Today we’d like to introduce you to Wendy Tahara.
Hi Wendy, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
I think I had always known that I would be a musician from the time I was little, but I did not know the journey that it would take me on. My first awareness and desire to really become a musician happened when I was 5 years old. My mother took me out of kindergarten for a month in early spring to visit cousins I had in Hiroshima, Japan, and that was the first time I had been exposed to someone playing music in front of me. From the time I was a baby, my mother constantly had classical music playing in the house, as she had heard that it was good for brain development. When I first got to my cousins’ house in Japan, I was immediately struck by 3 things. First, they had meals at a kotatsu table on the floor that was basically a low table covered by a blanket, with a cozy heater underneath it. Second, napkins were nonexistent because you were to eat so cleanly that you didn’t need one. Third, my 8-year-old cousin Hiroko played several pieces on the piano after dinner, and I was impressed and decided I wanted to do that too.
A couple years later, I ended up joining some other kids in second grade for group piano classes at a local Yamaha music school. When I was one years old, I had asked for a toy piano for Christmas, so for the first two years of my lessons, that was what I had practiced on because my parents did not want to invest in a piano right away. I remember it had several octaves, but the keys were very small, and the black keys were only painted on, so I had to pretend to play those notes if I needed them. By that time, the legs were long gone on the toy, so I would just put it on a tabletop with my music and practice that way.
As I progressed, I went through the usual round of switching to private lessons, and then switching to better teachers and entering piano competitions, and then progressing yet to even better teachers and harder competitions. Eventually I ended up receiving a piano performance degree at the School of Music at Indiana University in Bloomington, IN, getting married, and moving to Charleston, South Carolina. I ended up teaching at a music school called Hungry Monk Music with some musician friends who also were wonderful performers. There were occasional side gigs playing piano for contradances with them as various callers, and musicians would swing through town for performances. At some point, though, I got tired of going to jam sessions with my friends and not having a piano to play with them. I don’t enjoy playing keyboards, so I preferred to sit out. Then, one day, everything changed.
A man named William Jackson came through town with his Celtic harp and played a bunch of Scottish songs. I was smitten. I had never seen nor heard of a Celtic harp before. The tone was light, lovely, and delicate. More importantly, it was more portable than the pedal harps you see in orchestras so that was attractive, He kindly told me to check out a folk harp festival in Asheville, North Carolina in October, and chat with a harp maker named Larry Fisher. So, I did just that and ordered a custom harp from him. Months later, the harp came in, I started lessons with someone in town to get some basics, and 6 months later, I was already gigging.
What I didn’t realize was that the harp would eventually become like a really wonderful, special friend. It has been with me through my previous marriage, my divorce, my journey as an adult single woman, my spiritual journey within myself, as well as opening doors that I did not know were there. It has truly been with me in good times and bad, both feast and famine. It has a special magic and allure all its own, and I truly believe that I would not be doing what I would be doing now without this instrument. The piano was the foundation, but the Celtic harp was what truly opened up the world for me.
Through this instrument, I started actually composing my own music and putting out to the world what my heart wants to say. It was an integral part of my own spiritual awakening and to the work of sound healing as well; I had always improvised on piano for the ballet classes I would accompany for my day job, but this was different; the music that would come out would be more delicate, more subtle, more deeply felt and connected than anything else I would play on piano. They say that strings are really connected to the heart, and I definitely feel that this is so.
These days, I’m focusing more on releasing music on both piano and Celtic harp that was recorded before my son was born and doing private sound sessions at my home studio. At my private sessions, I really try to focus on intuitively playing what is needed, whether it is grounding or heart energy, or calming energy, etc, so I usually don’t know what I’m going to play or how I’m going to play until I’m there in the moment. It’s a really fun way to do it because it makes every session unique and different, as every person that comes in carries different energies. I used to do bigger sound baths for more people pre-pandemic, but as the world has changed, I have changed how I do my sound healings. For now, this is more in alignment with what I want to do for people who need a bit of a break from their everyday world. A little music, a little sound healing, a little tea, a bit of connection, and a lot of relaxation and re-energizing for the rest of their day.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I think the road to be a musician is never easy. Private music lessons were challenging if you didn’t agree with musical interpretations or techniques that the teachers were strongly suggesting, and the practicing hours were long and hard. In my student days, I definitely did not have an active social life, as my instrument came first. Once I was an adult, it was difficult to find well-paid gigs, steady students for lessons, and flexible day jobs. There were many many times I barely had any money for food or gas after my divorce. When I look back, I’m amazed I survived the post-divorce period as well as I did. I was lucky to have many Earth angels looking after me and making sure I was ok, despite the fact that I was living in a new city, meeting new people, and constantly being asked to play gigs “for exposure” when I was truly struggling to make money just for my basic human needs. It was a truly difficult lesson, but I think necessary for my spiritual journey as a person, and it makes me even more grateful for my life now.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m really most proud of the music I create. Despite all my classical piano training, I was never taught how to improvise or compose. It was just a gift that I had always possessed that came naturally and easily to me. I think when I’m in that mode, it is easy in part because I just make intuitive decisions of how things should sound and fit together. I had always wanted to create music that was peaceful, relaxing, beautiful; music that would just create a whole different mood and put you in a different place. In the moment of channeling it, I feel as though I’m just following what’s in my head. I always hear the next notes before I play it, like following a map. Oftentimes, if I’m recording myself on my phone, I’ll listen back and go, where did that come from? The whole process is a mysterious wonder.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I love how open people are to meeting new people. It is very easy to meet people, which is fun! You can almost go to any event and come away meeting a few more new people. I haven’t found that to be the case in other large cities, but I think it’s one of LA’s best features.
What I like the least is the traffic, the homelessness, the dirtiness and darker energies in some parts of the city. These days I think I am more of a homebody for all those reasons.
Pricing:
- Private sound bath with tea (2 hours session) $200- for one, $75- for second and third persons
- Private sound bath only (75 min) $125- for first person, $65- for second and third person
Contact Info:
- Website: https://savasanasound.com/home
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wktahara/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wktahara/
Image Credits
Chris Paine
Jan Kolar
Jake Newell
Nick Boswell
