Friends explore music and spoken word on stage at TEDxSalem Saturday

Chris Ross and Nathan Olsen, two accom­plished and unique souls, will share their long-stand­ing friend­ship on stage for the first time in the form of a musi­cal con­ver­sa­tion at TEDxSalem Sat­ur­day.

One will play the key­board. The oth­er will speak.

The dis­cus­sion will tack­le themes such as how to make things bet­ter, the pas­sage of time, com­ing and going, trust­ing our­selves, and how to be thought­ful­ly inten­tion­al. The idea of play and being play­ful will thread through­out the con­ver­sa­tion; Chris with words, Nathan with music. The audi­ence will expe­ri­ence all the feels on the jour­ney with them through their vision of RE.

Chris has been in Salem about 15 years after liv­ing in Upstate New York, Ari­zona and Cal­i­for­nia. We can thank his wife who prompt­ed the move to Ore­gon after tak­ing a job teach­ing law at Willamette Uni­ver­si­ty.

By day Chris teach­es preschool here in Salem. He also works with the Her­itage School, a small K – 8 pri­vate school, also in Salem. He has been work­ing with chil­dren for 40 years. He says he is very play­ful, and the chil­dren keep him young.

When he isn’t work­ing with kids or spend­ing time out­doors with his fam­i­ly, he oper­ates his very small “Uber ser­vice” (his words) which trans­ports his daugh­ters to and from their many activ­i­ties.

“I like things that go in a lot of direc­tions at the same time,” Chris said. He likes to see lay­ers of things and inter­pre­ta­tions from dif­fer­ing views. It makes sense then, that he is a world trav­el­er, hav­ing seen every con­ti­nent but Antarc­ti­ca. Don’t wor­ry, it is on his list.

It was dif­fi­cult for him to give me favorites. “I like to like things,” he said. So, in keep­ing with his love of trav­el, he loves all types of music and food.

As for his stage part­ner Nathan Olsen, they have been friends a long time and have often talked about how to do a per­for­mance like this. The oppor­tu­ni­ty has final­ly pre­sent­ed itself.

Nathan is a Salem-based, self-taught musi­cian who works as a con­sul­tant, teacher, com­pos­er, and per­former. He majored in com­mu­ni­ca­tions in col­lege and worked in pub­lic rela­tions for a while before final­ly decid­ing to fol­low his pas­sion. Accord­ing to his web­page biog­ra­phy, he has an exten­sive resume and plays in a vari­ety of music gen­res. He will say, though, that his favorite music includes Funk and Jazz Fusion.

And he is proud that, “After many years work­ing as a side­man, this year I’m final­ly fronting my own instru­men­tal Jazz/Funk trio.”

Rather than words, he uses music to express his thoughts and feel­ings. He “lets his fin­gers do the talk­ing.”

Hear this unique con­ver­sa­tion of words, music and friend­ship with Chris and Nathan at TEDxSalem Sat­ur­day.

Chris Ross

Home­town: Pitts­burgh, New York

Edu­ca­tion: BA in Busi­ness and Psy­chol­o­gy from State col­leges in New York; MA in Edu­ca­tion, North­ern Ari­zona Uni­ver­si­ty

Fam­i­ly: Wife, War­ren, and two daugh­ters still in school

Hob­bies: ski­ing, hik­ing, moun­tain climb­ing, camp­ing

Favorite recent movie: The Post, Black Pan­ther

Favorite music: Music of all kinds. Grew up on jazz, blue­grass, music fes­ti­vals and hun­dreds of Grate­ful Dead shows

 

Nathan Olsen

Home­town: Salem, OR (moved here in 3^rd grade)

Edu­ca­tion: Radio Broad­cast­ing at Mt Hood Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege, Com­mu­ni­ca­tions at Maryl­hurst Uni­ver­si­ty

Fam­i­ly: One broth­er, His par­ents are founders of and teach­ers at Her­itage School

Hob­bies: hik­ing – he feels “con­tin­u­al­ly for­tu­nate to live in the Pacif­ic North­west

Favorite recent movie: The orig­i­nal Star Wars tril­o­gy

Favorite music: Funk and Jazz Fusion

 

TEDxSalem VI

TEDxSalem VI is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag. It runs 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sat­ur­day, Jan. 5 at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Tick­ets are on sale now for $55, $45 for stu­dents. Fol­low us on Face­book for the most up-to-date news from our com­mu­ni­ty, and check our web­site reg­u­lar­ly for new infor­ma­tion. You can also reach us at info@tedxsalem.com.