Verna Gillis: Ethnomusicologist, Producer, Manager, Writer

Conversations with Musicians, with Leah Roseman

07/01/23

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102m

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It’s hard to sum up how important Verna Gillis has been for music lovers. First of all, she is an ethnomusicologist who recorded traditional music around the world including in Kashmir, Afghanistan, Iran, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Surinam, Ghana, and the United States. This episode will bring you along on some of these journeys. 25 of these recordings are available through Smithsonian Folkways and Lyrichord, and I’m very grateful to Smithsonian Folkways for allowing us to use some of these tracks for this specific episode. The albums that this music comes from are linked here in the show notes, where you'll find the video version, transcript, and photo gallery from Verna's career: ⁠https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/verna-gillis⁠

In 1979 Verna opened Soundscape, the first multi-cultural performance space in New York City, which put on hundreds of performances over 5 years. You’ll also hear Verna reminisce about her work on career development with phenomenal international musicians including Youssou N’dour from Senegal, Salif Keita from Mali, and Carlinhos Brown from Brazil. As a producer, Verna was twice nominated for a GRAMMY award for two of the albums she produced with Roswell Rudd. She’s also a writer and spoken word performer. We’ve included in this episode one of her recent spoken word videos with British musician Jennifer Maidman. There’s so much more in this episode, and I hope a wide audience will be inspired by Verna Gillis’ reflections on her remarkable life in music.

Previous Episode

Frédéric Moisan: Languages, Life-balance and Learning the violin

June 24, 2023

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94m

I’m joined by my colleague in Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, violinist Frédéric Moisan. Originally from the Breton town of Saint-Brieuc in France, he immigrated to Finland and then Canada. In this wide-ranging conversation we talked about wind-surfing,family, languages, different cultures’ approaches to education, the challenges of playing the violin, the original version of the Sibelius violin concerto (which was the subject of Fred’s Doctoral Dissertation), life balance, and fly fishing. We talked about the differences between being a freelancer to being an orchestra member; Fred has great advice for colleagues and students preparing auditions, and you can find these various topics in the timestamps. Like all my episodes, this is available as both a video on my YouTube, and a podcast wherever you listen to podcasts; the transcript is also linked on my website: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/frdric-moisan

Finally, do check out the link to my Ko-fi page in the description, since I really need my listeners’ support to keep this project going!

https://ko-fi.com/leahroseman

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(02:12) growing up in Brittany, studies in France, the Conservatoire system

(09:52) moving to Finland

(20:45) violin studies with Anne-Marie De Boisgisson, windsurfing, education systems

(29:07) please help me keep this series going: Ko-fi support page linked!

(29:35) Anne-Marie De Boisgisson

(30:26) different education systems Finland, France, Canada

(37:20) Fred’s parents, grandparents, the loss of his mother

(48:05) reflections on parenting and balancing life, bringing up multi-lingual children

(54:25) differences between freelancing and having an orchestra job

(01:00:31) orchestra auditions

(01:05:06) violin practice routines

(01:09:00) Sibelius violin concerto original version

(01:14:50) performing as a soloist with orchestra

(01:17:02) goals and aspirations for music students

(01:24:24) Breton language and culture

(01:27:33) fly-fishing and the benefit of hobbies

Next Episode

Kelly Thoma: Lyra Player and the Magic of the Labyrinth Musical Workshop

July 8, 2023

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111m

Kelly Thoma is a Greek musician who plays the Cretan lyra player and this episode has beautiful music and a wide-ranging conversation including Kelly’s personal story of becoming a musician after training as a dancer, Cretan culture, the influence of Ross Daly and the Labyrinth Musical Workshop which he founded in 1982. Kelly speaks so eloquently about her love of music and collaboration; I really appreciate this opportunity to have in-depth conversations with my musical guests; please use the timestamps if you want to jump to any topics or music, but I hope you’ll take the time to listen to the whole episode on your favourite podcast player or the video on my YouTube. Show notes and transcript linked here as well: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/kelly-thoma

Please support this series! I really do need my listensers' help and every dollar is appreciated: https://ko-fi.com/leahroseman

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(02:12) Crete, the lyra, Ross Daly

(12:13) lyra duo Kelly with Ross “Anamkhara”

(18:49) how Kelly discovered the music of Ross Daly and changed her life

(33:24) learning and teaching music

(43:34)cellist Mayu Shviro

(44:43) duo with Mayu Shviro “Kontylies”

(51:04) Mayu Shviro

(53:29) “Flutter” Kelly Thoma quartet from the album Anamkhara. Mayu Shviro, Paavlos Spyropoulos, Kirill Osherov

(57:28) TOKSO quartet