Today we’d like to introduce you to Nadine Terk.
Hi Nadine; I’m so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, how can you bring our readers up to speed on your story? How did you get to where you are today?
I started playing violin as an adult. My first violin teacher was the high school music teacher in Tokuyama, Japan, where I lived and worked for a few years after graduating. He spoke no English, and I didn’t speak Japanese. I squeaked away, and he found ways to encourage me. Music is an international language! When I moved to Jacksonville in 1997, I continued studying violin in my free time but frequently took long breaks because there were no opportunities to play with large ensembles. In 2016, with the help of 2 neighbors, the Civic Orchestra of Jacksonville was founded. We are an all-volunteer and not-for-profit community orchestra. Now in our 8th season, we have about 70 musician members. We perform free concerts throughout northeast Florida and have performed for about 15,000 people. I now find time to practice every day!
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned? Looking back, has it been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Running an all-volunteer orchestra takes work. There are a lot of moving parts. Covid was the most challenging time for the orchestra because we could not perform live concerts and had to move the organization online. You cannot hear 2 musicians simultaneously on Zoom, so we had to be creative and use the two-year break to make educational videos and live-stream conversations about classical music with our conductor, Marguerite Richardson. I’m so happy to be back to performing live concerts. The time when we couldn’t perform made me appreciate the power of live music and how important it is to come together for a shared music experience.
Thanks for sharing that. Please tell us more about your work.
I’m a painter and sculptor working on my first poetry collection. I bring this creativity to the Civic Orchestra. From our first season, we’ve had an artist-in-residence each year to create a body of work inspired by our performing music. I’ve done several collaborative art projects and know how powerful collaboration can be. In addition to our artist-in-residence, we routinely collaborate with composers, dancers, and visual and vocal artists to create extraordinary music experiences at our concerts.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I have a level one certificate from the Urasenke School of Tea. When I lived in Japan from 1992-94, I studied the tea ceremony with a tea master who specialized in teaching tea to foreigners. Making tea sounds simple, but after 2 years, I only scratched the surface of chanoyu (the way of tea). It is a stunning ceremony that is both functional and performative. We have nothing like it in our culture. One might spend a few days or months preparing for a guest. Special tea utensils are selected to make matcha tea, flowers are arranged, and an area is carefully cleaned for the guest – that might include cleaning rocks and stepping stones for the guest to walk on! I have a makeshift tea room at my house that my brother helped me create. The walls are clay, and we made a tokonoma with wood from Minnesota, where I was born. The tokonoma is a recessed space where flowers and a scroll are displayed in every tea room. I love this dark, moody space and often sit in my tea room with a cup of tea and use the quiet time to write. I plan to continue practicing the traditional ceremony.
Pricing:
- Our concerts are always free
Contact Info:
- Website: civicorchestrajax.org
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/civicorchestrajacksonville
- Facebook: facebook.com/civicorchestraofjacksonville
