Overview AB-5, a recently passed California law codifying what constitutes an employee, represents a juxtaposition of interests between the tech industry, tax-payers, workers, and employers. Its passage and precedence in contractor law has troubling ramifications for the music industry at a state and national level (Pearson, 2020). The Stakeholders AB-5 penalizes employers who…

2017–2018: Wants, Needs & Stress Fractures What was to be a three part series has grown into something else entirely A summary for your reading pleasure the WTF light version of my life Wanting and needing are two different things Trust the process Freya, ya gotta slow it down! 2017 Coming off the success of ‘Finding San Jose’ and ‘End of Time’ two…

More Than Just a Cellist — Part 2 of 3: 2014 to 2016 2014–2016 A summary for your reading pleasure the WTF light version of my life When starting your music career, remember: Making music with friends is sacred. The visions you keep inside can be implemented. Failure is bound to succeed. 2014 This was a breakthrough year…

How Cellista crowdfunded her debut album ‘Finding San Jose.’ This is an academic paper written for Berklee College of Music’s Graduate Business Program in 2018. Crowdfunding offers a viable source of funding for musicians. It is playing an increasingly important role in the digital era. Beginning in the 1990s, its…

France to the SF Bay Area-Part 1 of 3: 2010–2013 — 2010–2013 A summary for your reading pleasure the light version of my life When starting your music career, remember: successful gigging comes from drinking beer with the right people The similarities between long distance running and performing classical music are plentiful, except only one leaves you with a sense of pride and confidence and a want to…

Trigger warning. This essay, published in ‘A Listener’s Guide to Cellista’s Transfigurations’ depicts details about a suicide that may be disturbing to readers. The spring and summer of 2013, before I enrolled at San Francisco State University for graduate school was dedicated to finding my bearings on the cello. It…

do you want to fill? This is part of a slightly fictionalized essay about the time I participated in Billboard’s 2012 Battle of the Bands competition. Setting the stage: BandX, from SF is picked to compete in Billboard’s Battle of the Bands in Las Vegas. The competition is sponsored by…

This was originally written in published in 2015 in JUXine, an idealistic artistic endeavor that I eventually abandoned. Nicolas and I had just immigrated, and had ended up in downtown San Jose from a sleepy southern French town in November of 2011. …