Thursday, February 19, 2025
We sat down with the award-winning trio nexbloom, formed by recent Longy grads Jubilee Chen (violin), Tessa Shune (piano), and Noah Perkins (trombone), to dive into their journey from Longy to launching their unique chamber ensemble. In this interview, they reflect on how Longy’s collaborative spirit shaped their artistic identities and how their trio, founded on a shared passion for innovation, came to life. Read on to learn about their musical journey, the influence of Longy’s community, and the lessons they’ve learned along the way.
What brought you to Longy?
All three of us came to Longy through a similar set of circumstances: we heard about the school from a teacher, and we were somewhat disillusioned with some of the traditional practices of conservatory-style music education at other institutions. Admittedly trying something so different from a traditional conservatory took a bit of a leap of faith but it was a leap we were glad to take.
How have collaborations with your classmates influenced your journey?
It is probably not an exaggeration to say that the collaborative atmosphere at Longy played the largest role in constructing our artistic identities while we were students. So much of what we do at Longy involved experimentation with applying artistic ideas in a group setting, and all three of us tried to take advantage of that whenever possible.
Could you tell us the story behind your trio, nexbloom? What inspired its creation, and what makes your collaboration unique?
Our story is a funny one because before nexbloom, we hadn’t worked together much. The seeds were planted all the way back during the Teaching Artistry intensive, Noah and Jubilee had a conversation about wanting to try to have a serious chamber ensemble but didn’t have any ideas beyond that. Fast forward 6 or 7 months, Noah was sitting in a lecture from Nick Photinos about the founding of eighth blackbird in the Create Your Own Gigs class and had an epiphany which caused him to reach out to Jubilee again. Noah and Jubilee reconnected later that day, and ultimately reached out to Tessa the next day because she seemed like a good collaborator. We did our first concert at a retirement home a couple months later performing arrangements and adaptations of pieces written for other instruments because we couldn’t find anything for our instrumentation.
In what ways has Longy prepared you for your next artistic steps?
We got a lot of really great musical coaching and preparation from Longy and that was huge for us; but for the future we gained a ton from the professional development, artistic development, and the supportive environment. We know how to work with composers, we know how to present innovative programs, we know how to communicate artistic ideas to the public, and most importantly we understand how to function in a way that is in touch with our values as artists. These were things we got a chance to try and be mentored on while we were students at Longy.
What advice would you give to an incoming or current Longy student?
Longy is going to present you with a lot of opportunities to try something you haven’t done before. Take as many of those opportunities as you can. There is no better place and no better community to try something new and fail spectacularly on your road to success – whatever your success may be.
