion and awareness for musicians with disabilities. In this interview, Katherine discusses her personal story, how music educators and the wellness industry can better serve musicians with disabilities, and advice on navigating a professional career in music for musicians with disabilities. To watch the full video or read a transcription of the interview, visit the content below.
To learn more about Katherine’s work, join her community, and read her articles, visit the links below:
Musician-Able: https://musician-able.com/
The Well Musician: https://www.facebook.com/groups/musicianable
The Truth About #SelfCare: https://musician-able.com/2020/04/15/the-truth-about-selfcare/?subscribe=success#526
Disability Activism in the Age of COVID: https://musician-able.com/2020/03/07/example-post-3/
When the Plan Falls Apart: A Musician’s Guide to Navigating the Unexpected: https://musician-able.com/2020/03/07/example-post-2/
1) What got you interested in disability/physical limitation research in flutists?
Katherine Lewis: “About 4 years into my army music career, I started suffering repeated injuries. I had the typical injuries you see in musicians; tendinitis, tension-related injuries, strained muscles, that kind of thing that we always see so much of in music. I was also having really bizarre symptoms and experiences that I didn’t really understand. It was affecting my joints and my connective tissues, and I was always thinking that I was doing something wrong and playing that blame game that musicians are notorious for. I thought “I must be doing something wrong and I must just need to practice more.” I kind of learned the hard way that what was going on was actually something that needed to be addressed. I was eventually diagnosed with two autoimmune diseases and one neuroinflammatory disease which, like I said, affects my joints and connective tissues, so I am incredibly prone to injuries. Through that, I was medically retired from [military] service in 2019 at the end of the year. Basically, my career as I knew it ended because of my physical limitations [disabilities]. I was struggling to play the same way that I did, I was struggling to play as much as I wanted, I was having all of these difficulties in and out of the practice room. For the longest time I thought “I am the only one.” It is a very isolating experience to have an injury, illness or disability that is chronic and isn’t going to go away. The more I started talking to my colleagues and educators and superiors in my career field and friends that I have across the music industry, the more I realized that I was far from the only one. The next thing I realized was that, if I was far from the only one, why did I not know it? I started asking these questions of “where are all of these other musicians that have these physical and mental limitations if I don’t know about them?” I started digging for the answer of why that was and I found that the conversation about chronic or permanent [disability] in music is a conversation that we are just not having. We talk so much about injury prevention and injury treatment and healing and fixing that problem. Everything is focused on getting back to the practice room, which absolutely we want that to be the ultimate goal, but the conversation is very much only one side of that coin and a very small part of the picture. I became interested in starting that conversation and giving musicians with disabilities like I have or different limitations than my own resources and outlets for being able to have the careers that they want and not be limited in their career.”
2) What do you wish to see more of in terms of representation/advocacy for disabled musicians in music education and/or the wellness industry?
KL: “Representation is such a complicated issue for any minority population. The awareness and understanding that musicians or people with disabilities are a minority group is so important. One of the things right now that is such a benefit in starting this conversation is that globally, in this country and as an industry, we are talking so much more about minority groups. Making sure those populations are well represented and have efficacy and equality and equity is at the forefront of a lot of the social conversations we are having, and it’s amazing to see that those groups are finally being able to have their platform. I want that for the musicians and people with disabilities group as well. One of the biggest things is the awareness and understanding that we are a minority population just like the others. We have many of the same kinds of categorical obstacles that you would see in any minority population. Representation is one of them. I would love to see, in music education, much more of the music educators to have autonomy in their classrooms and the support in the music education sector to give accommodation because a lot of students that may have some form of disability are discouraged from music programs. That is not the answer and that is not the route that I want to see taken. It is a balancing act, I feel for the obstacles that music educators have just to be able to get students in the classroom on a regular basis that are able-bodied, but we can’t forget that making sure that all students of all abilities have the opportunity to study music if they want to [is important]. I would like to see a lot more of an effort made and resources given to creating those inclusive spaces for students who want to pursue music. In the wellness industry, I really would love to see an emphasis put on not only prevention and treatment but navigating and coming to terms with the reality that treatments or prevention or cures are not always an option. There are some kinds of conditions or injuries that you can live with for your whole life. Mental health is a big one. A lot of people don’t know that mental health conditions are actually protected by the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), so a lot of students and professionals that have mental health conditions can actually get protections as someone that is classified with disabilities. It’s an awareness thing, I would love to see much more awareness and emphasis put on being able to live a thriving and successful life and career even if you can’t prevent, treat or cure something.”
3) You wear many different hats in your professional career. What advice do you have to musicians pursuing portfolio careers like your own? And could you speak more about your degree in Arts Advocacy?
KL: “Colorado State has one of the only programs that exists that offers a Bachelor’s and a Master’s program in what they call “Arts Leadership and Cultural Management.” When I first looked at the program, I didn’t know what that meant - I just knew that I wanted to do something in addition to playing as a degree program. The more I learned about the program, the more I realized that it was perfect for me and my station in life at the time. I already had my diagnoses, I was already starting to understand how I fit in the world as someone who is now a part of a minority group, particularly one that is very much not talked about or understood in a lot of ways. It became this perfect fit. The program is designed to not only give you the tools to be an administrator in a nonprofit or arts-based organization business, but it also delves really deep into social diversity and how to address social issues as an arts program and how to ensure that you are creating inclusive spaces and inclusive products for not only yourself, your employees, your staff, but also your audience and patrons. It kind of goes full circle into the ins and outs of the business aspect, but also the social equity aspect which is a really nice and a very unique marrying of the two kinds of programs. Think of sociology and arts administration combined. That program is what launched me into truly knowing in my heart that this was something I needed to do on a professional level with advocacy for musicians with disabilities, especially since I was experiencing the reality that it is not really a conversation that we’re having. It became my mission through learning how to create a program or organization that addressed those things to do that. So that’s what I did, I created Musician-able [https://musician-able.com/], which is an organization and community for musicians of all ability levels to learn about the different kinds of physical and mental limitations that they can potentially have throughout a career. I coach musicians who have had those experiences to reinvent themselves and their career because it definitely throws things into a different whirlwind when you have these kinds of diagnoses. A lot of musicians, myself included, really don’t know where to turn or what to do next. I work a lot with musicians with physical and mental limitations, and I also do a lot of advocacy work with organizations and individuals that are able-bodied to understand the disability community and to better enable us and support us and be better and more prepared colleagues and educators for musicians that might have these kinds of limitations. A lot of the industry doesn’t know how to accommodate, support and empower these musicians. A lot of time they are left confused or kind of not dealing with it at all and that is not the right answer. I want to give musicians the right answer(s) so that they can go forward both as individuals and organizations on the right foot.
That is a lot of the work I’m doing right now - I am putting a lot of energy into the advocacy work. I do have a private studio at the same time and I do still do some performing, mostly sub work. Because of my physical health I don’t perform full-time anymore, but I do continue to have that outlet through subbing and it fulfills me as a performer. I love to do that and I learned to be okay with that level of performing, that I don’t have to be full time in an orchestra somewhere to be called a “real musician” and that was a big learning curve for me. That is some of the work I do with Musician-able as well, walking musicians through understanding that.
In terms of juggling different tasks, the biggest thing I always tell musicians wanting to pursue a portfolio career is: “really sit with the things that speak to you.” I have a process, and we focus on 8 areas of life. It is kind of the well-being principles, the “magic 8”. If you are unbalanced in any area of your life, you will not be able to have career goals and reach them in a way you want to because you don’t have the balance and level playing field in your life. I always tell musicians, “think about what speaks to your soul first. What would you do if you could do nothing else except that one thing for the rest of your life?” It is much less specific than “I want to play my instrument.” I always ask people “what do you want to do with your instrument? Do you want to help people? Do you want to entertain? What kind of larger, more broad thing do you actually want to do?” We kind of focus a little bit more on the abstract and the larger scale concepts of what you want to do with the tasks that you are given. Playing your instrument is what I call a task. That is not something that speaks to you the same way as what you want to do with that task, which is to help or to entertain, etc. I always want people to answer that question first. That is the foundation. Then go from there. So, then I want you to answer the question “how are you going to do that? What are three things that you could do as a musician to do that one thing every day?” We kind of just chip away at it from there. You can have many different hats. That’s what the portfolio career gives people. So if there are three or four different things that you want to do every day, you can have that, but you have to have a way to cohesively marry them together. Think about how you can connect those things with your tasks to make them happen. And then go from there and build your career around those.”
4) What advice do you have for disabled musicians in terms of navigating professional careers in music? Are there specific resources you recommend?
KL: “One of the biggest things for me at least when I was trying to navigate a performance career as a musician with disabilities is this fear that we have, even if you don’t identify as a musician with disabilities or have a short-term injury or illness that’s affecting your playing, we are so terrified as musicians to talk about it, even though the majority of musicians in the professional sector report having some type of performance-related physical limitation at some point in their career. No one talks about it! If we’re hurt, we don’t say anything, we just power through. We have to stop doing that as an entire industry, able-bodied and disabled. We have got to be willing to speak up. If you have some sort of accommodation that you need, I encourage musicians to say something. So many of us, especially with freelancers, are afraid that they won’t be hired if they say something. That is one of the downfalls of federal protections is that the ADA does not really give protections very well to freelancers. A lot of freelancers feel like they are kind of on their own, and that is one of the things that we’re trying to change. Having organizations be prepared to receive those conversations as well as musicians being prepared to have them. I would advise that musicians who start those conversations come to the table with “overcoming objections”. We all are busy, especially right now in the music industry. Everyone is completely overwhelmed. When we go back, eventually, to in person concerts, there is going to be a lot of overwhelm there too. It is not going to go away or get any easier, I foresee that is going to continue because it is the nature of our industry. If you as a musician can come to the table and say “these are the accommodations that I need” or “these are the things that I need to change or have happen and these are the steps that I can take or that me and the section leader can take to make this happen,” I encourage people to do so. Already have a plan in place, talk to your section leader and colleagues and figure out a plan and have these conversations. By the time that you go to your concert master or your arts director, you can say “yes, I do need accommodations and yes, it is complicated, however, I have already created a solution for you.” It is worth noting that things should not be this way, but we have to take baby steps in order to change the culture of the industry, and right now that is the way to do it. I’ve had several colleagues and several instances myself prove that this route is actually successful. Art directors and administrators and arts leaders are much more able and willing to provide the things that disabled musicians need if you have already figured out that you can do that for them. Especially since it is already a conversation that in its baby stages, a lot of musicians don’t know how to create inclusive spaces. At this point, it is kind of on us as musicians with disabilities to help them to understand how they can do that best. The first step of that is by speaking up.”
Katherine Lewis is an active performer and clinician throughout the United States. Katherine is a retired flutist in the United States Army, where she served as piccolo and associate principal flutist and the resident flutist for the Wind Quintet. She is former principal flutist for the Heartland Opera Company and has served as a substitute flutist for the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra, Anchorage Opera, Arizona Wind Symphony, among others. Katherine has presented arts advocacy lectures and masterclasses at conferences, universities and public schools across the US in Missouri, Kansas, Arizona, Virginia, California, and Alaska, sharing her experiences to promote equity and inclusion in music.
After disability ended her military career, Katherine founded Musician-able, an organization dedicated to supporting, educating, and empowering musicians of all abilities to transform inspiring careers and foster inclusion in the music industry.
Her work with the Creative Forces music & arts therapy program for active duty military and veterans has established national partnerships with military music organizations and therapists to provide integrated and veteran-led 1-on-1 components to PTSD and TBI healing for our nation's veterans.
Katherine is the Membership Director for the Arizona Flute Society and is an active writer for the Flute Examiner, an online flute newsletter dedicated to the education and enrichment of flutists at all levels.
Locally, Katherine enjoys an active private flute studio and is the Veterans Program Coordinator for Artists First, an art studio serving persons with disabilities and other vulnerable populations in St. Louis. She is a member of NFA, Arizona Flute Society, the Flute Society of Washington, MTNA, and SAI music service fraternity.
Katherine holds a B.A. in Flute Performance from Arkansas Tech University and an M.A.L.C.M. in Arts Leadership & Cultural Management from Colorado State University.