Meet Rusty, the mews of Carleton

Cats of the Zone

At Carleton Artist Lofts, Rusty finds that serving as “relaxation mentor” for his busy owner, composer-pianist Rebecca Hass, is only part of his job. He also keeps her company at the keyboard while she composes the Brazilian-flavored pieces she’s now focusing on. Even asleep, this cat is on muse duty: his twitching feet inspired Rebecca’s one-minute piece Rusty’s Dream. And with dozens of Instagram followers for rustytcat, he takes his camera time seriously. “This shot would make a great album cover, right?” said Rebecca. Rusty thinks his equanimity also informs Rebecca’s newest role as a coach for creative wellness.

Whatever the reasons, Rebecca Hass is on a hot streak. Her debut Brazilian album Florescer is out now, and her first trio composition premiered in March 2019.

Rebecca’s podcast Being a Whole Person launched its first season on March 21 as well. Cohosted with astrologer Alexandria Rollet, it’s for creative business owners looking to integrate their entrepreneurial selves with spirituality and self-care. Through her own multi-faceted career as performer, composer, arranger, writer, and teacher—at Chanson and now at MacPhail— Rebecca has some hard-won wisdom on those subjects.

As a personal coach for creatives, Rebecca offers a variety of online options, from single sessions to ongoing consults. “I help people organize their lives sustainably,” she said. That might mean finding ways to work in shorter bursts, like her own 100-day experiment with composing eight measures a day. It might mean learning to recognize the red flags— “even the pink flags”— that signal an energy drain. It might mean discovering what small daily changes will yield more joy, deepening the creative well.

It might even mean finding a relaxation mentor.