By Kevin Murphy Wilson • Photos Provided By Music for a Purpose
Julia Cash primarily makes music to create positive change. Although Cash’s long and winding musical journey has taken her all over the world, Louisville is still the hometown of her heart. Accordingly, her locally-based 501c3, Music for a Purpose, keeps her busy producing and promoting constantly varied performances and programs that all support other nonprofit organizations in the area. Past beneficiary partners have included the Healing Place, Olmsted Parks, Louisville Climate Action Network and Maryhurst.
This month there will be two dynamic performances, one at Bellarmine University on Jan. 10, the other at Highland Presbyterian Church on Jan. 11, designed to benefit Kentucky Refugee Ministries. Both concerts will revolve around music for strings and piano featuring Cash alongside her like-minded highly-regarded peers Anna Petrova, Geoff Herd, Paola Caballero and Tahirah Whittngton. Ahead of these shows, we recently caught up with Cash for a quick look backwards and forwards.
VT: Can you tell us a bit about your background?
JC: “The Cash family has been in Kentucky since 1789. I grew up in the Crescent Hill neighborhood [of Louisville], where my family moved when I was one year old. Crescent Hill was, and is, a great place to grow up, with Cherokee Park, the Peterson Dumesnil House, and Frankfort Ave. I attended the Brown School downtown and Atherton High school.”
VT: What put you on the musical path? Who were some of your major influences in terms of composers or players?
JC: “My parents met while studying piano at U of L and both hold degrees in performance. I started piano lessons at age 4, but too much parental ‘help’ hastened a switch to the violin at age 6. My first teacher, Barbara Meek, was a longtime violinist in the Louisville Orchestra, and she helped inspire my love of those concerts. Music was always in our house with my mother teaching and performing. Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Chopin were all early favorites.”
VT: Were there any particular folks along the way who helped mentor you or nurture your craft?
JC: “I would credit the Brown School with a lot of my early creative thinking skills. From the 4th-12th grade my participation in the Louisville Youth Orchestra inspired me to do well, and ultimately be a concertmaster. During the later years, I was the student of Michael Davis, concertmaster of the L.O. Once I left Louisville for college, I had a fantastic experience at New England Conservatory studying with James Buswell. That really shaped me well for a professional career. I won a grant that allowed me to study in Germany for 2 years and then on to an Artist Diploma at the Royal Dutch Conservatory in the Hague, plus summer festivals in Italy.”
VT: Please explain the impetus for Music for a Purpose and describe its mission.
JC: “For some time, I have been wanting to find a way to use music to make an impact on the world. I never really considered a career other than music, but I wanted to create positive change in so many issues outside of music such as climate, social justice, etc. Wanting to create a better world for my daughters is also a huge drive. During the pandemic, I came up with the idea that Music for a Purpose could share the joy of music making and at the same time focus the spotlight on important current issues and charitable needs. Concerts are funded by private grants and individual donors making them free to the public, but then the audience is asked to make contributions to the partner charity for each program. All funds raised by our performances go directly to our local partner organizations. Last year we raised over $17,000 for local causes and we hope to do even better this year.”
VT: What makes the current beneficiary, KRM, special to you?
JC: “Kentucky Refugee Ministries is a local organization created to compassionately welcome and serve the world’s displaced people It encourages the hope that lives within each human being by providing an atmosphere of hospitality, responsiveness, mutual respect, trust and tolerance. It also broadens cultural awareness throughout the community and holds a personal connection for me. My childhood best friend here in Louisville, her mother, Donna Craig, founded Kentucky Refugee Ministries through our church after a mission trip to Latin America. It has now grown into an organization that has helped over 30,000 people, from around the world, call Kentucky home. The inspiration of that has been a cornerstone of Music for a Purpose.”
For more information visit musicforapurpose.org.
