Introduction

Hello. My name is Gaston Kaisin and I am a 5th year student at Lawrence University majoring in trumpet performance and environmental studies. I was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and moved to the states when I was 3 years old. I grew up mostly in Connecticut, where I was lucky enough to spend my childhood in a happy, privileged, secure, and beautiful little town on the coast of Long Island Sound. I fell in love with jazz and the trumpet when I was in 7th grade. So far it has been a turbulent journey with moments of complete bliss, joy, and triumph and moments of despair and sadness. I enter my final term at Lawrence with no plans past graduation other than to go home and figure it out from there. I’m not feeling particularly passionate about my music or my pursuits in environmental studies, leaving me in a weird, uncertain limbo. I’m grappling with questions of who I am and who I want to be. I’m occupying a world that is precarious and uncertain, and I see myself being in a period of personal transition. 

A particularly beautiful picture of my home, taken December 2021

This term I will be posting ~1 minute clips on a daily basis of me improvising or playing some passage on the trumpet. They will be on Instagram. Each clip will stand alone as its own mini performance. However, I also intend for these clips to be “part of an ongoing communication of who [I am], what [I am] experiencing, and the simple fact that [I] exist and [am] alive doing things” (Jurgenson 2019, 16). It’s an important thing to remind myself as I navigate feeling lost. Like the social photography Jurgenson discusses, where “the social photo [is] more communication than professional art”, my clips also explore how to use music as an alternate form of communication, in a much shorter time frame than music is typically appreciated (Jurgenson 2019, 13). My 1-minute performances often offer me a time of
recentering, and I hope it can do the same for anyone who listens. However, I am intrigued to know the reactions and feelings of anyone who listens and sees.

As an artist, I’m not sure what it is I want to say or am trying to say, but my hunch is that this project, where I create every day, will help me discover that. I believe there is healing in silence, especially when it follows and is followed by music. In some ways, my performances are more about what I don’t play than what I do play. 

Pablo Picasso's evolution. Self portrait at 15 and 90 years old.


Comments

  1. NaomiApril 3, 2022 at 5:03 PM

    Hi Gaston. I very much relate to your uncertainty about career stuff. It happens. I really like your improv idea, I am interested to hear how they evolve through the weeks.

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  2. Sophia GalassiniApril 5, 2022 at 7:27 AM

    Being an artist is so difficult, and self discovery is so incredibly necessary to grow as an artist. I don't think you need to figure out right away what you are trying to say, just do what feels good and meaning will come with time. With that being said, I am so incredibly excited about listening to your trumpet improvisations!

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