Meet Megan Natoli

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Megan Natoli a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Megan, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

When reflecting upon my strengths as a person, I have always considered resilience to be one of them, though the truth is that resilience is often built from the ashes of adversity encountered along the way.

As a classical musician, my path towards resilience began at a young age. I first began playing the flute at the age of 9 through my elementary school band program and quickly fell in love with music. I went on to earn a Bachelor of Music in Flute Performance and Music Management from The Hartt School, a Graduate Professional Diploma in Flute Performance from The Hartt School, and a Master of Music in Flute Performance from Manhattan School of Music. As an active freelance musician taking orchestral auditions, I have failed more times than I can count. However, I have always believed that those experiences have fueled my sense of resilience and ability to focus on the process rather than the end result, propelling me to success.

In 2018, my health significantly impacted my ability to continue on my path as a full-time freelance musician. I was diagnosed with multiple chronic illnesses that would require extensive surgery, traveling out of state for care, and a convoluted path to healing. In 2020 prior to the release of the COVID-19 vaccines, I had severe complications from a surgery and found myself alone in a hospital eleven hours from home in the throes of sepsis fighting for my life, requiring two additional emergency surgeries. This experience completely changed the landscape of my path, challenged my sense of resiliency, and is something I am deeply proud to have overcome – though overcoming it is still very much a work in progress.

In my work, I am endlessly inspired each and every day by the resilience and sacrifices made by our Veterans and service members in defending our freedoms. It is an incredible privilege and a great honor to bring my experiences in the performing arts to our military community.

Through these experiences, I have come to believe that a critical piece of resilience is recognizing that I do not have the strength to be strong all of the time. I believe resilience is about cultivating a strong sense of self-love and respect, meeting myself where I am with grace, and savoring the joyful moments so that I can be the best version of myself each and every day.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

At Challenge America, it is our mission to connect service members, Veterans, and their families to resources and solutions that build community and give purpose to their lives. To achieve this mission, our team leverages innovation, the creative arts, and community-building strategies. From the beginning, we set out to challenge the status quo by designing and scaling innovative, evidence-based solutions to the needs of the military community – no matter where they live. By leveraging technology, the creative arts, and community solidarity, we are challenging America to think differently about how we serve our military.

We integrate community building into every aspect of our programs and services. Our four week long Virtual Music Therapy Retreat Program leverages technology and the healing power of music to help Veterans cope with the diagnosis or symptoms of PTSD and MST. Facilitated by a Board-Certified Challenge America Music Therapist in collaboration with Challenge America’s roster of professional Songwriters, these retreats connect Veterans to music, themselves, and to one another.

Each retreat enrolls ten Veterans with a diagnosis or symptoms of PTSD or MST, including but not limited to anxiety and/or depression as it relates to trauma. All retreat content is designed from a trauma-informed music therapy approach. Veterans connect through a group format with the Music Therapist and a 1:1 format with a professional Songwriter. Veterans co-write a song of their choice, which is then performed by the Songwriter and/or the Veteran during a virtual concert that friends and family are invited to attend.

Created by Veterans, for Veterans, the Challenge America Veteran Arts Community (CAVARTS) is the result of a rich collaboration between our team and The HeartStrings Foundation. CAVARTS is the latest innovation in a five-year effort to build an inclusive community that brings together Veterans of various backgrounds who support one another as they connect, learn, and grow through the arts. CAVARTS offers our current and former service members an opportunity to share their art, support fellow artists, learn new skills, and more. CAVARTS is a safe and supportive community where Veterans can leverage their creativity and the power of the arts to regain a sense of purpose and belonging in their lives. As an arts community, CAVARTS comes together through the highs and the lows, lifting one another up during hardship, celebrating wins, reminiscing over shared stories, and connecting over a shared love of the arts.

Launched in 2018, the Military Sisterhood Initiative (MSI) is a national peer support network of and for women of the military. In effect, it’s a network built on the tried and true military concept of having your sister’s “six”. Designed by military women, the Military Sisterhood Initiative aspires to connect and empower every military sister in the country. Members provide support for one other and build connections through shared experiences in mental health, MST, PTSD, art, cooking, and more.

As the Program Director for Challenge America, I proudly lead the strategic planning and oversee program execution of our Music Therapy Retreat program, manage our community partnerships, and help cultivate a safe haven of art and camaraderie in our two online communities for Veterans and active duty service members. I have always been passionate about utilizing the arts to create change. It has been a great honor to serve our military community in such a meaningful and impactful way and to bring virtual creative arts resources, workshops, and content to Veterans across the U.S. and beyond.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

It is no secret that the field of the performing arts is incredibly competitive. There is an all too common perception that artists need to work all hours of the day every day. I have found that this line of thinking not only inhibits my creative potential, but takes the joy out of making music. Because of this line of thinking, I was afraid to step into the full-time administrative side of the arts for a number of years because I naively thought that it would be the end of my career as a musician. In reality, it’s been quite the opposite.

Transitioning into a job that takes care of me with consistent work and compensation, provides me with health benefits, paid time off, and more structure to my schedule has been the most freeing experience as a musician and the biggest act of self-love I have shown myself in my career thus far. The structure of a full-time salaried position is something I am deeply grateful to have access to, as this is not the norm in the performing arts world. To be able to have all of that in addition to doing such meaningful work on a team that truly values me feels like an immense privilege.

If I could go back in time, I would tell myself that I am not any less of a musician because I have chosen to dedicate more of my time to an organization that provides me with so much in return. In fact, it’s quite the opposite – I believe that wearing many different hats is an integral part of what it means to be an artist in the 21st century.

Like any profession, there are many different ways to live the life of an artist and find fulfillment. To everyone reading this article across all professions, I encourage you to seek balance between your work and personal life, listen to your body, and treat yourself with grace and self-love in the process.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

We are always looking for ways to expand our network and resources available to the Veteran community we serve! Here’s how you can support Challenge America:

– Make a tax-deductible donation of any amount here: https://www.challengeamerica.com/donate

– Encourage Veterans you know to check out our online communities CAVARTS and the Military Sisterhood Initiative:

The Challenge America communities, CAVARTS and the Military Sisterhood Initiative, are filled with incredible people who have spent years in various branches of the military before returning home to civilian life. In the Challenge America Veteran Arts Community (CAVARTS), members bring their talents, passions and art together to create a vibrant and open space where arts are celebrated. In the Military Sisterhood Initiative (MSI), women Veteran members create a forgiving and friendly space where camaraderie and sisterhood are valued. We are always grateful to have these incredible people in our communities and look forward to a future where we can grow and bring even more programs to each community. Membership is free. If you are a Veteran or service member interested in learning more or joining, visit www.cavarts.org or www.militarysisterhoodinitiative.org and click “request to join.”

– Help spread the word about the work we do by telling your friends and family about Challenge America or creating a social media post

– Interested in partnering with us?
Our Program Sponsors and Community Partners take pride in advancing the impact and scale of specific Challenge America initiatives. Opportunities for engagement range from title sponsorship to supporting sponsor levels. When you join the Challenge America sponsorship community, you join a growing number of prominent businesses and foundations that value community and innovation.

To learn more about Challenge America or partner with us, please visit our website at www.challengeamerica.com or reach out to me at [email protected]

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