I’m Khara Wolf, a lifelong musician, composer, and educator whose creative journey began with a single unforgettable moment. In 2001, I was sitting beneath a tent at the Pagosa Folk Festival, only a few rows from the stage. Bela Fleck and the Flecktones were performing, and I had never heard live music before. The energy, the interplay, the joy—it was unlike anything I’d ever experienced.
Then Chris Thile stepped on stage for a tune, and something extraordinary happened. The air was charged with sound and spirit—music transpiring in real time. When the final note hung in the air, the audience erupted into an involuntary standing ovation right in the middle of the set. It was electric.
At the time, I had only been playing the oboe for a couple of months. I remember sitting there, jaw on the floor, completely overwhelmed by what I’d just witnessed.
Later, walking back to the car under the still night sky, I carried that feeling with me—something between awe and certainty. I knew, without question, that music was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. That spark still drives me today: to create, to teach, and to pass along that same sense of wonder to others.
~ Khara ~
