Episode 20 - Season 1 Recap Part 2
Episode 20 is the second of a two-part series recapping all the amazing guests Carrie and Ashley have had on the show so far! Carrie and Ashley will share some of their favorite moments with and about the rest of their season 1 guests and talk about the future plans for Diversify the Stand!
Like we mentioned in the Part 1 recap, we will be taking a "break" in July off of podcasting to build our book, but Season 2 will come back the first week in August! We cannot wait to share our next lineup with everyone!
In the meantime, if you'd like to support us, consider picking up some Diversify the Stand merch and following us on Facebook and Instagram!
Huge thanks to Trevor Weston and Whitney George for letting us include their music in our intro and outro! Our recording of Weston’s “Fanfare for Changes” opens the podcast, and Ashley’s recording of George’s “Incantations” closes each episode. Visit their websites to learn more about them and their works below!
Full Transcript
Carrie Blosser 0:01
Welcome to Diversify the Stand, the resource centered around listening, learning, and promoting diverse musical voices in music through our podcast, website, commissioning projects and more. I'm Carrie Blosser.
Ashley Killam 0:11
And I'm Ashley Killam. Join us on our journey as we speak to composers, creators, performers, historians, and music educators about the topics important to them and music’s betterment. If you listened to last week's episode, this is now Part Two of our two part series, recapping and just talking about everyone that we've spent time interviewing and chatting with this season, and just giving our thoughts on all of that and where we want to take DTS. You know, we have this super great transition to a conversation that revolved around low brass, activism, and Dungeons and Dragons, as you do. And we got to talk to Brendon Ige, the tuba professor at Eastern Michigan, and Brendon kind of fell into the role of founding the Tuba Euphonium Social Justice Initiative, which, check it out, they are doing amazing things, having some amazing conversations in the world of low brass. They're doing a lot to just really help make low brass composers known and have these collaborations and these connections and start to form these relationships to current composers of low brass works. They're just promoting all, you know, marginalized individuals, performers, composers, educators, and really trying to, I mean, do similar things as we are in the low brass field. And they are so awesome. And we were both so excited to have a relationship both with TESJI and with Brendan, because they're going to continue to do some really wonderful things.
Carrie Blosser 1:46
We included some of Brendan's pieces of an album that was recently released. And it was, it's so fun, like, tuba and like, heavy metal, and like, there's just all sorts of really cool stuff in there. So definitely check out TESJI, check out Brendan's solo works. I remember him in the podcast talking about how he wanted his first solo CD not to be of classical tuba literature, but kind of recording his first solo album on his own terms, which I thought was really, really cool. And I, talking with Brendan too, you speaking about kind of, like activism and how that looks and how, you know, there's so many injustices in the world. And once you're in that work, sometimes it's hard to pick a next path. But he would quote frozen and say, to try and do the next right thing, in terms of, like, how you're thinking for your organization, how you're thinking for yourself as a person. And that has been a pretty good litmus test for him and for TESJI thinking about how they want to move forward. So that was really fun.
Ashley Killam 2:52
And the first historian that we interviewed is one of my favorite professors, again, that I had at U of I. I took a course from Dr. Jeananne Nichols that was all about bringing music, dance, and art to incarcerated kids. Jeananne has done so much work with documenting the WAF bands, the Women of the Air Force bands. And so we talked a lot to her about the WAF bands, about her getting into, you know, all of her historical research and her storytelling, as well as her teaching and how, you know, to have these uncomfortable conversations, and I really love her quote that was on our social media post was just talking about, you know, it being so important to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. That, especially in the past year, there have been so many injustices in 2020, in 2021, that we have all had to unpack. And I know I have done so much self-reflecting and a lot of learning and a lot of relearning, and I know many others have as well. And it is uncomfortable, at first, to come to terms with maybe how you were raised, how you grew up, maybe, you know, seeing colors of people that you thought were one type of person and you're learning, you know, new things. It's really uncomfortable to have these conversations not only with yourself or with others, but to move forward and to hold each other accountable, we have to be in that space. And we have to sit in that space. And it's really, really important to just, you know, not turn a blind eye to this and not act like it doesn't exist because there are so many problems. Carrie and I are in positions where you know, we have privilege as cis white women, and there are a lot of others who don't have that privilege and who have, you know, a lot of, you know, struggles that they deal with. And when we talk, you know, in terms of intersectionality there's there's so many aspects of people’s identities that cause a lot of harm. And it's really hard for people to go through life. And so, you know, we do sit in a space where that's why this whole resource we aren't trying to make about us. We're really trying to showcase stories and provide resources and help get the word out for so many amazing voices and people and individuals. Like we'll talk about a future interview that we did. But sometimes we have to be the voice to shout. And it's really important to continue shouting, so people can hear it, and the more people that shout, the more work can continue to be done.
Carrie Blosser 5:36
Yeah, Jeananne is, I'm trying to think of, they are literally a handful of historians and researchers that are, like, specifically focusing on making sure that there's lots of people who talk about the military, but very few that talk about maybe the military music, and then even fewer, including Jeananne that talk about, like, women's voices during that time. And we go into a little bit more detail and she has a book coming out that I'm really looking forward to reading it’s kind of detailing a little bit more about the WAF bands and how they were kind of forced out, which is just kind of eventually like, decommissioned to decommissioned, decommissioned. So there's a lot of—they kind of reclaimed their story. And we talked about that in the podcast, and she's going to talk about that in the book, which I think is an important, you know, they found power in their voices, even after it was, quote, unquote, taken away, which I think is really cool.
Ashley Killam 6:29
They've got the ultimate redemption story. So definitely, it's one of the longer, I think her podcast is one of the longest at, like, 45 minutes, but it's every, every minute in her podcast, we tried to keep as much as possible and it is so so worth listening to.
Carrie Blosser 6:48
Another now, I think, a lifelong friend that we have met through our podcasting and through some other volunteer work is Dr. Lauren Rudzinskas. She's a trombonist, freakin phenomenal graphic designer, she does a lot of work with the International Women's Brass conference. She's just a really supportive and awesome person. And we're so happy to have a long lasting friendship and partnership and to be involved with anything and everything Lauren wants to do. She's just a really compassionate person and teacher, and we talk a little bit in her episode about making hard choices, right, for your mental health, making the right choices for you, as a musician, as a teacher, the adjunct hustle is really rough. And Lauren kind of shares, you know, her choices and leaving a position which I feel like, especially as musicians, once you get this job, you don't want to lose it because you are scared of what is going to happen. So sometimes, I know so many people are like, oh, yeah, I get up at 4am, I drive six hours to teach three students at this college, and then drive whatever back, and be driving in the middle of the night and falling asleep. And you know, not that this is Lauren, but I know other people who have done this and continue to do it because it looks good on your resume or, you know, sometimes we don't prioritize our own physical and mental health when we're doing things. So Lauren's episode, definitely she talked on that a little bit, which was really helpful.
Ashley Killam 8:24
And Lauren has been such an awesome voice for me personally in learning a variety of skills that I didn't know at the start of COVID, just with projects asking me to help with, and Carrie as well, doing a variety of things that now they don't teach you in music school. And so Lauren has helped me with so much graphic design, and artwork, and website building, and all of these, you know, skills that I feel really confident and comfortable on now. Just, you know, from spending a couple hours each week hanging out and learning together. And so she's been really awesome. And by the time this airs, keep your eye out because Lauren, with all of her designing, I'm helping her make an Etsy shop of really, really cute stickers and car decals and just all this cute stuff that's just meant to, you know, feel good and inspire and just make you smile. When you look at something, you know, look at how your case is decorated. If it just makes you smile, it's gonna be great. It's called Barky Brass, based on the totally real duet, the duo that we started from my puppy Biscuit and her Husky Sushi. So keep your eye out for that because all proceeds from that, we're just going to be commissioning composers. Again, emerging composers, commissioning them to write trumpet/trombone duet shorts, doing all we can to give back and create new music and work with some really cool people. And another composer, after Lauren, oh my gosh, Yukiko is so wonderful. I ended up reaching out to Yukiko because she has a trio for trumpet, marimba, and piano. And I wanted to hear it because it was her one piece including trumpet. She's an LA-based composer from Japan. And she was like, oh my gosh, like, I have it in this file folder at my place in Japan. Like, next time I'm home, I'll make sure to get it and she got the approval to get it published. But then the world shut down. So she couldn't go home to get this piece that's at her place in Japan. So it hasn't been able to be published yet. But she was just so excited that I reached out to ask about her music. And this is something I promote in all of these lectures, just reach out to the composers. These composers are just people that love their music being played. And for any, if we have any band people listening, Yukiko is—and orchestra—she's got so many works for band and for orchestra that are grades two through five. So a really great range for you know, all middle school, all high school, undergrad, any ensemble that you're looking for, her pieces are so good and beautiful. And I was so excited when she signed on to write a piece for our solo book. It's gonna be really, really great. Everything she writes is amazing. And she is just so kind, and wonderful.
Carrie Blosser 11:26
I loved her talking about how she writes music. She will sit down at the piano until inspiration hits. Which I feel like there's such a patience in that. And probably a lot of productivity too. If I would just sit down and not do anything else until I've accomplished my admin tasks for Diversify the Stand we, who knows we might might be in a different place. But yeah, Yukiko’s music is really great. I love that she's so open to talk about composition. And she, even though she's, I feel like, is a really well established and well known name, especially in the educational works for band and orchestra, she is trying to pivot a little bit in her career to do film score music, which is why she moved to LA. And we include that in the podcast too. But I feel like again, like Allyssa was saying, and kind of Yukiko, you know, it's never too late to take that jump and I feel like Yukiko definitely did. So I'm excited to watch a movie, hopefully with her score in the future. Another composer that we interviewed was Dr. Alexandra Fol. Alexandra was just, we, again, we interviewed everyone in January. So fortunately now a ton of her works are being played. Currently she's playing organ, gosh, she just does everything. She is a really, like, researches and writes and composes and plays organ. And y'all know, like, organ’s got all feet and the hands and the multiple stuff. Like, I feel like her brain is just on a different level than mine, multi, like triple language, quadruple language, like, it's just, she's a cool person. She writes, both Ashley and I have her solo for trumpet. And it's a good challenge to practice. Her works are just like, are just very, like very interesting. And I've loved working on these pieces and listening to some of her works too. And I loved her perspective on talking about like, you know, writing music, I think it's a conversation to think about, like as composers they want, you want your works to be performed, making sure that, like, if you write something for a non-standard ensemble, sometimes it makes it more challenging because if you need this kind of instrument paired with a string quartet or something, you have to be able to find not just that existing group but also the other instrument too. So it's good kind of practical composer knowledge that maybe I wouldn't have thought about as a performer because I just get a call to go play trumpet, so good perspective.
Ashley Killam 13:58
She was so wonderful. And for trumpet one of her papers that she talks about a little bit in the podcast was about these like ancient trumpet-like things found in some tomb. And she talked a lot about just, you know, as musicians, we really think about collaborating and connecting with musicians, and a lot of the research that she's done, she's been able to collaborate and work with scientists and with archaeologists and with other researchers, which is really cool because it shows how, you know, diverse music can be outside of just working with musicians. And when, you know, you put your mind to something, you can figure out a way to make it happen. And so she showed that and just who you know she does work with now and that's really awesome to see that there's just, you know, endless possibilities to the thing we do. And this month of podcast was just a month of composers, which is great because the composers in our main, you know, series are from all backgrounds and countries and stages in their career, which is really awesome. So thanks for listening to this, you know, mini composer series here. But the next composer we interviewed is Gala Flagello, who is a current DMA student. Gala has two works for trumpet and has written, you know, choral works and large ensemble pieces and is currently writing an opera that's set to premiere this summer in Boston. And she also founded Connecticut SummerFest, this contemporary music festival for composers, which we talked to her a lot about, and we talked—her podcast centered around her festival, and her current opera projects, as well as, you know, just hidden fees of being a student, these really important things that people don't talk about. And she talked about hidden fees and the sense of how, you know, she's going about her festival to make it more equitable and more accessible for everyone. And because there's so many things, they don't teach you it, there's so many hidden fees that people just expect, but if you didn't grow up learning that, how would you know? That, you know, creates these setbacks for a lot of musicians, both composers, performers, educators, when you just may not know. And so Gala has such an amazing perspective. And she is writing one of our intermediate works in our book, and she has such a cool voice. It's such a unique voice in her writing. And so I'm really excited to see what she does with trumpet, especially when she's working on our piece right after writing this opera. So it's gonna be really cool to see, kind of, what shows up there and what she's, you know, thought of after having this whole stint of being an opera composer and a librettist.
Carrie Blosser 16:50
I think the trumpet is very suited to the voice. So I think it's going to be a probably—
Ashley Killam 16:54
Oh, it’s going to be so great!
Carrie Blosser 16:55
I think it's going to be even easier than writing the opera because, right, the opera she’s also writing the, like, she was the librettist for the work and writing the music and doing I think all the orchestration and it's a ton of stuff. So everything, I think the trumpet solo commission is going to be quite a different, maybe easier process. Less moving parts, because it's just essentially two voices. But, so we're so happy to have Gala on board for that. I remember her too she, if you haven't checked out already, in the description of all of our podcasts, we have some kind of references and links and other resources that all of our guests have added. And I remember Gala was talking about, there's a group that's based in Boston, that puts music where music, quote unquote, doesn't belong. And we were talking with her about, over the kind of the time of COVID that this opera group was actually doing, like, their set designers would go, like, people would leave their apartment. Set designers would go and create the opera set, essentially, in each individual performer’s, like, homes. They would go in and record, they would leave, the set designers would come in, again, COVID protocols, right, keeping everyone safe, especially, you know, musicians need lots of lung power, especially opera singers, so keeping everyone really healthy and safe. But I thought that was such a cool idea. Pretty time consuming, especially when we do all the editing, you get a, you know, a three minute clip. But the set designers have spent hundreds of hours and so have the video designers so, but yeah, make sure that you're checking out podcast descriptions for those, like, different resources and links. And we'll continue sharing those over the summer when we do kind of our recap rereleases of our first season. Ashley and I both want to talk about the next guests a lot. Clare Loveday is my hero. I cut my hair to look like her. I wouldn't be here. Maybe I just leave it at that, Clare's my hero. Clare, if you're listening, we love you, and come hang out with us even though Ashley and I don't live in the same place. Fun fact Ashley and I have never met in person.
Ashley Killam 17:23
Still.
Carrie Blosser 17:28
If you make it this far in the podcast, Ashley and I have never met in person.
Ashley Killam 19:11
But by the time this airs, we will, because I'll be in Illinois for four days and I'm going to meet Storm. Yeah, I'll maybe meet Carrie, but I’ll at least meet Storm.
Carrie Blosser 19:21
Yep, Storm’s my dog. He's very large. He's very old. He's getting all the snacks at this point in his golden years for the Great Pyrenees.
Ashley Killam 19:34
But when, you know, when Allyssa talked about her whole leap of faith, we started this business to, you know, to be nonprofit with someone that we didn't know before last summer. I think it was either June or July when we got in touch via email because someone put us in touch together. And so all of this has been virtual and it's been a big learning curve for us because, you know, we haven't known each other so it's been up process of, you know, learning how we best work and what we need to make this successful and what our strengths are to work together. So it's been such a fun process. And I think our personalities jive well, it has to because we're gonna keep working together.
Carrie Blosser 20:19
I'm very deadline focused, Ashley does everything.
Ashley Killam 20:26
But anyways, back to Clare, and how much we love her. If you noticed, this really says it all, if you look at our social media post about Clare, her quote, “but eventually you get tired of shouting. So I decided to stop shouting for myself and start shouting for other women so that the glass ceiling is a little higher when they get there.” Clare talked about her privilege as a white woman that you know, has a husband that's an academic, that allows her to compose, and you hear in there about the struggles of composing in South Africa. And they have so many issues, we couldn't even include all of it in the podcast talk, but just how, you know, she makes next to no money on royalties, and how she is treated as a composer in South Africa versus how she's treated as a composer when her stuff is performed overseas. And a lot of that treatment has inspired her to found a couple organizations to just help other women. And so she is on this life mission to yell at men. She talks about that multiple times in the podcast. And it's just such a breath of fresh air to see people of all stages of life, all stages in their career, all across the globe continuing to do this work and to shout, because it's really important to shout and to hold each other accountable and to make it known. So then we can make life a little easier for future generations, and make it a little more accessible for future performers and composers and creators.
Carrie Blosser 21:59
Yeah, I think Clare’s created such a great, like, she kind of polled a bunch of other composers. They really wanted a safe space to be able to play and have their music heard and get constructive feedback and criticism from, you know, a place of community rather than a place of competition. And I think that's such an important thing. And I think we all need to find, like, that's where we get eventually, right? Like, we find people who help us but don't try and tear us down. But I think that she just, like, went for it and almost created the space for other people because they needed it. And she talked on the podcast, like, again, like, there's a certain element of, like, privilege. And, you know, she worked in music marketing for a while and did a bunch of different jobs before she kind of settled into full time composing and really, like, community creating, became her kind of her job, which I think is super cool.
Ashley Killam 22:51
And if you listen to this and are a saxophone player, a clarinetist, any sort of unusual ensemble, check out Clare’s website, because her stuff is so good. We were able to play about half of, included in the podcast, but it was like half of her duet City Deep for clarinet and saxophone. It's such a good piece, but she's got a clarinet she loves writing for, but saxophone is, like, her thing to write for. And she is on our, of course, most of these composers we've either commissioned or they're on our own list of composers who want to commission, and Clare is our, one of our top “we must commission her” to write some sort of duet. she knows it's coming one day. And then our final interviewee for this season is Jenna Veverka, who is a trumpet player, has written, composed a little bit, and founded the Key of She summer workshop, and has done a little bit of everything, performing and teaching and a little bit of composing. And so she was such a fun chat to have just talking about all of her projects and giving a lot of advice to performers. When you're thinking about auditioning and you're thinking about competing in some of these big competitions.
Carrie Blosser 24:10
She's got a really great, great perspective on kind of, like, community and again, we're talking about finding the community of voices that’s that constructive criticism and not just like, tear you down and make you feel bad about yourself. I feel like she is really great with talking about, that communicating that. She created that Key of She festival. It was kind of within one month, I kept seeing Jenna's name through some research that I was doing. And and then also through, I found that she was featured on a solo, kind of collection of solos that were commissioned kind of in the time of COVID to be recorded and really start an album. So I was playing through her work. It's got a lot of really cool things and I think it's available for free online too, which is—I was sending her piece, actually, our friend Dr. Saplan, one of his colleagues at University of Hawaii had me out to do, like, a brass methods or actually work with his high school band. And I sent, like, the packet of all of those free solos. So I was able to tell Jenna that somewhere, someone's playing your piece, because it's great to provide that accessibility for high school students especially like, here's music, it's free. And here are the pieces. So that was really cool. But Jenna was great to talk to as well, because she's a music educator. She's running a bunch of studio stuff, both Ashley and I have kind of done that studio hustle. And, you know, continue to do it now. So it's great to talk with someone who has different perspectives, but doing similar things to kind of bounce ideas and chat with you. So thanks, Jenna, for joining us.
Ashley Killam 25:47
So yeah, there's a little recap of all the episodes. And you know, we do that to just refresh. As well as the next two months, we'll be relaunching those, pretty much, in case people haven't heard and want to hear, because the rest of June and July is going to solely be spent engraving music and putting our book together. So we're taking not a complete hiatus, just a little, like, pause, because I mean, we're also going to continue to prep podcast interviews for next season, which are going to start the start of August, with a whole new round of really cool people. I'm so excited, we've done about a month, month and a half of episodes so far and every interview has been really cool. You get to meet the rest of the composers that we commissioned for our first book project, you get to hear just a wide range of voices, some people Carrie knows, some new really big-name people, parts of some really great organizations that we'll be able to announce later. And it's gonna just continue to be really great to learn and to grow. And to hear some really cool stories,
Carrie Blosser 27:07
I think the connections that we make, both Ashley and I try and go on to other podcasts. So if you haven't been on a podcast, and you're interested, there's lots of great ones, find your instrument-specific things, find topics that you're passionate about, go on a panel of stuff, it's fun, I was really nervous. For the first one I was interviewed by, I like dressed up really nice and put on makeup and did my hair just so I felt professional. And then the next one, I'm pretty sure I was just like wearing my pajamas because no one sees you in a podcast, you can do it in your bed, in your closet, wherever it has the best sound and microphone. But yeah, season two is going to be, I'm so excited to bring in—season one was kind of, a little bit of, kind of, Ashley's contact list—and season two is a little bit of my contact list. So I'm so happy to invite some of my friends that have been doing, you know, work internationally and in the United States. And it's gonna be, it's gonna be fun.
Ashley Killam 27:10
And then keep your eye out because again, we're working on a book. So for any trumpet players listening, our book with 12 solos by some of these composers that you've heard, some composers you haven't heard yet, that's going to be coming out to the public in November, with our goal, for anyone listening to this that isn't a trumpet player, our eventual goal once we apply and receive funding, we want to expand that and provide a book, transpose, work with the composers and provide this book to all instruments. Wind instruments, mallets, stringed instruments, and in November, this book isn't coming out in just English, we're going to right away this will launch, you'll be able to purchase at least the PDF versions in English, Spanish, and French. So again, we're just trying to continue to make our books and this music as accessible as possible. With the long term, you know, we don't want to solely be a trumpet resource. It's easy right now, because yes, we are trumpet players. But it's really important to us to make our music as accessible to everyone as we can. So as soon as we can, we're going to be expanding that first collection as well as using the profits that aren't going back to the composers to fund collection number two, so keep your eye out on that in the next upcoming year or so.
Carrie Blosser 29:34
And a shout out on the podcast to all 109 donors that helped us raise over $10,000. We crowdfunded, so, which means Ashley and I had to decide, like, how much money could we part with and make this project happen in case no one else wanted to join us. And we were so thankful to have so many different people who were interested in joining us in the commission. I think it's a pretty good deal. To, you know, put a couple bucks in and help create 12 solos, because commissioning is expensive, right? So having that option to bring a community together I thought was really awesome. It's a lot of work on both Ashley and my end, right, if you can just write a check for 11 grand, I don't know who you are, one, two, can you fund our next project? But three, you know, just like I think part of that community building was important for us as a business as we started. You know, and our, you know, our big plans like Ashley was mentioning, expanding the first collection, commissioning more works, going nonprofit status. You know, when we decided we wanted to do this, if you have a project, you're thinking, starting an LLC is faster than starting a nonprofit. So for us, we wanted to do the work, and we had the time to start it. So we did. And that's how you got Diversify the Stand with some cute logos. Don't forget, we have mercy. More merch is coming. But with that, we're gonna wrap up this episode. Thanks for joining us, we have a Patreon. We have a website, come check us out. We'd love to engage with you, work on you with projects in the future, or just chat about any topics interesting to you.
Ashley Killam 31:11
If there's people that you want to hear us interview, send us an email. If you're interested in being interviewed, send us an email. And yeah, we, you know, still again, even though you hear this in the outro, huge, huge, huge thank you to Trevor Weston for sending us the music for Fanfare of Changes, his trumpet duet. We are going to, you know, our summer project is to make a really great recording and send it back to him as a thank you. And to Whitney George, the piece that I commissioned that you hear in the outro every time has been the solo that I commissioned while I was at UNM. So she is wonderful for letting me use my personal recording for that. And you will be hearing new music, a new intro, new guests starting in August, so we will be back. We thank you for listening and we are so excited to continue to provide music for everyone and have fun chatting and sharing stories with a broad range of people.