Writing Lab: Playful Experiments to Free Your Creative Voice

Writing can improve our communication skills, both on and off the stage, help us become stronger and more effective advocates for classical music and the arts, and develop emotional resilience and agency in these anxious times. Writing well can help us figure out who we are, what we care about, and who we want to serve while providing therapeutic benefits to improve our day-to-day experience as well as the practical benefits that empower us to have more unique, profitable, and successful careers. AMVA is thrilled to offer an online writing retreat on August 27th with Tricia Park, an acclaimed concert violinist, writer, and Associate Director of Cleaver Magazine Workshops.

In this workshop, we won’t try to fix what isn’t broken. We’ll hold our vulnerability and begin creating from where we are. We’ll give ourselves permission to commence, no matter how fragile the surface under our feet feels. Together, we will enter and engage with our creativity as it begins to speak to us, and we’ll allow ourselves to see where it takes us.

With Tricia’s guidance, retreat participants will learn both the creative play and deliberate practice of writing, through activities that parallel musical practices, such as:

Etudes and technique – Clearly defined, step-by-step exercises and prompts to help develop storytelling skills and individual voice.
Deliberate practice – Timed exercises to spark writing with intention and urgency.
Studio class – Safe, low-stakes, fun, experimental environments for sharing and feedback, if welcomed.
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The retreat will serve as a space for collective storytelling, healing, and empowerment among all self-identified AAPI/BIPOC+ individuals who work, study, and create in classical music and the arts.

What you’ll get from this workshop:

Gently playful creativity exercises to help balance you and jump-start your creativity.
A safe and supportive environment to cultivate your creative courage.
Creativity prompts and exercises you can continue to nurture and grow at home.

What you’ll need to bring:

A notebook and a pen or pencil.
An open mind.
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About Tricia Park:

Tricia Park is a concert violinist, writer, and educator. Since making her concert debut at age thirteen, Tricia has performed on five continents and received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. She is the host and producer of an original podcast called, “Is it Recess Yet? Confessions of a Former Child Prodigy.” Tricia has served on faculty at the University of Chicago, the University of Iowa and has worked for Graywolf Press. She is the co-lead of the Chicago chapter of Women Who Submit, an organization that seeks to empower women and non-binary writers. She is a Juilliard graduate and received her MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2021, Tricia was awarded a Fulbright Grant to Seoul, Korea, where she worked on a literary and musical project. Her writing has appeared in Cleaver Magazine and F Newsmagazine. She was also a finalist for contests in C&R Press and The Rumpus. Since making her concert debut at age thirteen, Tricia has performed on five continents and received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. She is the host and producer of an original podcast called, “Is it Recess Yet? Confessions of a Former Child Prodigy.” Tricia has served on faculty at the University of Chicago, the University of Iowa and has worked for Graywolf Press. She is the co-lead of the Chicago chapter of Women Who Submit, an organization that seeks to empower women and non-binary writers. Currently, Tricia is Associate Director of Cleaver Magazine Workshops where she is also a Creative Non Fiction editor and faculty instructor, teaches for the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, and maintains a private studio of violin students and writing clients.