Life, Values & Legacy: Our Chat with Xiaodan Helen Altenbach

Xiaodan Helen Altenbach shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Good morning Xiaodan Helen, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: What is a normal day like for you right now?
As a “third-culture kid”, I grew up juggling multiple languages and cultural norms. As an adult, I continue to find juggling multiple job cultures fun and exciting, as each career can be healing and nourishing for the others. On a normal day, I start with self-care activities such as visiting my chiropractor or going for a walk or bike ride along the LA River. My day as a psychotherapist starts at 11am. I meet with clients online or go to my office for in-person couples or family sessions. During the concert season at my orchestra job, I attend rehearsals from late afternoon until the evening, followed by weekend performances. Occasionally, I get called to record for film and TV music, which is a huge honor and a privilege. Everyday is slightly different but the overall pattern is taking care of myself first, each day.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My chosen name is Helen Altenbach, I am a professional cellist, a licensed marriage and family therapist, and one of the original founders of Los AnCellos. Los AnCellos is a co-op community for cello players. We offer improvisatory sound baths in candlelight, in non-traditional performance venues.

Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
Growing up in Northeast China where winter nights are cold and long, I remember gatherings with my extended family on my paternal side. I can still recall the mouth-watering aroma of stewed meat and vegetables, the bustling of my grandma and aunties, the giggles from my cousins, as we—the seven cello players spread across three generations—provided musical entertainment. We didn’t have any sheet music at the time, so it was a mix of improvising and elaborating on popular tunes we’ve heard, to the best of our abilities. There was a lot of unspoken love demonstrated through our support of one another as we grew personally and musically over the years. When I became a professional musician here in the United States, I found myself longing for a musical community that was familiar, safe, and free from interpersonal comparison and judgment. I wanted to create a grown-up version of that cello family and suspected that others might’ve also felt the toll of “hustle culture” as I did in my mid-career. I yearned for a community that highlighted musical and interpersonal connection—not competition. Los AnCellos is a way of rekindling the connection that comes from ensemble playing in a relaxed and supportive environment. This felt especially important now, in a post-COVID world where classical music has become constricting. As more and more non-profits fight for fewer resources, an overall sense of scarcity created so much more negative competition among musicians.

What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?
I think that, regardless of how passionate one is about what they do, we all experience some level of professional burnout at some point. Los AnCellos was created with the intention to ease some of that stress and monotony. Los AnCellos is organized in an intentionally different way than most musical groups. It’s artist-led and self-governing, distinct from the top-down managerial approach that can breed competitiveness and isolation between musicians. The classical music world is notoriously hierarchical: The management picks what’s on the program, the conductor decides how the music is interpreted, there’s only one first-chair player in each section, people seldom get promoted within a group. And on top of that, there are few opportunities that pay a livable wage to begin with. At Los AnCellos, every player has an equal voice and creative input—from selecting pieces and deciding how to play them, to choosing locations that fit our audience demographic, to voting on how to balance our expenses and revenue. At Los AnCellos, we also encourage our members to develop skills in production design, sheet music arrangement, location assessment and financial evaluation, marketing strategy, audience relations, and new member recruitment.

Beyond enriching the musician experience, we’re also committed to engaging the audience in a deeper way. Classical music can be unfamiliar and unrelatable to so many who didn’t grow up with it. To some people, going to a classical concert can feel formal—and even intimidating. It takes both community-level efforts, such as music programs in schools and private-level resources, such as one-on-one lessons, to fully appreciate the classical repertoire. While recognizing my unique upbringing as a privilege, Los AnCellos aims to make classical music more approachable to all. At Los AnCellos events, participants can immerse themselves in both music and wellness, feeling the melodies as they lie on yoga mats, stretch, or sit in quiet meditation, letting each note resonate through their bodies while nourishing the mind and spirit. We encourage our listeners to release the stress from their daily lives while being illuminated by the cozy glow of flickering candles.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What’s a cultural value you protect at all costs?
I grew up with a cultural appreciation for non-material enrichment, so that is a drastic contrast to today’s world. I would like to push that dial towards my heritage. The cello has a warm, relatable timbre and range, very similar to the human voice; I’ve often heard people describe its soothing tone with words like “melancholy”, “soulfulness”, and “resonating core.” So, if you add it all up, playing and listening to the cello can be an incredibly healing experience. You don’t need a background in classical music to appreciate it. Our musicians select pieces that represent a variety of ways to relate to our audience: Instead of dazzling our listeners with virtuosity, our aim is to welcome deeper feelings of connectedness. As we accompany you on your journey of self-reflection, at times, you may feel a sense of surprise and delight. At other times, a sense of calm and contemplation. We achieve this through a mix of classical repertoire and contemporary songs, performed in seamless continuity.

Once everyone is settled, we introduce our group improvisation, which is the most beloved part of the evening by our musicians and listeners alike. This meditation-inspired segment is really special: Each musician gets full creative reign while supported by a collective musical “Om” of the whole group, which amplifies the vibrations of both our instruments and the space around us. The musicians take turns connecting with the room in this precious and vulnerable moment, relying on their intuition and trusting both themselves and each other to lead everyone on a journey of freedom from the bondage of daily routine.

Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. What do you think people will most misunderstand about your legacy?
One of the most important missions of Los AnCellos is to bring equal access to high level music-making and to share this unique opportunity with people who have little or no musical background. Los AnCellos is made of multi-talented individuals who see themselves beyond a siloed professional identity. We are musicians. We are also teachers. We are (pet)parents, hikers, psychotherapists, engineers, veterinarians, corporate strategists, and small business owners. We look forward to sharing our own healing through creativity outside the traditional concert hall—and with people from all walks of life. We are not just our professional identities; we are so much more to our communities and loved ones, and together we can inspire and rewrite a richer story of who we are. If you are a professional cellist or a passionate hobby player who is interested in joining our journey of self-care while sharing your musical gift with others, please reach out to us via our website’s contact page.

Our next Sound Bath event will be on Sunday, Feb. 15th, 2026, at 7pm in Highland Park, Los Angeles.
To view ticketing details and future events, please check out our website: www.losancellos.com

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.losancellos.com
• Instagram: @los_ancellos
• Facebook: Los AnCellos

Image Credits
photo credit: Joseph Paguio Photography