For Longy’s 2022–2023 event season, we invite you to leave all preconceptions at home.

Musical experiences can have any starting point. Whether born of complex ideas, emotional impulses, or spontaneous inspiration, every music maker begins wherever they are—which is exactly where they need to be.

Just as there’s no right way, no single starting line for becoming a musician, composer, or performer, there’s no one correct entry point for us as the audience. There’s no required reading for experiencing a piece of music, no prerequisite understanding or context to bring with you to a musical experience. You come to it from wherever you are.

In relinquishing our ideas of what a musical experience should be, we open ourselves to receiving and internalizing music in a way that is unique and true to each of us.

Every artist, composer, and musician represented in this season’s program took a different path to arrive at Longy, detours and scenic routes included. We hope the stories on our stages this year inspire you to begin your own new journey, no matter where you start. Allow yourself to begin wherever you are.

When there’s no set path to follow, you become free to begin anywhere.