Improvisation frees Kathy McTavish to pursue her ... cello dreams

athy McTavish's performance at the Amazing Grace Bakery and Cafe on Sunday marked a new direction in the Duluth cellist's career. And it wasn't the first time.

McTavish's cello playing has gone from strictly classical to strictly improvisational. Sunday's performance, in which she accompanied poet Sheila Packa as Packa read from her new collection of poems, was the start of McTavish pairing her music with words.

McTavish and Packa performed together once last summer as an experiment.

"She took the poems to a whole new place," Packa said. "I think it's going to be a successful alliance."

Five years ago, McTavish rediscovered the instrument she had abandoned as a burned-out teenager. The classically trained cellist reluctantly joined a friend's string quartet. At the suggestion of another friend, she decided to experiment and improvise as she played.

She has scarcely looked back.

"Kathy is the only musician I know that does so much improvisational work," Packa said. "It's very contemplative and explorative. She is quite remarkable."

"Kathy has gently nudged me in a direction of chaos," said her friend and collaborator, Richie Townsend. "She likes that feeling that things could fall apart any minute."

Now, McTavish's improvised cello playing is much in demand.

She has played on the CDs of local artists Sara Thomsen, Sarah Softich and the Three Altos.

She performs "cellodreams," a solo improvisational act, and explores music's "bizarre edges" in the band Yeltzi.

She has been a member of Cafe au Lake, a "movable cafe" group of performing artists who focus on different themes.

And she's part of the Cosmic Pit Orchestra, an improv jam group with Townsend on guitar and Emily Montgomery on percussion. McTavish describes it as "the center of [my] being."

"Every time I collaborate with someone new, I learn more about myself," she said.

McTavish said she picks from "a palette" of notes, themes and "textures" before she plays a piece.

"I have frameworks, definitely," she said. "I've been developing my language, so there are some phrases, some sounds, that are the same. But otherwise there's nothing preconceived."

Improvisation feels more natural to McTavish.

"When I was a classical musician, I loved it and I loved playing with other people, but there was this perfectionism, and now I like to explore the imperfect," she said. "I tend to go into a trancelike state ... I can feel people in the room. I'm not trying to conceive a piece of classical music. I'm not asking my instrument to do anything predetermined."

The freedom improvisation grants McTavish has had a positive impact on her music.

"She plays from a place of love," Townsend said. "That's pretty incredible for an instrumentalist."

McTavish and Packa will perform their fusion duet across the Northland for the rest of the winter. Packa is close to finishing a second chapbook of poetry and is looking forward to collaborating with McTavish again.

For her part, McTavish is starting to compose music for several independent films from around the Twin Ports and Twin Cities. It's not something she's done before, and it's not surprising that she relishes the new opportunity.