Dalton M. Guin

I am, first and foremost, a lover of people, and of our shared human experience. I am best at communicating that through the medium of music, and so that is what I do. Musical practices and traditions have developed alongside humanity for all of our recorded history, both independently and with beautiful and exciting outside influences, convergences, and syntheses that have resulted in the musical landscape we know today. Although we may categorize different styles and practices to different genres and historical periods, the shared joy in the expression of humanity through music is overarchingly universal.

The power of music, for me, does not lie solely in the beautiful theoretical analysis of the ink on the page. It doesn’t lie solely in the recreation of that ink into sound through the application of bow to string, or mouthpiece to lips. It does not lie solely in moments of technically good performances. All of these aspects are moving, and powerful, and necessary. There are, thankfully, individuals who dedicate their lives to realizing and sharing this beauty.

The power of music, for me, lies in the temporality of its shared experience. The moment in time of both shared creation and shared experience is transformative. Growing up in a working class community in the rural United States, my childhood was filled with snatches of melodies sung while working, of my grandfather standing in the kitchen singing hymns, and of Wednesday night choir practices for Sunday morning services. The voices that shaped my love of music are voices that I will never hear again, and I am eternally grateful that I was so enraptured and inspired by them in my youth that I can recall those sounds and feelings today.

My musical goal is to find and facilitate those moments – both for the musicians of the ensemble and members of the audience. The only moments of experience we are guaranteed are now. Time can fade memory and dull the senses; no future is certain. Finding ways to give a shared voice to grief and joy, loss and triumph, love and despair – in the now, and enjoined with a host of others who are expressing those feelings, too…

One of the few certainties I have found in life is the unrivaled joy of the shared act of creation – a pure expression of humanity when we make music together.