Special Guest: Melissa Hyman

Melissa Hyman is a musician, songwriter and educator, born to a musical family and raised in the NYC area. She's been living in Asheville since 2007, and began working full-time as a touring musician in 2009. Her primary instruments are cello and voice. 

 Melissa's longtime musical projects include The Moon and You, an expandable-collapsable band with herself and husband Ryan Furstenberg at its core; Cowboy Judy, a country/Motown supergroup with Dulci Ellenberger, Amanda Anne Platt and Amber Sankaran; and The Heartbeat Sessions, a collaboration between local arts-in-healthcare nonprofit Arts For Life and Echo Mountain Recording Studios. 

 Melissa recently joined one of her all-time favorite bands, Tina and Her Pony, on electric bass. She has been teaching music and art lessons to pediatric patients and their families at Mission Hospital for Arts For Life since 2011, and began teaching rock band at French Broad River Academy in late 2020. She has been the Children's Program Coordinator at Warren Wilson College's Swannanoa Gathering since 2012, directing a 3-week day camp for children aged 5 to 18. Melissa also teaches private lessons on ukulele, guitar, cello, songwriting and music theory basics. She lives in West Asheville with her husband and two dogs.

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Transcript

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Johanna Hagarty: 0:29

This is the Johanna Patrice Hagarty Show where I invite the most innovative leaders, artists and creative business owners to share their experiences, processes, practical tips and inspirations today with me is Melissa Hyman, a musician, songwriter and educator, born to a musical family and raised in the New York City area. She has been living in Asheville since 2007, and began working full time as a touring musician in 2009. Her primary instruments are cello and voice. Melissa's longtime musical projects include the Moon and You, an expandable/collapsible band with herself and husband Ryan Furstenberg at its core, cowboy Judy, a country Motown supergroup with dulci Ellenberg Amanda Anne Platt and Amber, Sankaran, and the heartbeat sessions a collaboration between local arts and healthcare nonprofit arts for life and echo mountain recording studio. Alisa recently joined one of her all time favorite bands Tina and Her Pony on electric bass. She has been teaching music and art lessons to pediatric patients and their families at Mission Hospital for arts for life since 2011, began teaching rock bands at French Broad River Academy and late 2020. She has been the Children's Program Coordinator at Warren Wilson's college Swannanoa gathering since 2012. directing a three week camp for children aged five to 18. Melissa also teaches private lessons on ukulele, guitar cello, songwriting and music theory basics. She lives in West Asheville with her husband and two dogs. I brought Melissa on today to talk about all things creative. But first, Melissa, thank you for coming on my show today.

Unknown: 2:17

Thank you so much for having me. And thank you for reading that extremely long bio that sent.

Johanna Hagarty: 2:23

Oh my god, honestly, sometimes I cut it out. But like when I was looking at it, I just felt like every bit of it was so valuable...that valuable for people to hear. So no, that was my choice. I wanted it everyone needed to know how awesome you are.

Unknown: 2:38

Thank you. Yeah, whenever I try to write a new bio, it's like, it's just there's a lot going on.

Johanna Hagarty: 2:45

Bio writing is so strange. As someone I know, you do a lot of the backend of the business. It's such a strange thing. So I thought it was actually beautiful. And there's so much to unpack here. But first, what I always do is I love to just wind the clock back on my creative to show up and say what was young life for Melissa? Like, especially growing up in a musical and creative family?

Unknown: 3:10

This is a great question. My strongest musical and creative memories from childhood come from the get togethers that my mom would have both of my folks I think like having people over, my dad had a string quartet that came over from time to time to rehearse just for fun. And that was always... I feel like that was impactful on me. But even more so we're at my mom's parties where she would have like lots of friends and extended family, extended family come over and just like jam and play all these like, old you know, folk rock songs from the 60s that they grew up with. And there was tons of harmonizing. And way too many guitars

Johanna Hagarty: 3:58

Can you have too many guitars and that

Unknown: 4:01

in my view is my own opinion, cellist and the actually a thing? vocalist is fair, okay. But you know, everybody's, you know, everybody's got their own thing. And honestly, I mean, these were just like such formative and positive experiences for me, and they always involve a component of arts and crafts as well, to keep all the kids busy. So when I wasn't part of the musical circle, I was, you know, with my cousins and my best friend just like making things out of Sculpey and like doing giant tissue paper flowers, and, you know, whatever the the art project of the moment was, and so I feel like just creative activity in general and music in particular, were huge parts of my upbringing in are huge parts of my working in and social life now.

Johanna Hagarty: 4:51

You know, I want to ask, and this might be something that is almost a little hard for you to see, maybe maybe not, but as someone who sort of has immersed themselves also, you know, and was immersed in the creative lifestyle. Do you feel like that that made it easier for you to step into the work that you do now? Or do you feel like that maybe you would have just tenaciously bore through even if that your parents desperately wanted you to be doctors? Like, I'm just curious what that feeling is, like, do you felt really supported by your family in this process?

Unknown: 5:21

You know, I always have and when I was younger, I remember my dad telling me more than once that music is not really a viable career. oh my gosh?! He wasn't being disparaging, he was an IT guy whose passion was violin. And he had gone for his MFA in the 70s. He didn't finish it until I was an adult, but he had, you know, studied violin at the graduate level. But the the takeaway that he had come out with basically, it was like, You're gonna have to get a different kind of job, and you can play music all your life, but don't lean on it for your living. But then when I started, you know, playing and teaching music for a living by that point, my dad had totally switched careers, I've had become a music teacher. And I think he's been really proud to see me kind of follow in his footsteps, and do a lot of the same things that he does for work and for fun. And my mom is just an I mean, she's, she's many things, but one of them, and endlessly supportive parent, you know, she she has her she's always had strong opinions about our lives, but she has always it comes down fundamentally to, she's really proud of us, no matter what that has, both of both of them have been really helpful to me in many ways in in building a life as a professional creative.

Johanna Hagarty: 6:54

And it sounds like a little bit to me that your dad wanted to see the opportunity of arts as a more viable option. But that was maybe a little of the societal conversation that that we have to really break through. And I just really, personally think that you and Ryan, both you guys really are standing on that ground of being creatives and living that life. And that makes it easier for those of us to carve our own paths out to so I also applaud you just like your parents, and I'm highly supportive of YouTube. So much, that means the world. Well, you're just amazing. So let's kind of, you know, take it a little further remind me did you go to school for music as well?

Unknown: 7:34

No, I should have. You know, it's one of the... I laugh about this. Whenever I think about it. One of the dumbest thoughts I ever had, was as a teenager, I had studied to that point. I had taken some piano lessons. I studied a lot of cello and had played the saxophone for a couple of years. And I really honestly thought Johanna, I was like, Well, I know all about music, study music. How crazy is that? No one will ever know all.

Johanna Hagarty: 8:08

Here's the secret though, Melissa, that was the age it would have been the same with anything. If you had been riding ponies for two years, you would have thought you knew everything about

Unknown: 8:17

So dumb. I did start as a studio art major in college

Johanna Hagarty: 8:23

Maybe even in a more free and creative way to and was really interested in pursuing art therapy as a career. But I went to the University of Vermont, I didn't have a lot of options, my high school journey was checkered. And so I always say the one school I got into the University of Vermont, which was a great place for me did not have a large enough art department graduate on time. As an art major, you had to like wait around until you could get into the required classes you need it. So I just ended up taking a you know, sometimes I know people who go through the school bunch of different random stuff that I was interested in and finally landing on Spanish as a major, but I did do some chamber music as like an extracurricular in college and I think that really helped me continue studying cello in a way that helped me grow as a as a player and kept me like, you know, reading music and you know, practicing those skills that if you don't use them, you lose them. route have you know, mixed feelings about that process to that there's good and bad and all the scenarios. So how did you kind of get from college down into Asheville and starting to become a full time musician then?

Unknown: 9:40

Well, my next step after graduation from University of Vermont two weeks later, I was in Switzerland working as an au pair for a year and I was still at that point with my first love my college boyfriend, and he and I, at some point Towards the end of my year abroad, we planned to move to Asheville together with another close friend of ours actually from college. And then I came back, and he broke up with me. And my other friend had met a girl in Vermont and was like, I'm not gonna move to Asheville either. And so I was like, Well, I don't have a car. So would you please just drive me there. And he very kindly did, I will never forget that road trip. So. So I ended up here in 2007, my cousin had just moved here from Memphis with her girlfriend at the time, it's really hard to be gay in Memphis, and much, much more welcoming here. So she had moved here not long before and was like, Yo, love it, just come stay with us and till you get on your feet. So that was that was huge to that I had that family support, and stayed with them for about six months before I moved out into my own place. And at that point, like, I really was not in any way considering becoming a musician. As a job, I was looking at pastry school. And I, and AB Tech has a great program for that, there was like a very clear Crossroads moment in my life where this was like, I think in early 2008, when I was just like, ah... either I'm going to go to pastry school and play music very little for the rest of my life, or I'm going to become a musician and bake from time to time for the rest of my life. What, which one would be more important and more satisfying to me. And I went with music, and I'm really glad that I did.

Johanna Hagarty: 11:36

Wow, I love that not I didn't know that about you. I feel like I've seen your love of baking but didn't realize how deep it went. I'm curious, what is one of the reasons you feel like you're glad that you chose music.

Unknown: 11:48

I think that the the culture and the social aspect of being a musician suits me better than I'm, I can't say for sure. But that what I've observed from afar of like the world in kitchens and the little bit of food service experience that I have, and close friends that have done a lot and have gone to pastry school on a porch, a lot of restaurants, I just think that the social side of being a musician suits me better than the social side of being in the restaurant world. Yeah. And both are pretty tough on the body. But I am pretty sure that baking is harder on on you.

Johanna Hagarty: 12:29

Well, and I'd say there's a little more autonomy, especially after years of working in the music world, you get a little more right of saying yes or no. Yeah, typically rates increase after you've been an established band for a little while. So I can imagine that, a little bit of that creative freedom and the connection part. That's something I really see very strongly about both you and Ryan that pulls together The Moon and You so beautifully that community impact is so important. And I love that you talked about considering going to school for art therapy or something and didn't have that, because you've been working with this program Arts For Life since 2011. And I'm so curious to talk a little bit more about that. And just kind of unpack that, if you don't mind.

Unknown: 13:09

Yes, I love talking about my work with Arts For Life. It is a lot of what we do is similar in some ways to art and music therapy. But we're not licensed art or music therapists. And our role is to be in the children's hospitals across the state. Basically, in both the I mean, things are different precovid... since COVID. But like for everyone and everything, but the you know what we've been doing since what arts for life has been doing since 2001 is providing art tables at outpatient clinics for kids. So a social area where kids can... when they show up for their appointments that can be scary and painful, instead of only anticipating that they can look forward to doing art with a favorite teacher seeing other patients that they've grown to become friends with at the art table and really have this creative outlet. And then we're also in the inpatient children's hospitals. And that looks a little bit different. It's not so much a table. For some of our programming areas. It's more just like, what I do at Mission is walk around the pediatric unit and the PICU, the pediatric ICU with a cart full of instruments, and I knock on doors and just see like who's up for what that day and so it's a real mixed bag and I can offer art and music lessons to kids. So not all of our teachers do both. But I really enjoy having that flexibility and having this incredible resource of just hundreds or 1000s of art projects that arts for life has developed over the years and really high quality materials and so we can offer this respite for kids and families in the hospital. We can give a bored sibling an opportunity to express themselves and do something really fun, we can get everybody laughing together, making noise together, or making art together in a hospital room that a few minutes before was tense and quiet and not super fun. And so I really, really value these opportunities that I have as an arts for life teacher to bring art and music programming into these situations where otherwise it's, it can be kind of bleak and scary and painful.

Johanna Hagarty: 15:31

Yeah, I don't know if we've talked about this, if we did, it probably would be a long time ago in our history, but my college degree is in what they call Child Life Specialist, which is, which is similar to some of that, you know, kind of art and play therapy, it's really bringing this ability to process what's going on from an emotional level. And sometimes even from a real physical level, right, the child life specialists will sometimes like mock the procedure, mock whatever it's gonna

Unknown: 15:57

play. Yeah, give the kids an opportunity to understand better what's happening to their bodies.

Johanna Hagarty: 16:02

I mean, that was a four year college degree, I went to school, I did an internship in New Zealand, I studied all of the Human Development, and why the psychology behind bringing arts and creativity was so valuable, and I just dove right in. But also, that's not necessarily something that's really as well known as I think it should be.

Unknown: 16:21

Yeah, I love that so much. I'm so happy to learn that about you. Because the child life specialists are the folks that we work most closely with in the hospital, and at least in our Asheville chapter. They are incredible allies to us. And they provide us with so much information and support and communication assistance in all sorts of there's so many ways that the Child Life team at Mission makes our impact greater and makes our lives and jobs easier. And I think it says a lot about you that you chose academic path. That's so cool.

Johanna Hagarty: 16:54

That's so cool. Oh, shout out to all the child life specialists. You know, it's super funny as when I first moved to town, I applied for one part time job and Child Life Specialist admission and didn't get it because I didn't have enough experience and then just never looked back. And like, really use the work that I do, did mental health work integrated a lot, obviously now working on the artist side, sort of bringing more the structure and the systems that I was doing sort of in the medical policy side to entrepreneurs. So it's a very weird flip. But I do love that there's this overlay. And you have to talk a little bit about the heartbeat sessions, right? Like, where did this come from? How did this come about? I mean, they have made me just ball buckets.

Unknown: 17:35

It makes me cry every single time. If you like to cry, go to heartbeatsessions.org. The heartbeat sessions actually are at a really pivotal moment right now. But the way it started is that I one of the child life specialists that mission brought to my attention, a guy named Brian Schrenk, who was at the Cincinnati Children's hospice or at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, but he was working with patients with terminal and severe illnesses, which is something that we do a lot at Arts for life. And he had this idea to take a tiny little condenser microphone and put it inside a stethoscope and record patient's heartbeats before they passed, and then use that heartbeat as a rhythm element in a piece of music that he would create, just like by himself on his keyboard with a microphone, you know, just very simple. And I thought it was like a really beautiful project. And I tried to get in touch with him actually. And he didn't want to talk to me, but

Johanna Hagarty: 18:41

Maybe he was busy. We don't know what the.

Unknown: 18:45

Around the time I learned about this, I was at Echo mountain for a session with River Whyless. I think I was just singing back up and clapping my hands, which is really fun. And I was talking to Jessica Thomason and who manages the studio and is an incredible human being just one of the most hardworking and creative and generous people I've ever met. I am such a fan of Jessica Thompson's. And when I told her about this idea, and I wanted to expand on it and bring it into a real studio with lots of musicians and create more high quality music with this, this basic idea of like using a child's heartbeat as as this sort of kick drum. And when I told Jessica about it, she was like let's do it at Echo. I'm down. She ends... So echo mountain had has donated the space and time for every single session, which is huge, because yeah, I mean, that's a huge,

Johanna Hagarty: 19:40

That's not an... a simple expense, shall we

Unknown: 19:43

Right. It's not a small considering in any way. And so say? we did eight heartbeat sessions over the course of a couple years. I want to say it was 2016 to 2018. So it was like the first one was right after the 2016 election, I remember that vividly, because it was extremely helpful and uplifting for all of us involved to get in the studio and do something beautiful. And then at the end of 2018, I was talking, you know, with my supervisor about plans for the coming year, and it was all about the heartbeat sessions, and then all of a sudden, something changed. And I got a call from the executive director at the time to say, the, the heartbeat sessions are canceled indefinitely. And it was a real, I really grieved. Sure, it was because that, like, I mean, not to make it about me. But my own experience of the heartbeat sessions was that it was the most exciting and fulfilling, and, and deeply meaningful work experience of my life. It was the it was a project that was completely unique in all of the, I mean, I've had so many jobs because I always have five or six jobs at once. I, I mean, it was, it meant so much to me and the people involved, the patients we had worked with, some of them had passed, some of the musicians that worked on heartbeat sessions have passed, including Doug, oh, gosh, I'm going to sorry, I shouldn't do this because I'm going to blank on people's names because it's about not blanking on people's name, I get the great Ruby Mayfield was one of our heartbeat sessions that she has since passed away. And so, you know, there's just so much meaning there for me. And so we are bringing them back in 2022.

Johanna Hagarty: 21:43

That is the best news ever.

Unknown: 21:47

I've been waiting a long time for this. And we've been just starting to plan our first session of the year right now. So it's we're at a very exciting turning point. And I'm excited beyond words to bring back this project and get back in the studio with with my friends,

Johanna Hagarty: 22:02

Melissa, that just warms my heart and I've listened to them all I think they're amazing. Again, cried buckets. Let's just give the listeners since we have to wrap the show. How can people find out more about you what you do work with you learn about heartbeat sessions? Where do they go? All the things

Unknown: 22:17

Okay, first of all to learn about the heartbeat sessions, you can go to HeartBeatSessions.org To learn more about arts for life, you can go to ArtsForLifeAnywhere.org. And for is spelled out f-o-r to learn more about the moon in you, you can go to our website, which is useful because it has a contact page is not up to date. But that's TheMoonAndYou.com. Or you can find our music at TheMoonAndYou.bandcamp.com and on all the streaming platforms. I haven't talked about my band cowboy Judy. But um, you mentioned it in the bio that's my country Motown super group with just incredible, super talented women and that is CowboyJudy.com. And I think that... Wait Tina and the pony.com I'm guessing Oh yeah! TinaAndHerPony.com. I just took up the bass, the electric basic a couple months ago and I'm fully obsessed and very excited to be a bassist now.

Johanna Hagarty: 23:27

Thank you for being here and for bringing all of your wealth and all of your creativity to Asheville and beyond. Really,

Unknown: 23:33

Thank you so much. It's really an honor to be part of this awesome series. And just to know you and get to talk to you is such a pleasure.

Johanna Hagarty: 23:41

Thank you. And as always, this is the Deanna Patrice Haggerty show where we share tips and tools of our community's most innovative entrepreneurs, artists and creative business owners. Thank you so much for tuning in and please connect by visiting BizRadioAsheville.com. I'd love to hear your show suggestions. And as always, stay creative