Muse Mentors

Paula Robison was born in Nashville to an extraordinary family of actors, writers, dancers, and musicians. She grew up in Los Angeles not only playing the flute, but studying dance with Bella Lewitzky and theater with Jeff Corey. When she was twelve years old, music claimed her heart and she knew she wanted to be a flutist. Trained at the Juilliard School, she also studied flute with the great French flutist Marcel Moyse during her time in NYC.  Marcel's singing approach  and metaphorical and animated teaching style set Paula on fire and shaped her as a musician. Her trademark joie de vivre really shines in this episode which is chock full of music.

To see photographs of Paula Robison and Marcel Moyse, go to: https://musementors.com/

MUSIC:
George Frederic Handel, Flute Sonata in F Major, Op. 1, No. 11, HWV 369: Allegro (Paula Robison-flute, Timothy Eddy-cello, Kenneth Cooper-harpsichord)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Flute Concerto No.1 in G major, K.313, Allegro maestoso, (Paula Robison-flute)
Apanhei-Te, Cavaquinho! (Paula Robison-flute, and Romero Lubambo, Tiberio Nascimento, Sergio Brandão, Stanley Silverman, Cyro Baptista)
Robert Beaser, Cindy, from Mountain Songs for flute and guitar (Paula Robison-flute, Elliot Fisk-guitar)
Robert Beaser, Quicksilver, from Mountain Songs for flute and guitar
Ol' Man River, Paul Robeson
Wade in the Water, Fisk Jubilee Singers
Robert Beaser, Barbara Allen, from Mountain Songs for flute and guitar
Benjamin Godard, "Valse" from Suite De Trois Morceaux, Op. 116 (Paula Robison-flute)Astor Piazolla, "L'Histoire du Tango": Nightclub 1960 (Paula Robison-flute, Elliot Fisk-guitar)Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, "Voi che sapete", from The Marriage of Figaro, K. 492 arranged for flute and string quartet by Nicholas Kitchen (Paula Robison-flute, and the Borromeo String Quartet)Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Flute Concerto No.2 in D major, K.314, Allegro aperto (Marcel Moyse-flute)
P.O. Ferroud - Bergere Captive from Trois pièces pour flûte seule (Marcel Moyse-flute)
Albert Hammond - It never rains in Southern California
Camille Saint-Saëns, The Swan, Carnival of the Animals, (Marcel Moyse-flute, Louis Moyse-piano)
Camille Saint-Saëns "Voliere" from Carnival of the Animals (Paula Robison-flute with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center 
Giuseppe Verdi, Il Trovatore, (Marcel Moyse-flute, Louis Moyse-piano)
J.S. Bach Trio Sonata in G major Moyse Trio, BWV 1038, Largo (Marcel Moyse-flute, Blance Moyse-violin, Louis Moyse-piano)
Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen, "Sisters" from White Christmas
Theobald Boehm, Variations sur un Air Tyrolien (Marcel Moyse-flute, Louis Moyse, piano)
Claude Debussy, Syrinx (Paula Robison-flute)
Georges Hüe, Fantasie (Marcel Moyse-flute, Georges Truc)
Jean-Louis Tulou, Air Ecossais (Marcel Moyse-flute, Blance Moyse-violin, Louis Moyse-piano)
Claude Debussy, "Prélude à l'aprés-midi d'un faune"  (Paula Robison-flute)
J.S. Bach BWV 244-58 Aus Liebe will mein Heiland sterben, BWV 244, from the Saint Matthew Passion, Herbert Karajan conducting

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In what could be the most important Muse Mentors episode ever, author and climate activist  Bill McKibben (who wrote The End of Nature one of the first books on global warming for the general public) talks about his childhood, teen-aged years as a journalist; and, before he even graduated from Harvard, an invitation from the late great editor  William Shawn to write for  The New Yorker Magazine. McKibben also discusses the impact the arts has in furthering the climate change movement, reflecting on  his appearances on The Colbert Report, David Attenborough's recent magnum opus film "A Life on Our Planet", and a celebration of Richard Power's cri de coeur novel The Overstory. Here's a chance to hear Bill's origin story, and to discover how he has become a muse and mentor the world over!

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The New York Times called David Dworkin, the maestro who "sparkles with high-spirited virtuosity."  This Jersey boy got his start in high school in the late 1940s with clarinet lessons at The Williamsburg (Brooklyn) Community House where he met his mentor the late Metropolitan Opera Orchestra clarinetist Ben Armato. That relationship nurtured David who went on to play in both the American Symphony and Met Orchestras, as well as to conduct orchestras across America and abroad.  In 2002 he created the acclaimed exercise program CONDUCTORCISE®, where "you feel the beat as well as the burn” (Times-Picayune) which has received rave reviews across the globe, and has been featured in the New York Times, Town & Country Magazine, and NBC’s Today Show. CONDUCTORCISE® was named one of North America's six most innovative active aging programs by the International Council on Active Aging. 

Music: 

Mozart Clarinet Quintet: Musicians from Marlboro (ensemble), Anthony McGill (clarinet)

Brahms Clarinet Quintet:  Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center 

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Tony Barrand was born in England in 1945 but has lived most of his life in southern Vermont in the vibrant town of Brattleboro—a place that shines all the more brightly because of him. This Cornell PHD and Professor Emeritus of Boston University is not just an academic, but also a singer, dancer, and story-teller. What first grabs you is his way with words—he can give them weight, make them sparkle, or swirl depending on the point he is trying to make, but he uses words to greatest effect when he sings. His handsome I-cannot-get-enough-of-it tenor voice really shines when joined by his singing comrades (John Roberts, Fred Breunig and Andy Davis) from the band Nowell Sing We Clear. This is top-notch music-making in a traditional style that will have you singing along, dancing, and entranced by the magic of the story-telling. Tony Barrand offers tales of his mentors and mentees, and plenty of music in this episode. Guaranteed to brighten your days during this darkest time of year.

Special thanks to:
Andy Davis, Keith Murphy and Becky Tracy, Amanda Witman, Peter Amidon, Sue Dupre, Kari Smith, Carol Compton, Carole Crompton, and Rachel Bell

Music, courtesy Golden Hind Music
Click here to order  Nowell Sing We Clear: Songs & Carols for Midwinter & Christmastide

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Vermont visual artist Katie Runde was raised by Medievalist parents. This millennial with a Midas touch has been drawing as long as she was able to hold a crayon, playing saxophone since age eight, and theologizing since that day somewhere around age eleven when Mass stopped making neat story sense. An alum of the Eastman School of Music, she also holds a masters in religious studies from the University of Chicago Divinity School, a BA in folklore/ethnology and music from University College Cork in Ireland, and undertook two years’ apprenticeship with master realist painter Evan Wilson...and yet it seems it is her mother  who is her most enduring and important mentor.

Visit Katie Runde's  instagram page, her website  and the Muse Mentors website to see her artwork.

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Thumbnail image of Katie Runde by Caleb Kenna
Aria, from The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 of JS Bach performed by Jeremy Denk at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Boston, Massachusetts, Creative Commons license

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Rob Mermin ran off to join the circus in 1969 at the age of 19. He clowned with renowned European circuses, including England’s Circus Hoffman, Sweden’s Cirkus Scott, Denmark’s Circus Benneweis in the famous Circus Building by the Tivoli, and many more. It was his long mentorship with the iconic French mime Marcel Marceau that shaped him as a performer and inspired him to dream and make plans.  In 1987 he founded Circus Smirkus, the embodiment of Rob -- the touch of wonder, the charm, the story line, the mime and the humor. An enthralling story-teller, Rob Mermin  make you laugh and he'll make you cry with his stories of discovery and loss, and of course mentoring--first as a protégé and later through his own rich legacy of mentorship of some of the greatest circus performers on earth.   

*****
The accordion music was provided by Rachel Bell and includes Susan Kevra-clarinet, and Karen Axelrod-keyboards.

Mozart PianoConcerto #21 licensed by Creative Commons.

Rob Mermin's Parkinson's Pantomime Project.

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Philadelphia-based illustrator Armando Veve is a Forbes 30 Under 30 list designee. He has been awarded three gold medals from the Society of Illustrators and gained international recognition when he was named an ADC Young Gun. His breath-taking and whimsical art has been commissioned by The New York Times, The New Yorker,  National Geographic, the New Republic, Penguin Random House, the Poetry Foundation, Scientific American Mind, Smithsonian Magazine, Village Voice, and Mother Jones.  That's just the short list. And, boy can he play the piccolo!  He talks about the intersection between life, art, and music in delightful and inspiring ways.

Visit Armando Veve's instagram page and the Muse Mentors website to see his artwork.

Click on these links  to see the artwork discussed in the podcast:
New York Times Baby Heart Monitor image
Truly Mango Lemonade images
Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) recruitment poster
Mechanical Botanical 

Special thanks to composer Mike Mower and Franceso Viola, whose brilliant piccolo playing graces this podcast episode.

Widor, Romance for flute and piano, Karen Kevra-flute, Jeffrey Chappell-piano

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In the first full episode of Muse Mentors, pianist Jeffrey Chappell reflects on his life and his formative mentorships first with pianist Jane Allen, and later with the legendary Leon Fleisher.  Jeffrey reveals his early childhood genesis story with the piano; his studies at the Curtis Institute and Peabody Conservatory, and path that led him to an astounding last minute substitution for Claudio Arrau with the Baltimore Symphony. He addresses overcoming challenges and adversity  and speaks about his lifelong meditation practice and his book Answers from Silence.

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In this brief introductory episode, Muse Mentors host Karen Kevra weaves a personal story of mentorship and invites listeners to join her for engaging and inspiring interviews.

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