Lori Goldston

Musician

Artist statement

““What You Can Hear From Here” is a collaboration between me and my son, Isaac Hanson, a sophomore in the Digital Filmmaking program at Ballard High School. This project has helped us both find a way forward with our work during the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown. After decades of performing several times a month (usually several times a week) and 49 years of playing daily the sudden impossibility of performing and/or making music with other people left me feeling pretty unmoored; spring, summer and fall shows in the US, Mexico and Europe were all cancelled, album releases postponed, and it remains impossible to make plans. Along with all the other students Isaac switched to online school, and a film shoot he’d been working on for a school assignment was postponed indefinitely.”

Art Saves Me Statement

“When the stay at home directive I poured my restless, anxious energy into the garden; I needed to relearn the physical lessons about growth, rebirth, renewal and resilience. Sure enough the insects came back, the flowers bloomed in the same order as always. I was not rehearsing, out late playing and seeing shows, on tour or getting ready for tour or recovering from tour, so the plants were watered attentively and diligently. 

I’ve learned the routines of the birds. From my window I can hear the Ballard bridge and the boat horns asking it to open; I’ve learned their weekly rhythms.  I have a more subtle ear for the the raised voices of the houseless people in the vans and RVs around the corner. Car traffic’s light and a wild rabbit has appeared for the first time in decades. Construction sounds, sirens  dogs, lawn mowers, the toddler who’s in love with my cat and imitates him perfectly.  This place is singing and now that I’m staying put I’m trying my best to listen. This piece is my duet, and in that way a marker of this time.”

Lori Goldston

Meet the Artist, Lori Goldston

Lori Goldston is a cellist and composer. Born and raised on Long Island, she has lived and made music in Seattle since 1987.  She works in a wide variety of of genres and contexts, solo and in collaboration with singers, bands, composers, filmmakers choreographers, and writers, including Earth, Nirvana, Mirah, Jessika Kenney, Eyvind Kang, Lynn Shelton, Clyde Petersen, Chris Icasiano, David Byrne, Timothy White Eagle, Mark Mitchell, Guayaba, Kimya Dawson, Kelley Deal, O Paon, Erin Jorgensen, Jherek Bischoff and Heather Duby among many, many others. She performs often locally, nationally and internationally, and is a founding member of the Freelance Artists Coalition of Seattle (FACS).