Over the span of many months in 2020 we took time together to better understand who we were, why we were doing the work, and what it is we wanted to give. Even though we are no longer performing together, we will proudly carry these principles forward into our individual futures, and invite other artists and organizations to embark on your own quest for defining and living by your values.
We will never impose limitations on our dreams for our artistry.
We are rebellious, inventive, and committed to creating memorable and meaningful experiences.
We measure our success by the strength of our social impact, the health of our organization, and the depth of our own creative fulfillment.
We strive to serve communities long excluded from classical music, and therefore diversity, equity, and inclusion are among the first elements we consider in our decision-making.
We affirm that curiosity, not expertise, is the only prerequisite for our events, and all forms of nerdery are celebrated.
We treat each piece as its own project and are intentional about our approach, whether it’s a Mozart quartet or a world premiere.
We forge long-term, interdependent connections with our audiences and collaborators.
We believe that engaging with other disciplines deepens our own musical engagement and purpose and forges new connections among four individual artists in a collaborative practice.
We owe much to the generosity of others, so we are liberal in sharing our institutional and artistic knowledge.
Chicago’s do-it-yourself spirit is in our ensemble’s DNA.
We are four distinct personalities, choosing daily to combine our individual and invaluable abilities to form a dynamic entity.
We acknowledge that it is our privilege to at times speak for each other and commit to always do so in a mindful way.
We bring our best selves to our work when we are artistically fulfilled and robust in our trust of one another.
We are unshakable in our support and advocacy of one another.
We are extremely grateful to our friend Jenn Chang, who worked with us from July - December of 2020 to help us articulate these values. Jenn met with us both individually and as a group to help us name what it is we love most about Spektral and what areas we want to change, improve, or focus more attention on moving forward. Jenn’s background as a violist, a project manager at Google, political activist, educator, mother, and freelance arts consultant made for valuable feedback during this process. Effective introspection is hard work, and this process wasn’t always easy. Jenn’s patience, thoughtful insights, and fearless leadership gave us just the kind of support we needed!