Chuck Copenace Healing and Community

Conversations with Musicians, with Leah Roseman

02/10/24

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99m

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Chuck Copenace is a Winnipeg-based Ojibway musician and we talk about Chuck’s excellent album Oshki Manitou, which expands his work as a trumpet player, arranger, and composer. He’s woven together ceremonial sweat-lodge melodies with jazz, funk, dance and electronica and this episode features tracks from that album. He’s such a powerfully lyrical trumpet player, and you’ll be deeply touched to hear his inspiring story of moving through trauma and addiction to helping others through counseling and music. Chuck talked to me about his experience of growing up Indigenous, how intergenerational trauma from the residential schools affected his life, and how he was able to get sober and find healing in Indigineous ceremonial traditions. You’ll hear about his university experience at Brandon university studying with Alan Ehnes, how he became a counselor through the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba, and found his way back to a life in music. He spoke of his hope for the future of Indigenous youth, working with Julia Keefe’s Indigenous Big Band, and his upcoming projects. Please check out Chuck’s website: https://www.chuckcopenace.com/

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Like all my episodes, this is also available as a video on my YouTube, and the transcript is linked as well to my podcast website: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/chuck-copenace

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(02:16) Creator, getting back to music, sweat lodge ceremony

(06:26) Creator from Oshki Manitou

(10:26) learning ceremonial songs, recording the album

(14:12) Indian Act, suppression of Indigenous spiritual and cultural practices like the sweat lodge

(15:45) intro to Nothing Simple

(17:03) Nothing Simple live video from Revelstoke

(21:36) Indigenous peoples in Winnipeg

(22:56) the origin of Oshki Manitou

(26:12) Oshki Manitou

(30:13) Chuck’s son

(30:53) check out past episodes and support the show

(31:31) school music programs

(35:00) how music helped Chuck deal with inter-generational trauma, getting sober

(46:53) growing up Indigenous, the way history is taught

(50:27) residential schools and hope for the future

(58:22) excerpt from Little Sunflower from Oshki Manitou

(59:20) Indigineous mentorship, Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band

(01:07:29) Chuck’s music education, Alan Ehnes Brandon

(01:16:47) Addictions Foundation of Manitoba, recovery and burnout

(01:24:36) finding a path in music again

(01:35:18) next projects, sharing his story, youth workshops

Previous Episode

Frank Horvat: Discovering Meaning and Fellowship Through Challenges

February 3, 2024

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77m

Frank Horvat is an acclaimed Canadian composer and pianist whose music has been featured on over 20 albums. In this episode you’ll hear how he has forged meaningful collaborations with a wide range of musicians internationally, and found and given solace to audiences through his focus on themes of mental health, the climate crisis, and social justice. We start this episode with his Arctic Circle Residency.

Frank Horvat is so prolific and involved in so many diverse projects, with music in many styles, that we could only focus on a few of his works in this podcast episode, including with the SHHH!!! Ensemble, the Odin Quartet, flutist Christopher Lee and soprano Meredith Hall. We talked about his Music for Self-Isolation, and his wonderful initiative, the Piano Therapy Virtual Tour, that pairs his music with his personal mental health challenges and coping strategies. I also asked him about The Green Keys Tour, in which he performed his work Earth Hour in dark halls across North America, travelling in a sustainable way. We also got into some of his current projects, Trees.Listen with Sharlene Wallace inspired by the work of Dr. Diana Beresford-Kroeger , and More Rivers, commissioned by Christina Petrowska Quilico and inspired by the work of Ann Southam.

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Frank Horvat website: https://frankhorvat.com/

Follow this podcast on social media: https://linktr.ee/leahroseman

You can also watch this podcast on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/ViolinLessonOnline

Timestamps

(00:00) Intro

(02:22) Arctic Circle Residency

(15:00) SHHH!! Ensemble

Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene, creative process and excerpts

(24:51) Frank Horvat composing in different styles, finding new inspirations

(28:48) Music for Self-Isolation, music performed by Christopher Lee

(40:50) please support this podcast! Thanks

(41:26) Piano Therapy Virtual Tour, talking about mental health

(54:54) Odin quartet excerpt from the Four Seasons in High Park

(55:07) Frank’s start as a composer

(58:00) The Green Keys Tour

(01:01:13) excerpt Orbital Tour of CIties at Night from album Fractures with Meredith Hall

(01:04:140) new project Trees.Listen with Sharlene Wallace, Dr. Diana Beresford-Kroeger

(01:11:19) More Rivers, Christina Petrowska Quilico, Ann Southam

Next Episode

Euclid Quartet

February 17, 2024

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91m

This week's episode is unusual because 4 musicians are featured, the members of the Euclid Quartet. They are a world-class string quartet celebrating their 25th anniversary with a fantastic album of short pieces, entitled Breve, and we are featuring several pieces from that album as part of this episode. Breve album: https://breve.hearnow.com/

You’ll get to know each member of the quartet, which is in residence at Indiana University South Bend: Jameson Cooper, violinist and founding member originally from England; you’ll hear about his experiences as a student of Dorothy Delay, and Roland and Almita Vamos. He also talked about the formative years of the quartet and the nuts and bolts of learning repertoire. The other violinist in the quartet is Aviva Hakanoglu, who holds degrees from Harvard, Indiana University and Stony Brook university and was a student of Philip Setzer, and it was really interesting to hear about her experience auditioning for the quartet and her perspectives on community outreach and as an educator. Violist Luis Enrique Vargas is a long-time member of the Euclid quartet, and started his life in music in Venezuela at the age of 14, and spoke about introducing Latin American composers to his colleagues. Finally cellist Justin Goldsmith is the newest member of the quartet. When he was completing his Master’s degree at Indiana University he formed the Vera quartet which held residencies at both IU and the Curtis Institute of Music, where he was also a Community Artist Fellow. I was curious to learn more about the many roles the quartet plays in their capacities as performers, educators and collaborators, and to hear them speak about the special joys and challenges of being members of a full-time quartet.

Like all my episodes, you can also watch this on my YouTube channel, and I’ve also linked the transcript to my website: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/euclid-quartet

Euclid Quartet website: https://www.euclidquartet.com/biography

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(04:46) Jameson Cooper, getting into chamber music, putting the album Breve together

(08:12) Luis Enrique Vargas Latin Amercian composers

(10:07) Metro Chabacano by Javier Alvarez

(14:05) American Masterpieces grant, diversity of representation in programming, youth outreach

(16:50) the career of a string quartet incorporating outreach and education, Rehearsing Philadelphia

(21:22) intro to Italian Serenade, Aviva on the challenge of recording

(22:29) excerpt from Italian Serenade by Hugo Wolf

(23:45) rehearsal process

(25:20) Jameson the early years of the Quartet, Aspen

(29:58) James Cooper studies with Dorothy DeLay, Roland and Almita Vamos, Masao Kawasaki