Episode 7. Jason Amos
“For centuries black music, forged in bondage, has been the sound of complete artistic freedom. No wonder everybody is always trying to steal it… What you’re hearing in black music is a miracle of sound, an experience that can really happen only once — not just melisma, glissandi, the rasp of sax, breakbeats, or sampling, but the mood or inspiration from which those moments arise. The attempt to re-record it seems, if you think about it, a fool’s errand. You’re not capturing the arrangement of notes, per se. You’re catching the spirit.” - Wesley Morris, staff writer for the New York Times Magazine, writing for The 1619 Project
In this episode we hear from Jason Amos, a gifted violist, who tells us a beautifully complex story of how his own musicianship, upbringing, and living as a black gay man in America has shaped his perception of what it means to engage in a democracy. Jason and Mara discuss how the act of making music in collaboration with others can be deeply reflective of what it feels like to engage in deliberative democracy. They muse over whether Barack Obama is a better viola player than Jason, and bond over their shared love of Mara’s Congressional Representative in Connecticut, Jahana Hayes, and Jason’s in Massachusetts, Ayanna Pressley. Jason talks about how, despite growing up in a middle-class black neighborhood, he still felt the sting of racism as a child, constantly on alert for how his presence made white community members feel. Jason opens up about the existential dread he feels every time he is pulled over by the police, and the generational trauma his family experiences today as a result of police brutality. He expresses worry that too many people are voting out of fear, willful ignorance, and greed. As for himself, Jason ultimately sees his vote as an act of great hope, and looks to cast ballots for those he feels will deliver more just and equitable outcomes for American democracy.
With Jason’s permission, and in solidarity with and recognition of the protests happening all around the world in response to the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and far too many others, there are 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence before the interview with Jason begins. This is the amount of time it took to end George Floyd’s life. Mara encourages you to experience this silence, notice what you feel, sit with any discomfort, and breath deeply into it before journeying into Jason’s story.
—
Jason Amos has served as violist of the Boston Public Quartet and resident musician at musiConnects, a non-profit which provides free instruments & comprehensive music education to underserved children in Boston, since 2010. He is also a faculty member at Project STEP, an intensive training program for minority string players. He received a Graduate Diploma from the New England Conservatory of Music after undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan. Jason has won honors in several competitions including 4th place in the 2007 Sphinx Competition and 1st prize in the 2006 Detroit Symphony Orchestra's Bradlin Scholarship Competition. Jason has appeared as soloist with the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, is a member of the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra, and formerly played with the Flint Symphony Orchestra. His extensive international engagements have included acclaimed chamber music performances, a residency at The Berlin University of the Arts (UdK), and mentoring for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. In 2010, he completed the fellowship program at Community MusicWorks where he appeared regularly as guest violist with the Providence String Quartet.
