Episode 2.5 - Ciara Glasheen-Artem
Episode 5 features Dr. Ciara Glasheen-Artem, an educator, performer, and traveler. We talk with Ciara about music education in Ireland, the importance of sharing ideas internationally, and her unique career path. Full transcripts to all episodes are created by Hollyn Slykhuis and are listed below!
To learn more about Ciara and all recommended groups and resources, check out the links below!
Full Transcript
Carrie Blosser 0:03
Welcome to Diversify the Stand. Together we build a community to listen and learn from the stories and experiences of passionate musicians. I'm Carrie Blosser
Ashley Killam 0:12
And I'm Ashley Killam. In our second season, we talked with musicians, performers, educators, historians, and entrepreneurs to expand how we think of the music we perform and follow non-traditional career paths.
Carrie Blosser 0:26
Episode Five features Dr. Ciara Glasheen-Artem. She's the Conservatory Coordinator and Lecturer of Oboe and Classroom Teaching at MTU Cork School of Music. Dr. Glasheen-Artem is an educator, performer, traveler, has received multiple grants to do her schooling in the United States, and now tours with Camerata Ireland. It was so exciting to hear about her upbringing and how she's gotten into the roles she is. Well, thank you so much for joining us, Ciara.
Dr. Ciara Glasheen-Artem 0:53
Thank you so much for having me on. It's very pleasant to be here.
Carrie Blosser 0:57
So we would love to hear a little bit about your backgrounds and how you ended up as the Conservatory Coordinator at the MTU Cork School of Music.
Dr. Ciara Glasheen-Artem 1:06
Absolutely. So, and I get to go way back, because my musical love and love of music generally goes way back to my childhood. And my parents are not musicians, but they love music. And were very supportive of myself and my brother Rory in our musical endeavors. And from a very young age, we were thrown into the world of music, and initially as Irish traditional musicians. So at the age of seven, I started playing the tin whistle. And my brother Rory, when he was seven started playing the bodhram, which is the Irish drum. And that was where our musicianship and musical life started. And at that kind of very young age. And so that's where we started, we both kind of transitioned away at some points, at various different points in our lives to classical music. So I became a flute player, classical flute player initially, and spent most of my youth playing classical flute, in bands and orchestras and things like that, then deciding that this is the life that I want, I want to be a musician, I want to be a music teacher. So I did my Bachelor of Music at the, which was then the CIT Cork School of Music. And following that I studied in the Netherlands for a year. And I took lessons there and did a bit of playing. And it was around that point I started playing with Camerata Ireland, which is an all-Ireland chamber orchestra. And I also did my graduate diploma in education at that point, or my equivalent of a teaching certification in Ireland, for teaching high school music. But that wasn't enough for me, because I love studying. So I went to—and I decided that I wasn't totally content with my oboe playing. I wanted to learn more, I wanted to explore more and get different influences from outside Ireland, from outside Europe. So I went to the University of Colorado in Boulder, and I did my masters and loved it so much that I stayed and did my doctorate before I then moved home to Ireland, and I started teaching at the Cork School of Music at that point, and a year after I moved home and after a year of teaching in the school, I was very very lucky to be offered the Conservatoire Coordinator role. And I've been there since, in that role since 2017. So that's kind of your whistlestop tour of my life so far. And I suppose you know how my life has has brought me to this point.
Carrie Blosser 4:02
And Ciara tell me again, you switch from from flute you were in, was it high school that you switch to oboe, or was it when you were in college?
Dr. Ciara Glasheen-Artem 4:11
Yes. So I was a flute player until I was 19. So I started playing the oboe when I was 19, which is obviously for, you know, classical musicians quite late. It's kind of a strange story, that one. So my mom, when I was in my last year of high school, and we do big state exams that year, and kind of like SATs I'm guessing something kind of equivalent to that. And my mom very badly broke her leg, very badly. She couldn't walk she couldn't move. She couldn't go anywhere, do anything. And you know that useful daughter as I was then I was kind of doing everything I could to help around the house and everything and I kind of thought, God, mama always loved the oboe I'll take up the oboe. Not realizing I'd actually be torturing her by bringing, you know, beginner oboe into the house. So I started playing the oboe when I was 19. And it just clicked. And so I actually started the Bachelor of Music Program on flute in the Cork School of Music the following year, but I did all my exams on both instruments, and transitioned then into paying oboe sort of full-time when I was 21. So anything after that is all oboe-related.
Carrie Blosser 5:25
I feel like your mom was pretty happy probably to hear anything music-related that you were playing for her, even if it was beginner oboe.
Dr. Ciara Glasheen-Artem 5:32
Not so sure. I'm not so sure. But anyway, she's happy now, because it all worked out.
Ashley Killam 5:40
Well something that you had mentioned to us when we chatted the first time was that you were a Fulbright Scholar. So we were wondering what your experience was being a Fulbright Scholar, and how did you use that scholarship?
Dr. Ciara Glasheen-Artem 5:52
Absolutely, I was very, very lucky to get a Fulbright scholarship, and to go to do my master's at CU Boulder. So I suppose a bit of background to that is obviously, the funding structure that third-level tuition, college level tuition is built on is very different in Ireland versus in the States. It's very expensive in the States to go to school, as I'm sure everybody is aware. In Ireland, comparatively, just so you're aware, for one year of study, it's 3000 Euro, which is probably about $4500. That's for one year study, whereas it's a lot more expensive at CU Boulder, I know it's different from state to state and everything. But you know, it definitely would have been out of my price range to study there and pay for it myself. So, you know, Fulbright was one kind of area of funding that obviously was of interest. But it wasn't just that, for me, it was also the fact that I really loved the whole philosophy of the idea of exchange of ideas. And that both me as a visiting person and Americans traveling abroad on Fulbright scholarships to Germany or to wherever they're going both have value. I have value coming to the US to share what I, you know, my own experiences. And also I will benefit from my own experiences in the United States as well. So that really appealed to me. And that kind of idea of exchange and partnership. So that was a kind of significant part for me, before I even applied that drew me in. And being part of something bigger, as well, and a bigger community and a community of international people from around the world, that was so exciting, because I remember when I first arrived in the US, all of the Fulbright students that were starting in, I think it was Nebraska, Colorado, and New Mexico, were all sent to Nebraska for kind of a week-long get together. And there was people from all over the world, it was amazing, it was the absolute best week, because you got to meet people from different cultures, different backgrounds, you know, people from places that you know, had serious issues, be it war or poverty, you know, and then obviously, people like me, who come from very privileged backgrounds comparatively, you know, it was a really, really eye opening experience for me. And it showed me how lucky I was to have the opportunity not just to be where I was, but also to meet such fantastic vibrant people who all have such—had and are now having such exciting careers, you know, and to be in touch, be able to be in touch with them and, and everything now, and they weren't musicians, all of them, you know, they could be poets, they could be engineers, they could be, you know, biomedical chemists, you know, there was such diversity there on every level, it was just fantastic. And that's something that I've always loved is meeting people from different places and hearing their story and hearing about them, you know, their lives and traveling around the world to see, you know, how people live in different places. And you know, particularly as a musician, I think as well you know, learning about music from different places and stuff like that. And I think the the idea of the Fulbright program lined up for me so well on so many levels before I left, after I arrived, and then you know after that as well, you know, as a support system. It was it was fantastic for me to have that and I couldn't have done it without them. But I suppose for my own, I went to the University of Colorado in Boulder because I wanted to explore different kind of reed-making styles and I wanted to bring more flexibility into my playing. And so that was another thing that was what what we call my project, so to speak, you know, that was my purpose. My grand purpose, let's say, was to improve my playing, but to, you know, meet people who are playing in different styles and using different methodologies and trying to see if they work for me, and if I can incorporate them into my own playing and improve my own thing. So that's one of the reasons that I decided to go. And that's why the Fulbright worked really well for me, because it did work. Because I did change my reed style, and I did incorporate things from that. So it was, you know, it, it was very worthwhile. I mean, I was there for two years during my master's, and that's, that was the duration of my Fulbright. And it was huge. I mean, it really was, it was quite life changing for me, because prior to that, I kind of had gone through a stage where I wasn't sure if I had what it took to be a performer. You know, and I think a lot of musicians go through that, that sort of self doubt. And, you know, and we all have phases of it, but I definitely had the year prior to moving to Colorado, I had kind of decided I was going to be a high school teacher because I couldn't make it as a player, you know, I had sort of gone dark on myself, on my own ability. And I suppose it definitely, the chance to be in the US and, you know, have a Fulbright was life changing, because it showed me that actually, yes, you can do this, you know, and being from such a small country, like Ireland is tiny, we have such a tiny population, you know, I mean, and to be able to go to a place where there's such knowledge, and there's, you know, such you know, I suppose it was such an open community, I was very lucky with that, like, Colorado is a really lovely place. And, you know, everybody was so kind and so open. And I felt at home immediately, it was kind of the perfect place for me to explore my playing a little bit.
Carrie Blosser 12:19
I do think Colorado and especially Boulder is just, like, this very different place than anywhere else that I've been across the US and across the world. Like the people there and, like, the pace there is just such a different level.
Dr. Ciara Glasheen-Artem 12:30
It really is. It honestly is like Chris posed it, is it 40 square miles surrounded by reality, is what he calls it, you know. And it kind of is, you know, and I think that's, you know, like Ireland, I suppose when Chris moved, my husband is American. So when, when we moved home, and when Chris moved to Ireland for the first time, you know, we have this reputation as being very friendly and open. And we are, we are very friendly, and we are very open, and we chat away to people and you know, we are comfortable chatting with people and tourists and everything. Generally, it's true. But what I would say is, we can also be quite cliquey, in that often people don't move far from home, and their family is nearby. And they've had friends that they've had since they were in school. And that kind of very close-knit community spirit is still very much alive in Ireland. But what that means for outsiders, as I'm calling them, or blow-ins as they're often you know, known, is that it sometimes can be more difficult for them to settle in, just because we have such a tight knit community, whereas Boulder, I think everybody was a blow-in almost, you know, or at least it feels that way. And it just seems like it was the type of place that no matter where you're from, or what background you have, there's a place for you. And there's a community for you there. You know, it was definitely somewhere I felt at home straightaway.
Carrie Blosser 14:03
So we'd love to hear about your experience and your background with traditional Irish music and kind of how that was different from your time with music in the US. And then also if you’d talk a little bit about kind of music education as a whole in Ireland and kind of what that looks like. And you mentioned before different tests and how the education system works there is a lot different in the States, so I'd love to hear more.
Dr. Ciara Glasheen-Artem 14:25
Yeah, absolutely. So a lot of traditional Irish music is based around an organization called Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, which in English, the English translation is a Society of Musicians in Ireland, and so Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann is a really important organization in Ireland, not just for music, but also for traditional dance and for also the language, like the Irish language as well and it's sort of a champion in Ireland and also outside Ireland around the world for, I suppose for want of a better word, Irish culture, be it music, dance, you know, etc. And most kids when if their parent wants them to start a traditional Irish instrument, like the tin whistle or the traditional flutes or the uilleann pipes, or the bodhrán, which is the Irish drum, any of those types, or the fiddle, any of those instruments, they will send them to Comhaltas. And there's kind of a network of teachers and centers around Ireland. And I would say, you know, that's the home of traditional Irish music education in Ireland really, it's not really in, its home isn't really the schools like, you know, your elementary or, we call them primary schools and secondary schools. They do, I'll talk a little bit about that in a second. But you know, from an instrumental pedagogy and education point of view, if you want to get lessons in a traditional Irish instrument, you're generally going to go to Comhaltas unless you know somebody personally, you know, who, who teaches private lessons or something like that. And the beauty of Comhaltas as well is that they have, obviously, not at the moment, unfortunately, but they have weekly sessions. So, you know, young musicians who are learning, you know, maybe after a year, they can sit into the session and they might know some of the tunes, they will have been learning some of the tunes, and they can play along in this session. And that's kind of for all ages. So you know, for somebody like me, if I decided I wanted to take back up the tin whistle and, and go back, you know, I could join, it's a very inclusive, you know, type of organization. The Irish traditional music, as a music, for want of a better word, is an aural tradition. So generally it's learned by ear. Nowadays sometimes, you know, there is definitely a little bit of notation sometimes, or even not necessarily traditional notation that we would ask classical musicians be familiar with, but, you know, it could be stick notation for rhythm and letter names, for example. Sometimes there's none at all, it kind of depends on the teacher that you have, I think, is my understanding. But mostly, it's important that it is an aural tradition that when you go to the session, generally at least, I don't think I've ever seen anybody with, you know, music or anything, it's all by ear. So then, so that's Comhaltas. So that's kind of an important organization to be aware of with regard to Irish traditional music. The school system in Ireland is a little bit different in that we have primary school, which is kindergarten, I imagine, how old is kindergarten, four or five?
Carrie Blosser 18:00
I think it's like five, five to six.
Dr. Ciara Glasheen-Artem 18:02
Okay, so primary school is generally around age four to five to about 12. And then kids go to secondary school. And from, you know, age 12 to 18 or 19, depending on what month they're born, for example. And in primary school, there is a specific music curriculum. And there's three main strands to that: there's composing, listening, and performing. So those are the three main strands. And there is scope for traditional Irish music within that, it is kind of up to the classroom teacher. They can do a mix of styles, they can do, you know, stick with one particular style, and I suppose it depends a little bit on their comfort zone. So in primary school, you have the same teacher for all subjects. So they teach English, math, music, geography, science, Irish, they teach everything, you know, now remember, it's only up to age 12. So, you know, it's limited scope, but it's still a lot to cover. So if you consider, you know, a teacher who is teaching all of those things, they may be really fantastic at sport, for example, but they may have very little or limited experience in music. So the curriculum has to be somewhat kind of accessible for them. So unfortunately that has meant that traditional Irish music, just to go back here to your original question, isn't as widespread in primary schools. Now, on saying that, you know, a lot of teachers who are comfortable doing so will teach group tin whistle lessons, for example, but it is very basic, and I would say, you know, there's a limit to what they can manage in a class, unfortunately, you know, like in many primary schools here, there's up to 30 kids in the class. So if you can imagine 30 tin whistle players, I'm not sure if you're familiar with the tin whistle, but I can compare it to the recorder but worse if you have thirty of them together. So you know, there's there's limited scope in a way in primary schools, unfortunately for traditional Irish music. In secondary school then, so when kids get a little bit older and they move into secondary school, they can choose to take music as a subject in those six years. Within that there are different, again, different kind of streams that they have to cover, they would be Western art music, so there will be kind of listening and learning, you know, set works, for example, a Bach cantata, you know, a tone poem, and some modern Irish compositions or something like that. And they're learning to analyze, they're learning to listen, you know, aural perception, and things like that. So that will be kind of the first stretch, and then there's composition. So they're learning basic harmony, the earliest stages of kind of contrapuntal stuff. They're also learning kind of how to write simple melodies, you know, things like that. And then the third strand is performing, so they have to perform. And then the final strand is Irish traditional music, and so Irish traditional music, then they're learning, they're not really getting the chance to learn how to perform it, they're learning about it, unless they themselves are a traditional Irish musician, and they're probably going for lessons at Comhaltas, they're not probably, you know, doing a huge amount of Irish traditional performance, unless, again, their teacher, their class teacher is a specialist in that area. And then they may, they may be doing a good bit of playing, you know, of traditional Irish music, but generally they're learning about it. So they're learning about the history of it. They're learning about the different instruments, they're learning about our traditional Irish style of singing, which is called sean nós, which in English means old style, and which is kind of a nasal type of singing, that takes its lead from the words or the text of the song, rather than, so the text is more important than the words, heavily ornamented. So they learned about that. Yeah. So that's about it.
Carrie Blosser 22:30
I remember you talking about how there are, like, some kind of exams, like, you have to, like pass those to, like, keep studying music. I can't, I know, you explained this to me once. And I just don't remember.
Dr. Ciara Glasheen-Artem 22:41
Aside from kind of school exams, if you're learning to play an instrument, be it piano or oboe or whatever instrument or any traditional Irish instruments as well, we have systems of exams for those instruments. And so for us in the Cork School of Music, for example, we have, obviously, we have our undergraduate courses and our master's courses. But we also have 2000, what we call Conservatoire students, and they are primary school and secondary school students. So kids from the age of four to the age of 18, who come in for instrumental and singing lessons in the school, and they have to do an exam each year. And the result of that exam sort of dictates whether they can stay or not, we call them grade exams. So I know that’s probably very confusing, because, you know, in the US, you know, you'd be in first grade, second grade, things like that. And we do call them grade one, grade two, but they don't necessarily line up with age, it's kind of a standard of achievement, so to speak. So generally, after one year of playing an instrument, you should be able to grade one, maybe two years, you know, you should be able to do grade one. By the time, if a kid has been learning an instrument right the way from, you know, maybe age nine or 10, they should be finished, you know, all other exams. So there’s eight exams in that kind of system, they should be finished all of their exams before they finish secondary school. So then if they want to go on to college, you know, they've got a really firm foundation of playing and also with music theory and musicianship. We use kind of in Ireland, we in both primary school and also in the Cork School of Music, in primary schools, they use the Kodaly method of musicianship teaching. So again, you know, sound before symbol, all of those types of things for teaching music to young kids. They've got a very firm and secure skill set in music by the time they finish secondary school but, you know, that’s quite limited to the Cork School of Music and to other kind of schools of music. They don't necessarily do that in mainstream state schools, for example.
Carrie Blosser 25:09
Yeah, I remember you talking about that. And that's what you did when you first moved back, right? You were, like, helping a lot of students prep for those.
Dr. Ciara Glasheen-Artem 25:15
Yeah, yeah. So when I first moved home, before I got the job I have now, I had a lot of younger students. I still have some younger students, sort of beginning aged students. So I was working on their grade exams with them. And you know, again, beginner oboe, very cute. Yeah,
Carrie Blosser 25:34
Very loud.
Dr. Ciara Glasheen-Artem 25:35
Very loud, yeah, very loud. But yeah, so I still have a few younger students. But a lot of my job now is, you know, administrating and managing courses and recruitment and all of that side of things.
Ashley Killam 25:50
So with all of the admin work that you're doing now, you are co-designing a DMA program at your school, we'd love to hear about that process. And if any listeners are interested, what they could expect if they were to apply for a DMA program at the Cork School of Music.
Dr. Ciara Glasheen-Artem 26:07
Absolutely. Just to give a bit of background to this, we've just transitioned to MTU Cork School of Music. Prior to January 2021, we were CIT Cork School of Music. And what it means is we now have a higher university status. So we were a different type of organization until this year, so we're a higher type of university now. And what that means is we can now award our own doctorate programs. So prior to this, we would have had to have any doctoral programs certified by an external, like a larger university, for example. But now because we've become so big, we now are able to certify our own doctoral programs. So we obviously want to now create a doctoral program. So we are almost finished, I think, I'm not involved in this now. But I think we're almost finished with a PhD. I think that should be up and running by September. And we're also designing a DMus program. So it's not DMA, it's DMus, same thing, we just call it something slightly different. And I suppose the goal with this program is that it's going to be fully inclusive. We want to have as many styles and genres as possible. It's the type of program that will, we hope will work for a classical musician, for somebody working in another genre of music completely, such as like Irish traditional music, or, you know, even you know, ethnomusicologists who are working in a more performance realm, or somebody looking to cross pollinate as well. For example, we have four degree programs, undergraduate programs in the school at the moment. So we have the Bachelor of Music, which is for classical musicians and for jazz musicians and for Irish traditional musicians. We have a BA in Theater and Drama Studies, we have a BA in Popular Music, which is kind of a more commercial music course, so electric guitar, electric bass, drums, keys, that side of things, and then we have a BA in Musical Theater. So for somebody, we also want this DMus course to appeal to somebody who's looking to cross pollinate between those worlds. So for example, if you're a musician who's also interested in dance, or how music can influence dance, or vice versa, or theater or something like that, we want this to be a program that's accessible to a lot of different types of people. And of course, research goes hand in hand with performance in all doctoral programs. And so we hope that students will finish then as well rounded, experienced, confident people. But for me, I keep coming back to the fact that this has to be accessible. This has to be open, this has to be a course that's suitable for everybody. It has to be something that, you know, like my brother, as you know, somebody who is involved in drumming traditions from around the world, for example, he's a percussionist, and he's really interested in you know, drumming traditions from literally around the world, that this is something just because he isn't involved as much now in classical percussion, that this is a course that someone like him or someone in a similar situation to him could apply for just as much as somebody who's a classical flute player or a cello player or something like that.
Carrie Blosser 29:37
And this is the first, this is the first time, like, your school will be able to, like, officially award Dr. titles, right?
Dr. Ciara Glasheen-Artem 29:44
Yes, yeah. This will be the first time, yeah, so it's very exciting. Yeah.
Ashley Killam 29:48
Our last question that we ask everyone is what's on your stand this week, and how are you diversifying your stand?
Dr. Ciara Glasheen-Artem 29:55
So I have a concert coming up in June. There's not a huge amount of concerts here, unfortunately at the moment. Last week I played a concert. Now my next one isn't until June, but excitingly, the one in June is, it's a real mix of different things. But one of my favorite things that we're doing in this concert is a piece for oboe and double bass by Andrea Clearfield. And it's called 3 Songs. It's a really interesting piece because each movement is based on a different Pablo Neruda poem. And it's really, it's a really cool piece. And it's really, I'm not gonna lie really hard, because it's oboe and double bass. So we're talking about the extremes of register here, but it's nice to be able to play something different. And I've contacted Andrea Clearfield to get, you know, some more background from her. And, you know, it's nice to kind of feel like it's a collaborative process in a way that she's, you know, involved in kind of helping us put that together. But I do find that I'm trying to incorporate and trying to include more and more female performers into my own repertoire, but also into my students. So I have my students playing a lot of Mary Chandler studies and things like that. Because, you know, as it happens, a lot of my, particularly my younger students are female. And I want them to see that it's not just male composers that they have to play, and that there are some amazing fantastic composers out there. As an oboe player, our repertoire is quite limited, because it's generally there’s so few of us as a group of instruments that, you know, composers don't nowadays composers don't write for us quite as often as they would for violin or piano, things like that, things that more people play, and it makes sense, because, you know, they make more money, because they'll sell more scores, you know, but I always try to search out those things, so that my students are seeing that there's diversity in what they're playing, and they're not just paying the same thing. And in fairness, you know, I try to make our syllabus is as diverse as we can for that reason. Because when you go out into the world, it's diverse now, you know, and that's the beauty of music. And I think, from my own experiences as a player, is that everywhere I've been, and everything that I've done in my life has influenced my playing. And I was I mentioned earlier about Comhaltas, even though I'm not a member now and I'm not involved in any way now had a huge influence on me. You know, I've visited, I've toured around the world and visited so many different places. And I always go out of my way to search out, you know, interesting people and meet people when I'm in different places. And all of that influences what I do, I always find that the people that I meet color the next performance that I have in a place. And I think it's important for me, when I'm putting a syllabus together for my students, to demonstrate that diversity so that when they go out into the world, they'll search for it too and they'll explore for themselves.
Carrie Blosser 33:13
Awesome. Thank you so much for joining us.
Dr. Ciara Glasheen-Artem 33:16
Thank you guys so much for having me. Thanks, Carrie. Thanks, Ashley.
Carrie Blosser 33:19
Links to Ciara’s website, plus the groups and projects she's a part of are listed in the podcast description.
Ashley Killam 33:25
Thank you for listening to Diversify the Stand. I'm Ashley
Carrie Blosser 33:28
And I'm Carrie. If you'd like to support us and our projects, find us on social media and visit our website. We now have a store where you can pick up some Diversify the Stand gear.
Ashley Killam 33:38
And as always a huge thank you to Trevor Weston and Whitney George for allowing us to use their compositions in our podcast. The musical introduction is Trevor's trumpet duet Fanfare for Changes, and the ending music is Whitney's Incantations for trumpet and piano. Both composers websites are listed in the podcast description.
Carrie Blosser 33:56
Until next week, what's on your stand?