Cat Henry is a British-American creative producer specializing in the visioning and planning of concerts, tours, and public programs. Curator of jazz programs for Hudson Hall, she previously curated concerts for MoMA Summergarden: New Music for New York, from 2005-2015, featuring composers such as Henry Threadgill, Myra Melford, and Don Byron, and produced the inaugural season of Lincoln Center’s first ever Poet-in-Residence, Mahogany L. Browne, as part of 2021’s Restart Stages Festival. As executive director for Live Music Society, Cat oversees the foundation’s work to celebrate and support small music venues where musicians begin their careers and develop their craft.
Previously, she served as Vice President, Concerts and Touring, for Jazz at Lincoln Center, where she oversaw hundreds of season performances and tours featuring Wynton Marsalis, Ron Carter, Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, and many more. She has led co-productions with City Center Encores! and artistic collaborations with partners including The Barbican Centre London, HopeBoykinDance, and Sesame Workshop. She is a fellow of the Executive Program in Arts and Culture Strategy at the University of Pennsylvania and holds a BFA in Jazz Performance from The New School. Cat lives in New York City and her daughter is twenty years old.
UK Jazz News: What is the best advice you received about balancing/juggling parenthood and career?
CH: The best advice I received was from one of the many friends who made it possible for me to continue my career, “Don’t worry so much, we’ve got you!” As a single parent, without my parents or siblings to lean on for childcare, I relied on a core group of amazing women and men without whom I would not have survived. They were there for practical as well as moral support. I knew I could phone someone if rehearsals went long and my kid needed to be picked up from after-school, or if I was walking away from backstage at 2am and needed a sleepover plan. When your job involves a lot of nights and weekends it’s fun and sometimes necessary to bring your kid to work, but a regular bedtime on a school night may be wiser. I did bring Lila, my daughter, with me as much as possible and it was a thrill to introduce her to great music and the magical glow of backstage, and she also got to have some very cool sleepovers with kids who are now her close friend group. Now that she is at university, she reminisces about falling asleep in dressing rooms and having the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra keeping an eye on her so she doesn’t run off into FOH!
UKJN: What information or advice do you wish you’d received but didn’t (and had to learn through trial and error or on the go)?
CH: Well, again, being from the UK and arriving in America so young, I wish someone had explained how the healthcare system works…or doesn’t work. I didn’t realize what I was leaving behind, so I was uninsured for the first six years I was in New York, a precarious position in which you’re considered a third class citizen and must pay full freight for doctor visits and medicines – hundreds and often thousands of dollars if you fall seriously ill. It’s known to bankrupt folks, so I was doing my best to stay healthy, singing and waiting tables and keeping my fingers crossed. During my four years at college, I accessed the student health center, but once I graduated I couldn’t see a way forward without getting a ‘real job’ that had health benefits. I’m sure there are tips and tricks that all musicians still use, and thankfully Obama’s signature program, the Affordable Care Act, has had a positive effect, but the system makes being an artist an existential risk in more ways than one.
UKJN: Your top tip(s) for other parents in jazz:
CH: I started meditating during lockdown and never looked back. It helped so much with having a 15 year old who was confined to a 600 sqft apartment with her mum, dreading online school and missing all the things that make life wonderful at age 15. So, my advice is, if you haven’t tried it, it might transform your ability to cope, your ability to create, and your relationship with your kid(s).
UKJN: How does being a parent influence and shape the work you do as a producer and presenter/curator?
CH: One of the many things I love about jazz is the philosophy of ‘each one, teach one’ and the emphasis given to passing down to younger musicians (and music fans) wisdom, stories, and opportunities to try new things without feeling judged. This love for the development of young people is at the heart of good parenting and great jazz pedagogy. For the festival, we often pair the concerts with workshops for local high school students, and this year we’re extending the event by hosting the Trill Mega Jam led by the unstoppable Melanie Charles. It’s an extension of her Make Jazz Trill Again movement, which is an open and welcoming creative community. We welcome anyone in the Hudson Valley, young or old, with an instrument and a desire to play.
UKJN: What is one way that figures or structures in the jazz industry could better support parents who are working jazz musicians?
CH: I don’t think it’s up to the jazz industry to support parents who are musicians, I think it’s up to the US government to better support all working parents and their kids, through affordable housing, universal healthcare, and quality, free music education.
UKJN: What has surprised you about becoming a parent and remaining engaged with your professional activities and ambitions?
CH: I think every artist/creator/parent will agree that nurturing a small person’s creative spirit as well as your own is all part of the same path towards sustaining your soul. It’s the ultimate creative project in which artists lead by example, to show how self-expression can enrich one’s life and the lives of others. I used to joke that raising my kid was my ‘most challenging and successful production’, but despite the hardships, I wouldn’t change a thing.
The annual Hudson Jazz Festival, located in the bucolic town of Hudson, New York will be from 4 to 6 October. It presents a free Community Day on September 28th.
(*) Parents in Jazz was started (first as ‘Mothers In Jazz’) by vocalist Nicky Schrire in August 2022. The initiative aims to create an online resource for jazz industry professionals with children, those contemplating parenthood, and jazz industry figures who work with and hire musicians who are parents. The insight of the musicians and administrators interviewed for this series provides valuable emotional, philosophical and logistical information and support that is easily accessible to all. “Parents In Jazz” shines a light on the very specific role of being both a parent and a performing jazz musician or jazz arts professional.
