You are a unique mixture of influences and experiences, as is every other person around you.

I believe a culture, or a genre, is the meeting and mixing of individuals to form a collective joined by shared ideas or ideals. At best, a culture not only provides a social ‘home’ or spiritual ‘family’, but the collaborative power of like-­minded individuals, with all their unique influences and experiences, creates a ‘gestalt’: a result greater than the sum of its parts. However, if one, or the pervading whole, is not careful, belonging to a culture can also become a constraint on creativity and expression.

I spent a large portion of my life striving to be an integral part of one such culture: Western classical music. From before I can remember, I was determined to be a musician. My parents always had music playing in the house, but we didn’t have a lot of money, so when I was offered free viola lessons as part of the Queensland state education system, I jumped at it. I put my all...