“Piano Inspires” Webinar: William Chapman Nyaho Interview

Written By Piano Inspires

The Frances Clark Center was thrilled to welcome William Chapman Nyaho to our “Piano Inspires” Webinar series. Please enjoy his engaging conversation with Dr. Jennifer Snow, CEO of the Frances Clark Center, and we encourage you to join us for all of our upcoming webinars. https://pianoinspires.com/webinars/

In this installment of our Piano Inspires… series, Dr. Jennifer Snow hosted a conversation with William Chapman Nyaho about his vibrant career and mission as a musician. Due to the overwhelming and enthusiastic response to this webinar, we have decided to make it available here on our open access Discovery page, along with its transcript. We extend our deepest gratitude to Nyaho for sharing his thoughts and inspiring us all through his life story.

If you would like to explore other webinars in our 100+ archive, subscribe now for only $7.99/mo or $36/yr.

SNOW 

Hello, everyone. I’m going to invite Nyaho to join me with his camera. There he is. Hi, Nyaho. Good morning.

NYAHO 

Hi!

SNOW 

Thank you so much for joining us and for doing this today. It’s just fantastic.

NYAHO 

My pleasure.

SNOW 

Thank you everybody for coming. I’m reading in the chat, you too Nyaho. Everybody’s in snowy, snowy cold except for Gale who’s in warm Florida. You’ll all be interested to know because of the geographic communications here in the chat, that I’m actually as far away from Nyaho geographically on the same continent. I’m in Newfoundland, Canada. Hello to all my Canadian friends that are on this wonderful session this morning. Nyaho’s all the way over in Seattle.

NYAHO 

Right.

SNOW 

The joys of technology. I want to thank all of you for spending this amazing time with us this morning with the incomparable Dr. William Nyaho Chapman. We are so glad to have you with us here today, Nyaho. I’ll just encourage everyone, if you have a tech problem, just put it in the chat and the wonderful Michaela Boros—thank you so much to Michaela, for teching for us today—and if you have a question or Nyaho brings something up and you think, “oh, gosh, I’d like to know a little bit more about that,” please, we welcome you to put that in the chat. This is a really amazing opportunity for us to sort of delve into Nyaho not only as the giant in our field and a big change agent, but also Nyaho, you know, where Nyaho comes from and his roots and music and what inspires him and his leadership. I’m first going to—Nyaho said “do not read my bio, please.” You can find out everything you want to know about Nyaho at his website, but I do want to say that I am very honored to be in Nyaho’s sphere, and he’s been a really big influence in my life and a great inspiration. It’s just—Nyaho—such a joy and honor to have you with us today.

NYAHO 

Thank you for your kind words.

SNOW 

I know that’s amplified by everybody here today. Those of you that may not know that Dr. William Chapman Nyaho, earned his degrees from Oxford University—yes, that’s Oxford—and the Eastman School of Music and the University of Texas at Austin. Many of you have heard him perform. He’s part of the Nyaho/Garcia duo, I know he’ll probably touch on that today. And of course, his wonderful work advocating for music by composers of African descent. He is such a bright light in our field. We are very lucky at the Frances Clark Center. Nyaho will be appearing at NCKP this summer. We encourage you all to join us there and gather with us together to celebrate the transformative power of music. He’s a board member for us and he’s also the Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for MTNA, so a lot of big leadership roles in our field. All that starting out with all those amazing things, Nyaho.

I would love for us to go way back to the beginning. And think about what were the very first memories you have, what are the very first memories you have of music and music in your life?

NYAHO 

Well, my earliest recollections are in Ghana, maybe four years old or so. I grew up in a family of six kids and my parents were educators and my father was in the civil service, so he was the Secretary to Ghana’s First Cabinet, and he was an ambassador. I was actually born in the US because he was ambassador then. But then we moved back to Ghana when I was just a few months old. My earliest recollections are of my eldest sister, who is a really wonderful pianist, playing all kinds of wonderful music—Bach and Beethoven and stuff, and then and then I also remember us having a record player and hearing things like, the Isley Brothers or Elvis Presley. So, there was just a lot of music at home. 

Also my parents love traditional music. My father comes from the eastern parts of Ghana, and he’s Ewe and it is a totally different language and culture from my mother who comes from the central parts of Ghana, who is Fante, and so there are very different languages in Ghana itself. We lived in Accra or Achimota at that time, and they speak Ga, which is also another completely different language. I grew up with a lot of stuff going on, different cultures, different dances, different music, highlife, you know, all of that going on, in Ghana when I was just a few years old. 

I think I just really loved music and just wanted to imitate my sisters. One other sister, my sister Nibishi played the violin, my brother played the guitar, my other sisters, Manu and Cham, we all, you know, they played the piano or sang. So there’s always something going on. So that’s what I grew up with.

SNOW 

That is incredibly rich, and, I mean, like a global world, just in your home life as a little child.

NYAHO 

Yeah.

SNOW 

It must have been quite the—everyone’s fighting to practice and play the instruments and, you know, growing up with siblings that surround you with music, and especially older siblings. Are you the one that pursued music? Did other ones pursue music as well?

NYAHO 

Yes. So I’m the youngest of six, and my oldest sister pursued music. So she was already just playing quite a storm. She was studying also at the Conservatory in Geneva. So I really looked up to her, she was just really quite wonderful.

SNOW 

I think that’s just so magical. I see that you have a sister here with us today, which is just fabulous. I think we need to interview your sisters next. I have a younger brother and I’m the oldest sister. So those are relationships that are pretty powerful in shaping our lives, aren’t they?

NYAHO 

Absolutely. 

SNOW 

Who were your teachers? You came sort of up in this incredible home, this international, global perspective from your earliest days, and traveled as a family. What an incredible home and your mom must have been balancing so many things with your dad, being in the foreign service, and then a big family of children and this commitment to a really global education, which is something that you’ve had your entire life. I mean, how were those early teachers and influences, how did they kind of touch your life in those early years?

NYAHO 

Well, believe it or not, my eldest sister I would say was my first teacher. She, I think, tolerated me trying to be on the piano. So she taught me a few things. But we moved to Geneva. My father was in the UN. My first formal teacher was a lady called Mrs. Astroff. She was just a kind, kind lady. I remember her being just so embracing of me. I just have these warm feelings, but I was so young. I had Mrs. Astroff and then we went back to Ghana. So I was in boarding school from third grade—which is a very common thing in Ghana: people going to boarding school because we’re coming from all of all the different parts of Ghana to these different wonderful institutions that had been set up around the country. So I was in one of them and my teacher, there was Mr. Esau in primary school. Then, when I got to the secondary division, my wonderful teacher was John Barham, who was an English teacher who now is retired in Norwich in England, and he was just pretty phenomenal. He was not only teaching me piano, but taught music in the school, and so he was just extraordinary. We learned a lot of theory and really wonderful history. He taught us and he also conducted a choir. So, in Ghana, we would have things like the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, pretty much based on the Festivals of Nine Lessons and Carols in Cambridge. It was pretty amazing. 

Some of our teachers, they would also bring teachers in from the University of Ghana, Legon, where they taught us cultural dancing from different parts of Ghana and drumming, and our school also really celebrated all the different languages and cultures of students who were in school. I would go for other classes, or Fante, because my parents are from different parts. We sang the songs and all that. I used to just remember hearing the drumming and dancing and just my heart pounding and just kind of running towards that—the venue where we were learning all these different dances and understanding how different directions from master drummers through the different kinds of drum patterns. So it’s very exciting. That’s kind of my background.

SNOW 

It’s extraordinary and so diverse, rich, and so holistic in experience. It’s so inspiring to hear you speak about it because your whole life’s work is about bringing people into a complete circle of understanding the power of music and culture. That leads to greater understanding of each other and the sense of congruence. I love your face lighting up when you’re thinking about running into those experiences. This sheer euphoria and joy of being together and participating in those experiences is very inspiring. I know everybody is just kind of riveted hearing you talk about this because that’s how you are in the world for those of us that have met you as a complete professional. So those roots are so much a big part of your huge tree. Thank you for sharing that. How do you feel that those sort of formative experiences are really deep, resonating diverse experiences coming from such a diverse culture in Ghana? So many languages and cultural influences. How do you feel that came up through your roots into your tree as a pianist who’s pursued the rigor, as you spoke about, of classical pianism?

NYAHO 

Wow. Well, I really think that just growing up in that milieu in Ghana, I mean, honestly a lot of Ghanians who went to my school just had that kind of experience. We were taught— actually, our school crest was a keyboard, and, and it was devised by Kwegyir Aggrey, one of our founders of the school. The saying pretty much was, you can play a beautiful tune on all the white notes, but add some black notes, and the music is richer. That’s one of the sayings that went through our school. So it was the whole idea of embracing diversity, embracing all. Also, I just loved all these different kinds of musics from classical music to soul to some of my favorites: the Beatles to the Supremes, and all kinds of jazz. They really, I guess, informed me as I went on, but I will say, though, that I did have a little bit of an identity crisis because the whole idea of — I would separate classical music from my traditional music. Classical music in those days for me, was more about Western European musicians and music and composers. Then there was my traditional music, and then there was R&B, the rock music, but I had to kind of find a way to integrate all those aspects of music that I really wanted. That happened eventually.

SNOW 

Also how you have taken that personal journey and work and amplified it to the world. I think that there may be other people that have been on that journey, but they haven’t necessarily stepped into that role of leading a community forward around the full picture of music. It’s sort of like bouncing around in the life of Nyaho, that you then went from Ghana to Oxford. I’m sure that was quite an experience landing in Oxford, though you had traveled the world. You come from this amazing culture with this extremely holistic experience of music and musical expression and dance in a whole range of ways that are deeply cultural, and also are part of the time and the days that you’re living in, and then arriving at Oxford University as a scholar and musician. How was that for you, and what were the influences and impact of being there?

NYAHO 

Well, going to Oxford was quite an extraordinary experience. So I was, I would say, decently prepared through our high school. In Ghana, I took what we call A Level Exams and it was in music. We had to write essays, believe it or not, in high school on Schubert’s Die Winterreise. I had to know about Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony, we had to know about Elgar’s Serenade for Strings, and so I was pretty prepared and knowing how to understand this music art. Mr. Barham just gave us such a wealth of information and how, you know, we would talk about subject matter, tonalities, and all that sort of stuff. 

But interestingly enough, when I got to Oxford, I actually went to my first opera there. Believe it or not, my very first opera was The Rake’s Progress by Stravinsky. So it’s kind of a trial by fire. Just to go back to Ghana, we also learned a lot of operetta like Gilbert and Sullivan. I’m sure if you meet a bunch of Ghanians who went to my school, they can really quote and sing you some serious Gilbert and Sullian, like Pirates of Penzance or The Mikado, and all that kind of stuff. We had such a great education in Ghana, but going to Oxford was also a different ballgame because we had tutors, one-on-one tutors. I had to learn how to compose in the style of Palestrina, three-part Palestrina. In our second and third year it was all five-part Palestrina or Lasso. I had to learn how to write in the style of Bach. I would be given let’s say the beginning of a cantata for maybe soprano, violin, and continuo and had to be able to write something which would resemble Bach with figured bass and all that sort of stuff. 

So that was quite a lot of really rigorous training and just having to bury ourselves in the library and read all kinds of articles to be able to write our essays on, let’s say, Scarlatti sonatas or the beginnings of Tristan und Isolde and the effects of this and that. It was pretty rigorous. I just had to step up to the plate and learn all of this and catch up. One of the things one of my professors there said was that you just need to listen, listen, listen, listen. So that’s what I would do in the days of cassettes. I had this amazing uncle in London, who had just thousands of LPs, who was just really into classical music, and I would spend some of my time and vacations with him. I was just under these headphones and [listening to] recordings, all these symphonies, hearing my Brahms Symphony for the first time under headphones and the hair—you know, the days I had hair—standing on the back of my neck just with the opening. I had an amazing education and discovery of Western classical music.

SNOW 

That is amazing. I mean, just the technical rigor alone, with all that composition and understanding. During your time at Oxford, did you encounter any repertoire of music other than the classical White Western composers, or women, diversity of composers? I mean, at what point for you, because your life’s work has been dedicated to really expanding the canon like nobody else has – when did that intersection happen for you? Because I know, then you were in Geneva, and then you came to the United States? How was that part of you, Nyaho, the man, the person?

NYAHO 

There was very little of that in my education in Oxford, just very little. But what was interesting there was that we’re in different colleges, I was at St. Peter’s College. We could give concerts, we were encouraged to just do concerts and all that kind of stuff. So, in my second year, I just really, even though I was learning all this stuff, I just also wanted to show my background and the music from there. So, I remember putting on a concert. It was very interesting, how do I put it, but it had to do with — I got a choir together. There were about sixteen students. All you would do was put posters up in Oxford and said singers needed for a concert and so on, so forth. So I put on a concert of music by Ephraim Amu, who is just an extraordinary composer from Ghana, who wrote a lot of choral music. I helped teach the students, my colleagues, the Ghanaian language and how to sing it and they were so willing to do it, it was so wonderful. That was one part of the concert. The other part, I played with one of my professors, and we did Brahms Liebeslieder Waltzes and then some Dvorak Slavonic Dances. So you just had to be inventive, but in terms of just learning music that reflected my culture, there was nothing there at that time. 

But I remember my mom always encouraging me to learn some of the folk songs and wanting me to compose. I wish I could have done that, I wish I could have just paid attention to her then, but I think it’s still stuck because I really started looking for music by Ghanaian composers. I had no idea of the immense music by African American composers at that time. This is in the late 70s, to the 80s. So it was only after I left Oxford and went to Geneva, I was studying with a Jamaican composer, Oswald Russell, phenomenal pianist that I started playing some of his music, and it’s just absolutely beautiful, gorgeous stuff. He taught me improvisation. Then, I performed some of that when I came to Eastman and also in Austin. But when I became a professor at Louisiana, I was responsible for teaching music literature, and the accessibility to Bach, Beethoven, all these scores was just right there. When I was looking for music by composers of African descent, I literally had pretty much one big recording by Natalie Hinderas. All of you should check that out. It’s an extraordinary CD or recording by Natalie Hinderas. She was a teacher of Leon Bates and she had recorded music by Thomas Kerr, and Nathaniel Dett, and others that I could use, but even getting the scores were manuscripts and stuff like that. So it was only early into the 90s, that I was suddenly – my eyes were being opened to this amazing music around that I’ve been yearning for, that we’re trying to kind of find out.

SNOW 

Did that coincide with any mentors, influential teachers, peers, experiences that really started to – you know, you’re such a trailblazer, and an action-based individual. You’ve brought so much change, there’s much more change that has to come. But in that leadership role, even as a young person, you’re an ambassador for your country through music, you were coming from Oxford to the United States getting your doctorate graduate school in these revered institutions. Are there people that along the way, touched you in ways or opened you up in ways that helped light that up for you, that yes, this needs to change, and that activist inside you and advocate for what is going on here. We’re not even beginning to tell it the full picture of what we need to be exploring.

NYAHO  

Well, three people come to mind. One was Oswald Russell, whom I just adored, and was just an amazing, kind professor, who really got me back into playing the piano, because in Oxford, it was all paperwork, it was all research, that kind of stuff. Playing was sort of secondary in those days. Oswald Russell really encouraged me as a pianist. 

The next person that I would say that really touched me was David Renner, my teacher at University of Texas at Austin. I will never forget this and I think I use this as a jumping off point also. I went to interview with him, I went to audition at Austin. I just knocked on his door and introduced myself. I said I was from Ghana and blah, blah, blah. And then after I played, he said, “Oh, I’d like to see you in my office. Let’s have a discussion.” When I got into his office, he said, “Oh, last night, I read up on Ghana in the encyclopedia,” and that just kind of blew me away, for the first time, in a way, I felt here’s a teacher who is really trying to understand my background, understand who I was, in a way, I was being seen. And that really, really informed me as to how we as teachers need to see who our students are. So that was one big thing. 

Another person who really just embraced me for who I was is Dr. Martha Hilley. I was one of her TAs, and she just really saw me for who I was and just embraced me, and encouraged me in my path. 

Another big influence in my life was I had the fortune to meet Dr. Maya Angelou in North Carolina as a visiting artist, and she was such a tour de force. She kind of gave me this permission to call her anytime if I had, say, if I had problems, I could go and get reality checks with her, where should you say, stop it? She said, “I don’t like whiners,” that kind of stuff, things like that. I could feel safe there. She was the one who I would say things like, “what do you think about me doing a whole recital of music by composers of African descent, because I just thought that was something which was, it felt a little scary in those days, and she just like, really helped me to say, “yes, you can. It’s all legitimate.” So, she was very encouraging and just lifted me up. And then also, when I was recording Senku, my first CD, which I was going to originally do a mixed recital, and, again, I was encouraged to just make it an all music by composers of African descent. I told her, “Well, you know, I’m having issues with just writing all these liner notes.” She said, “Well, why aren’t you asking me to write the introduction?” I’m like, okay! You know, she was just so embracing and loving. So that really helped me along and I just hope I can pass that on to my students, encourage people to be seen, encourage us as teachers to be seen. I’m talking too much here.

SNOW 

I mean, I’ve just been sitting here thinking we need many installments of an hour with Nyaho because there’s so much to explore in that relationship alone. The transformative impact it has had on you and your belief in yourself and your understanding of creating environments for other people is just beyond inspiring. It really is unique, you know, that’s very unique in your life. I feel like that makes so much sense when we think about how generous you are in your leadership, in your scholarship, in your artistry, and in your mentorship of so many young musicians. And, of course, the teaching community. Where do you think we are? I mean, you’ve been working throughout your entire career to broaden the canon to build cultural understanding, to really work for a more global, inclusive community. Where do you think we are now with so much—there’s been a lot of great work done and continues to be done—where do you think we are going? What’s our next stage of evolution really as a community?

NYAHO 

Wow. We still have a long way to go. But I am so encouraged, I nearly interrupted you earlier on to say that the Frances Clark Center, NCKP, MTNA, are doing amazing work of really creating safe spaces for people to say, “okay, yeah, this is not just, this is also about me,” but, I think we still have quite a ways to go. We have a lot of music to discover, from all different parts of the world. We have to kind of completely embrace Native American music, and start seeing Native American composers and what they have to say, and dispense with all the caricatures we’ve had in early pedagogy, there’s so much to do there. 

I will say, for music by composers of African descent, there’s a lot to be learned. There’s a lot of music, to be heard, and to be embraced. There’s a lot of amazing compositions by composers from the African continent, which we have to kind of do the work and understand. When I went to Oxford, I had to get to understand who these composers were. I had to kind of understand Schumann’s work. I mean, there are places in Schumann, you know, I always kind of make a joke, but kind of has [become] quite serious. So for example, there are all these kinds of rubato and things that we have in Schumann, which are not written on the score. But I had to learn about that. Can we learn about how to play music by Halim El-Dabh from Egypt, who was a phenomenal composer? Can we learn to understand that in certain cultures, music doesn’t have to be directed in one way or the other, it’s about being in a trance, it’s about being in a single space? There’s a lot of work to do and if I could do this research when I was in England, or in Switzerland, or in grad school, I think we can do that. There’s a great advocate in theory who’s trying to do some stuff on theory of African American music. We need to embrace that, we need to start looking into these things. So I think there’s a lot of beautiful stuff on the horizon for us to explore. You know, music from Bolivia. 

There’s this is great music out there, and so we still have a long ways to go, but I believe I think we are beginning to sort of—it’s just like the train finally beginning to gather up steam, and we cannot stop, we cannot stop. I am so thrilled that NCKP is having people like Dr. Clairborne, Dr. McCain, really spearheading some of this stuff. I’m so thrilled that MTNA has a whole track on DEI for Pedagogy Saturday. Apparently, they’ve had the most diverse articles and presentations or even submissions. So it’s very exciting, I’m very excited. But it’s a heavy lift, and we just really need to come together and just be lifting everyone up. You know, I’m also just very grateful that organizations like Florida State Music Teachers are doing conferences and breaking down barriers. Or Oregon, all these different states are beginning to embrace or see the urgency of why it’s important to have diversity and equity and inclusion. All I can do is just help in my way and just maybe help connect people here and there.

SNOW 

Nyaho, you are the beacon and the brightest light, guiding us and leading in this work. I appreciate the assessment of where we are. I just came from SphinxConnect in Detroit, where Dr. Leah Clairborne was on a panel discussing research. The impact where she spoke a lot about what you’re speaking about, which is, databases are just the beginning of awareness. Programs are just the beginning of awareness, all very important and powerful, but we have to deepen our understanding and knowledge so that we actually have an understanding of a whole range of composers that haven’t even been explored or discovered. 

You’ve spoken many times that we need, you know, hundreds of recordings, not just one recording. It’s like, we’re in a renaissance in a way like we’re saying, “Okay, we’re discovering.” It’s not that I think some people were aware. We’re shining brighter lights, we’re holding hands together and saying, “Okay, let’s build awareness, but let’s research and delve and really get to know who these composers were, what they did in the world, what does this music mean,” as you say, in ways that we have been steeped in Schumann, or Beethoven, and, and the language and the cultural impact of that music. So thank you for sharing that high vision of where we need to be aspiring, we need to be aspiring towards. It’s very exciting. 

I know the time will run quickly here. So I do want to ask you also, you’re such a mentor to so many young pianists including Leah, Artina, you’re a mentor to me and many others. As a teacher and mentor, what are some of the things that are important to you like deep in your soul that that you think are really important for us to be thinking about in these responsible roles?

NYAHO 

Oh, such a deep and heavy question. I’m just going to rattle some things off my mind, off my head. Teaching with kindness. See teaching with kindness for me, being kind means embracing others, seeing them as human beings, seeing them as equals. It’s so important. I really feel that as teachers, we have such a big responsibility, and as musicians, we have this big response, we’re healers. 

I read in indigenous African cultures, musicians, artists are supposed to have one step in the spirit world and one step on the earth plane, and we’re channels to bring healing and beauty to mankind. I think we need to consider ourselves as doctors, as healers, and bringing beauty and relief to our audiences. That’s all we do. I mean, when you play in a recital, there may be just one person who may have a little bit of relief from what they’re going through by being able to get themselves into a piece. I think we need to really honor that and honor our role. 

This is a calling. Everybody who is here, at this webinar, you’re being called to be leaders in healers in this area. I think the one thing I like to ask, or I hope I can impart with my friends is being kind, is valuing folks and understanding that what we’re doing is a very important mission. The world really cannot exist without culture. It just cannot. Yes, there are all kinds of things going on, but when you think of all the relief that comes momentarily even in a war in the Ukraine, you hear people singing being proud of who they are and we need to foster that. It’s not all about just territories and death and destruction and making people so miserable, or the killings that just keep going on. We need to bring kindness into our culture a little bit more into our teaching. Hopefully, we are preventing another disaster because we’ve taught the student how to be kind to somebody and embrace somebody else. I don’t think I’m rambling along, but there’s so much to be done, and we have to kind of find ways to do it. We have to make it up as we go. But I think it needs to be done with kindness and love. And that’s all in music. 

SNOW 

That is profound and beautiful. Moving. You’re touching hearts so deeply right now. My eyes are getting all [teary]. I know this is touching everybody at this wonderful hour with you. It sort of connects to this idea of belonging.

NYAHO 

Yes.

SNOW 

I would love for you to—yeah, of belonging.

NYAHO 

Yes. So that’s another thing: getting teachers to feel that they belong first. I mean, what I find so wonderful about what’s happening at the Frances Clark Center and MTNA is that there’s a real attempt to open up and to let people in, and to feel that they belong. It’s so important, but we have to work really hard at it. For me, I can say, and I’ve said it in a meeting before, it takes courage for me to show up at MTNA. It takes courage for me to show up at some of these conferences, because, you know, I see so few people of my color there. What are we going to do about that? How can we encourage you to let them know they belong? We need to let first our students, from the ground up, know they belong in the studio. They belong. And ask them what kind of music they love. Then, we, as teachers, need to feel we belong to local chapters, we belong to the classical world, and I don’t have to be stereotyped into, you know, and this happens all the time: “Oh, what kind of jazz are you playing?” It happens, you know, or, “Oh, classical player, you know, what does that mean?” We need to celebrate ourselves. I know Desireé González-Miller is doing an amazing job. All these webinars, you put out, I mean, the incredible information I’ve just heard from music from the Middle East, oh, my God! There is so much to do, and so much to love, and to figure out and we need to step out of our bounds. It only informs other stuff we do, I think, We just need to belong.

SNOW 

I love, “we need to belong, we need to step out of our bounds. If we step out of our bounds, more of us feel like we belong.” Those are so profound, those words Nyaho. I cannot believe how quickly this hour has gone, but it always does. Everybody will know as you and I were preparing today just to kind of go over the things we were chatting away about all kinds of topics, and I’m so grateful for your time and your generosity, your leadership, your extraordinary work, and the biggest heart. You live what you say, and you demonstrate it for us. You’re the model of this. It’s so inspiring for everybody to know that we can—they are bright days ahead and lots of work to do, but it’s going to make the world a better place, and this cultural ambassadorship that you carry is really—I just feel so grateful to be in some of your big light. We love to end this series with a question, which is: you inspire me, everyone on this call, in so many people in so many ways, and especially just spending time with you this morning. I feel like this has been such a great gift to all of us. Who inspires you? What inspires you? How are you inspired?

NYAHO 

I know this may sound—but this is really, you know, sincere from my heart—you all inspire me. You give me a safe space to explore, to feel vulnerable, as a Black classical musician. That’s what you do. You give me strength to continue, seriously. When I say “you,” I’m talking about everybody listening or who is interested in DEI work, and who’s making it possible. You guys really inspire me and keep me going on. I have wonderful friends: Joseph Williams, Leah Clairborne, Artina McCain, Lenny Hayes. They inspire me, they are my inspiration. They tell me: “No, you’re not done yet.”

SNOW 

Beautiful, Nyaho. We have come to our hour. Again, my gratitude overflows to you for your time, for your work, for the power you are in the world, a force of nature. We have got beautiful comments in the chat that I know we will send to Nyaho because he’s so intensely answering all the questions, but marvelous responses to all the wonderful things you’ve explored with us today. Thank you for being so open-hearted, for being so amazing, and for changing our lives. We’re so indebted to you. Thank you everybody for being with us today.

NYAHO 

Yes. I see Gale, Charles, and Jerry, all kinds of wonderful people.

SNOW 

Your sister and it’s oh so lovely to have her with us. Thank you everyone for being with us. Stay healthy, stay well. We will gather together at MTNA soon in Reno and again this summer at NCKP. This was archived—a lot of people asked if it would be archived.

NYAHO 

Can I get to read the chat?

SNOW 

Yes, we’re sending you the chat. You can read it and enjoy every minute of it. So, thank you Nyaho. I know your dance card is full and we are so grateful for you and everything you do and thank you everybody for being with us. What an incredible community it is of life changing work and service to music and humankind.

NYAHO 

Thank you.

SNOW 

Thank you, everybody. Bye bye.

NYAHO 

Bye.

OTHER RESOURCES YOU MIGHT ENJOY

Search
piano inspires logo, black with colored stripes in the tail of the piano