Welcome to Wildwood Home for the Arts
Hello, Santa Barbara! Alyssa here, your Founder and Artistic Director. I can’t tell you how happy I am to be home after 12 years in NYC and bringing this project to life.
In the past two months I’ve been hard at work finding our beautiful location at the Music Academy of the West, decorating, and preparing to share Wildwood with you. In fact, in the past week I’ve turned in final edits to my publisher for my second book of poetry — due out soon! — and here I am officially launching Wildwood, an idea that’s been evolving in me since I was a child.
I plan to pop up here about once a month with insights into arts education, elaborations on Instagram posts, info on new offerings, interesting articles on music and poetry, news about Wildwood students, and more. So, here we go!
This picture is of one of the first Purcell pieces I ever sang: “I attempt from Love’s sickness”. Here are the lyrics in their entirety:
"I attempt from Love's sickness to fly in vain,
Since I am myself my own fever and pain.No more now, fond heart, with pride no more swell,
Thou canst not raise forces enough to rebel.I attempt…
For Love has more power and less mercy than fate,
To make us seek ruin and love those that hate.I attempt…”
Love is a sickness I'm ashamedly powerless against; it's so strong that I'll do foolish, even damaging things. What’s missing is the attendant music in A Major, which actually colors the poem with amusement rather than despair.
As with poetry, song is a thing that exists between page, artist, and listener. Though we know the intended scenarios and given meanings, poems and songs often strike us differently from one age to another, bringing up things immediately relevant to us as we ourselves change. Like a magnifying glass or filter over a single word or phrase that blurs out the rest.
As the writer, Anaïs Nin says, “We don’t see things as they are; we see them as we are.” Our responses to things are colored by who we are, as well as how we connect them to our own lives. Though they are not the same, it's interesting to be aware of both the poem itself and of the often tangential things it brings to mind or triggers in us.
Many people have been asking me recently why I chose to leave New York and come to SB, and while the answers to those questions would take a while to tell, this Purcell piece at least does something to describe a similar struggle: one between the desire to stay and the desire to go.
I love New York. It has been my home the way someone you love becomes your home, but love is not always enough, and love makes you do crazy things. That kind of staying, that is a true fever and pain. My love for New York has been terribly powerful and, yes, rarely shown mercy, especially when I realized the evolution of my life was leading me here, to the community that I love and the opportunities that I want and need. New York does not like to give up her prizes, you see, and she doesn’t like to share. But I did rebel and here I am. Plus, ya know, my dog said he was sick of the snow ; ).
Purcell is but one of the magnificent composers I’m excited to share with my voice and poetry students. Have a look around our digital space, and I hope you come in for a lesson soon!
Here’s to following your bliss!
— Alyssa Morhardt-Goldstein
(P.S. Do you see that tab up there that says “What do you love?” Click it…)