Over the next several weeks, I had long conversations with Herscovitch about her music, passion for helping people and the possibility of pursing music full-time in the future. I spoke with musicians she recorded with and others who knew her. I wrote my story for the class and then used an abbreviated profile on Herscovitch as a sidebar story to the feature I wrote on The Acoustic Caf\u00e9 published in the Times on Nov. 1, 2001.<\/p>\n Over the next two decades, she continued to spend her days evaluating a nonprofit program, writing a grant, or testifying before a legislative committee. At night or on the weekends, she would head to a recording studio, an open mic night, or a scheduled performance while creating and releasing five more albums. As part of my avocation of hosting a music program on community radio stations in Connecticut, including WHUS, since 1996, we discussed her latest recordings both on and off the air over those 20 years.<\/p>\n With each new recording, she expanded her performances beyond Connecticut, receiving favorable reviews for her music and stage presence. The Boston Globe said she brings \u201ca luminous voice and a buoyant stage presence\u2026 big-hearted lyrics embrace the sum of life\u2026 Herscovitch\u2019s music blows on the embers of a lagging spirit or a dormant creative life.\u201d In 2009, she was named Connecticut\u2019s State Troubadour –an ambassador of music and song who promotes cultural literacy– and gained national attention that year during an appearance on American Public Media\u2019s \u201cA Prairie Home Companion,\u201d when the program was broadcast nationally from the Palace Theater in Waterbury.<\/p>\n Herscovitch recently completed her seventh recording, titled \u201cHighway Philosophers,\u201d and the first since becoming a full-time musician three years ago, realizing a goal she articulated when we first met.<\/p>\n ”I would love to have the opportunity to do music full time, to see how that is,” she told me in 2001. ”But maybe because I have to do both I believe that my day job feeds my music. Doing social work and working with the high caliber of people that I do in the arts, in education, in health and human services and in the environment is so incredible. They’re such good people. Working with them feeds me as a person. I like to believe that any artist is a better artist if they are balanced as an individual. I may be believing that out of necessity right now, but I’d love the opportunity to test my theory.”<\/p>\n Now in her third year as a full-time performer, and despite the time-out all performers are experiencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Herscovitch answers the question of how things are going with optimism.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, right now is a very confusing time, but overall it’s great. I am a musician at my core, and it took me a long time to get here. It’s been really rewarding to have more time to focus on it all. Any artist, I think, generally wants more time for their art,\u201d she says. \u201cI still live by that Ray Charles quote, \u2018I never wanted to be famous, I only wanted to be great.\u2019 I want to honor music and give back to what it has given me; honor it enough to just focus on growing, so I can do a better job. Now we’re in this strange new world and I’m doing most concerts online; it\u2019s a little scary to ponder the lost income, but I\u2019m an optimist at heart. I\u2019m hopeful we\u2019ll all find a way. The pandemic has helped me understand the importance of music and art in general. When I was working full-time in the public policy world, I felt like that was important work; if I\u2019m being honest, I felt like it was more important than music. Now I really see and feel how they’re both important, just in very different ways.\u201d<\/p>\n It has been a long journey, literally a global one. After completing her master\u2019s degree in policy at the School of Social Work, Herscovitch traveled around the world as an education specialist for Save the Children<\/a>, the humanitarian organization for children based in Fairfield. During six years working from the U.S. and on several continents, she carried her guitar as a traveling companion, singing and writing songs. She was preparing to pursue a doctoral degree in social policy until a friend invited her to perform with him in New York City. As she told me in 2001, \u201cEvery single light bulb in my heart and soul went off. It wasn\u2019t even a choice. I knew I had to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n From the Greater Bridgeport Area Foundation she moved to Save the Sound<\/a>, reducing her \u201cfull-time\u201d from five days a week to four, to leave more time for music; then the Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance<\/a> for the next nine years, focused on keeping children out of the juvenile and criminal justice systems.<\/p>\n![\"Lara](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/photo-Lara-Herscovitch-@-Black-Bear-Americana-Music-Festival-Oct-2019-by-Frank-Piercy-Photography-HR-4-3-crop-300x225.jpg\")
![\"Lara](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/photo-trio-Black-Bear-Oct-2019-by-John-McDaid-Lara-Herscovitch-w-Craig-Akin-and-Stephen-Murphy-300x211.jpg\")