Today we’d like to introduce you to Kate Chadbourne.
Kate, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Once upon a time. I thought that being a scholar-artist – that is, a person who identifies strongly as a learner AND as a creator – would pull my life in two. People used to ask me, “But what are you REALLY? Are you a scholar, or are you an artist?” You can well imagine the angst and soul-searching evoked by such a question!
It all came to a head on a stormy night twenty-five years ago when I came home from work to find two calls on my answering machine.
The first was from Patrick K. Ford, chair of the Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University; he was offering me admission to join the Ph.D. program that fall. The second was from a well-known local music agent; he was calling to offer his services as my representative and admission into a whole world of music and performance that would allow me to make good on dreams I’d had since beginning to play piano at age 5.
Scholarship or music? Like the lightning forks flashing outside, I felt my life was arcing in two different directions. I chose Harvard and a Ph.D. – but that didn’t stop me from practicing, performing, composing, and sharing music and poetry.
Little by little, I became more comfortable moving back and forth between learning and creating. Studying Old Irish, I felt moved to write a poem. Sitting down to play piano, I remembered what I’d learned about a character from Irish folklore and found myself composing a song about her. The more I learned, the more I made. The more I made, the more I felt hungry to learn.
Instead of a vicious circle, it became a virtuous circle!
Now, many years later, I feel at home in both worlds and see how well they complement one another. I teach courses at Harvard on Irish language and folklore, I perform concerts of songs and traditional Irish stories throughout New England, and through my Bardic Academy, I teach wonderful students who wish to sing, play harp or piano, write poetry, or grow as scholar-artists themselves.
Turns out, the skills that serve us best as scholars – curiosity, patience, and careful attention – serve us very well as artists. And those essential artistic skills of imagination, self-trust, and enlivened communication in turn serve us beautifully as learners and members of the scholarly community.
Now, I see that being a scholar-artist is my greatest asset as an educator, and I’m honored and proud to share this powerful perspective with my students in The Bardic Academy.
Has it been a smooth road?
The biggest challenge I’ve faced in my life, bar none, has been self-doubt.
I’ve wondered if my art was good enough. I’ve wondered if I’m qualified to teach (yes, even with a Ph.D. from Harvard). I’ve doubted my essential value as a person. I’ve doubted whether anyone would pay me a fair wage to work with me. I’ve worried that people will think I’m full of myself for stepping forwards and offering my services.
Self-doubt is a terrible thief of vitality, abundance, and pleasure.
It has, at times. hobbled me from taking chances, speaking up for myself and for my business, and being visible in ways that would have brought me more satisfaction, stability, profit, and impact.
The best antidote I can offer is twofold: practice courage and get busy.
I’ve practiced courage by opening my school and telling people about it, and that in turn has made me happily busy as a teacher. I see how much my teaching helps my students, and that in turn helps me to value myself and my work. My faith in myself is growing, and for that I am truly grateful!
If I could encourage young women – indeed, women of any age – I’d most want to urge you to pay very close attention to the messages you hear both inside and outside your own head because ultimately, these are what will empower you to make good on your dreams or to abandon them.
Let’s take other people first. Are you surrounded by people who believe in you and your dreams and desires? Do they cheer for you when things go well? Do they encourage you when things are tough? If yes, hold onto these people with all you might for they will help you go the distance.
If instead you hear snide, deflating comments, negative talk about your abilities and ideas, and derogatory or shaming comments about any aspect of yourself, run for the hills. Or, at the very least, keep your dreams safe from these people.
The same goes for the person in your head: you! Don’t sap your own energy with self-doubt and criticism. Yes, we are all trying to learn and it’s important to assess what you can do better, but shaming has no part in that process. Be kind to yourself. Take your own side. Encourage yourself, and be your own best friend.
When you do, you discover a fund of energy you never suspected – and you blast off into the life you’ve dreamed of living!
We’d love to hear more about The Bardic Academy.
I am the founder and lead teacher of The Bardic Academy, a school for musicians, writers, and scholars.
Students come to me to learn to play the harp or piano, to sing with more ease and JOY, to write the books they long to write, and to become more skillful and sensitive readers and connectors-of-the-dots.
The school’s name is inspired by the Bards of early Ireland who were not only skilled as poets, but as historians, storytellers, musicians, and keepers of law and lore. In a nutshell, they saw and articulated vital connections between these fields. They used all their faculties – insight, imagination, heart, memory – to fully explore these connections and to keep them fresh and relevant and important.
My aim in the Bardic Academy is to help each student become like those Bards, empowered and excited to think, to imagine, to explore, to create, to learn, and to contribute.
What sets my school apart is this bardic perspective and my own active engagement in artistry (as a creator and performing artist) and in scholarship (as a university teacher and researcher).
I’ve released 4 solo CDs and published 3 collections of poetry, as well as stories and essays in scholarly and popular magazines and journals. I’m regularly invited to perform and speak at libraries, museums, schools, and colleges.
I’m always reading, exploring, learning, and creating.
I’m a skillful and passionate teacher, and I’ve won a Certificate for Distinction in Teaching for every single class I’ve taught at Harvard. (Just to put that in perspective: most people are extremely proud to have won ONE of those. I have won about two dozens of them).
All in all, I bring a lot to the table and I love to share all of it with my students!
So much of the media coverage is focused on the challenges facing women today, but what about the opportunities? Do you feel there are any opportunities that women are particularly well positioned for?
We have entered an age in which women – indeed, anyone – can create opportunities previously unimaginable. If you have the drive, the passion, the vision, energy, and faith, you can create and market almost anything now.
Yes, challenges still remain. We still face a significant wage gap, and mothers face daunting challenges with maternity leave, job stability, and childcare. The “me-too” movement has brought attention to discrimination and sexual assault in the workplace, and yet there is much more to be done to ensure equal opportunity and fairness in the workplace.
In spite of all that, though, I want to encourage all of us to use the tools now available and to step out boldly as we create the world we wish to live in. If you have access to the internet – even at your public library – you can jump in and make your contribution, start your business, share your opinion, and change things for the better. To my eyes, this is an exciting era of opportunity for women. Let’s make the most of it!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.katechadbourne.com
- Phone: 978-340-8229
- Email: kate@katechadbourne.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katechadbourne.bard
Image Credit:
Kate Chadbourne, Deborah Hubbard, Katie O’Neill
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