(curious music) - I have the video of this actually of me playing a theremin for the first time.

(weird electronic music) I was terrible.

It was like one of those light bulb moments in life.

This is it.

This is my instrument.

(theremin buzzing) And here it is.

And it's the weirdest instrument in the land.

(theremin buzzing) I started doing virtual music lessons.

- This is my second time doing ukulele camp.

I'm super excited.

(mellow ukulele music) (indistinct) - You're just greasing the old machine, the gears.

The biggest one for everyone is fear.

Like fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of not being good enough when we're about to put ourselves out there and do something really vulnerable which is what art is because you're literally making something out of nothing.

And that's very scary.

Instead of using that fear and as a sign to like run as far as you can in the other direction, if you can instead use it as a sign, "Hey, pay attention because what's on the other side of this is going to be like crazier and more interesting than you could ever imagine.

(upbeat music) (indistinct) Trying to make my own jazz band, I had no idea what I was doing.

Matt, my fiance, I started singing with his band and he has taught me a lot.

And he's amazing.

You won't meet a better band leader.

It's all New Orleans inspired.

So Louis Prima and Louis Armstrong, of course, that's like a very high energy, super fun, like swing in band, just fantastic musicians.

One of the many projects in my head that I had planned is to do a jazz album with the theremin being the main instrument.

(lively jazz music) It is the first electronic instrument that was ever invented.

It was invented in 1920, so 101 years ago.

This is actually the last theremin that Bob Moog had a hand in designing before he passed away.

This is called the Etherwave Pro.

So this is how it works.

You have to antenna on either side.

This is the pitch antenna, this is the volume antenna.

And how you are maneuvering your hands is basically like your fretboard as it were.

Your line of pitch is from your collarbone just about to the pitch antenna.

And then with the volume antenna, you're moving this hand up and down to create sound.

So it's a very like pat your stomach rub your head kind of deal.

(weird electronic music) It was such a frustrating process learning the theremin.

Like I can't stress that enough, that it is so difficult to play for many reasons.

One of the only instruments in the world played without touch.

And I had heard of this in music school, but it just like went over my head.

Didn't care until I had one in front of me.

But this is my most requested song.

(weird electronic music) I like to say that I was put into an arranged marriage with music because I've had it all my life.

And we've gone through all of these phases together.

When I was five, my mom got me this teeny tiny little violin and said, "Caroline, you're going to play violin."

That was the beginning of my musical career.

My mom wouldn't let me quit (laughs).

So I just had to kind of go with it.

My youngest memories of running through Colonial Williamsburg are with my mom.

My family's been in this area for a very long time.

And my great grandfather built this building right here.

His name was Webster Hitchens.

This is the Hitchens Building.

And my parents both being entrepreneurs, it runs in the family, they opened this hot dog stand, hot dog hamburger joint called Retros back when I was in middle school.

And so this was my real job, I guess, as it were either than being a Colonial Williamsburg performer.

(Caroline singing opera) The most recent gig that I had at Colonial Williamsburg was I was the vocalist for their Candlelight Concert at the governor's palace.

So it's like in the ballroom and I'm completely dressed to the nines and like the gown and the corset and hoops.

And I'm singing this Baroque music like Handel, and Scarlatti.

Just playing this gorgeous music with a group of musicians playing really authentic Baroque instruments.

It was one of the coolest musical experiences of my life.

I think the reason why I connected with it that first time, it felt like a second voice, which like I said, I've always just identified as a singer first and foremost.

And so that's really what clicked.

There are very few people who play this, like technically, like as an instrument.

I think I'm up there, I think I'm on par.

I can hang, you know, (laughs).

Though it's not my main concern either.

Obviously like my concern is how can I use it to enhance my music and to experiment and to keep me inspired with sound.

There're not a lot of people out there writing songs with the theremin (laughs).

So I think automatically that just established a part of my style because this is such a rare thing.

It's just endlessly experimental.

Like you can do so much with it.

It's so versatile in ways that people don't realize because they just see it kind of as a novelty like, "Whew, weird kind of instrument."

Which it is, but it can be so much more than that.

I've definitely dreamed about making a theremin opera or something like that.

So I know that I'll spend my whole life just pushing those limits and seeing all that it can do, all the possibilities.

(eerie theremin music) Yeah, it's just so magical and weird and spacey.

(weird electronic music)