FEATURED MUSIC*
- "The Virgin Rainbow" featuring Ernesto Mendoza [edit] - Sharigrama (Tepoztlán, Mexico)
- "Three Intermezzi Op. 117 no. 1" [Brahms] - Yoko Onishi (Zushi City, Japan)
- "Lake Theme for Saw, Theremin and Piano" - Kepa Lehtinen (Helsinki, Finland)
- "Beau Soir" [Debussy] - Juliet Shaw (Norwalk, CT, USA)
ADDITIONAL MUSIC
- "Opera Glasses" - Phlogiston Theory & Ron Allen (Denver, CO / Seattle, WA, USA)
- "Time Shadows" - Phlogiston Theory (Denver, CO, USA)
- "No Static at All" - Phlogiston Theory (Denver, CO, USA)
- Various excerpts from the Juliet Shaw Archive
INTERVIEW GUEST
- Kip Rosser, coordinator, the Juliet Shaw Archive
CALENDAR OF THEREMIN EVENTS
- Visit the Theremin 30 Calendar of Theremin Events for links and details of events mentioned in this episode.
MEDIA LINKS
- The Theremin 30 Playlist on YouTube includes music videos and concert performances of songs featured in this podcast.
- The Juliet Shaw Legacy Project
CONTACT
- Write to the show: theremin30podcast@gmail.com
- Record a voice message: https://anchor.fm/theremin30/message
- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/theremin30/support
CREDITS
- Producer/Writer/Host: Rick Reid
- Opening and closing announcer: David Brower
Copyright 2023 Rick Reid
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David Brower
00:04
Rick Reid
00:20
Rick Reid
11:23
Rick Reid
14:51
Rick Reid
15:32
Kip Rosser 15:53
You're
very welcome. Happy to be here.
Rick Reid
15:55
You're
working on a project that involves a thereminist I've never heard of, Juliet
Shaw.
Kip Rosser
That's right.
Rick Reid
Tell me about what you've been up to.
Kip Rosser
16:03
In 2008
I happened to be rereading a book that I've read at least three or four times
about Theremin himself. In the acknowledgement section there is a single
sentence thanking Sandra Shaw Murphy and Karen Shaw for materials associated
with their mother, American pianist and thereminist Juliet Shaw. That's all I
ever knew. And I became fascinated. Who is that person? It's mentioned in this
book, who is she? Through searches online, I found the music school that she
founded called the Silvermine School of Music. Her two daughters Sandra and
Karen were still alive. Julia died in 1994. So I was able to contact her two
daughters. And in 2008, I went to meet them. The theremin was there and they
said, it doesn't work. We've tried it. It doesn't work. But I've had enough
experience with theremins to know that they're extremely temperamental. I plugged it in and
after about 15 minutes, I was able to get it to work. I interviewed them they
were incredibly funny and witty, and I was going to produce just a little 20 minute
documentary about Juliet Shaw. That was it. They had a little shoe box and a
couple of other little boxes of Xeroxes of newspaper articles and some
photographs. And they told me at the time, we know there's a cassette tape or
two around here, but we don't know where they are. So I took what I had and
came home and promptly backed up the footage from the camera, got rid of the
footage from the camera itself on its hard drive, backed it up on an external
hard drive. A week or two later, my computer was stolen. And my hard drive
busted and the data couldn't be recovered. So I lost everything couldn't do a
thing. You know sometimes you'll save something on the computer, but you
forget where you're saving it to?
Rick Reid
Yes.
Kip Rosser
And about two years ago, I found six to
eight minutes of footage, but not the interview stuff so I couldn't use it. Oh,
I put together a small video for Sandra. Karen had died in 2019. I put an
unlisted video on YouTube. It's interesting and she said it moved to tears
because there are footage of Kara and Sandra together at Juliet's theremin
demonstrating their mother's technique. She said I'd like to meet with you
again. Can you come meet me? And then June of 2022 we met I got there and this
living room of their house will see add people for a concert Wow. The living
room is extraordinary. Three concert grand pianos it looks like it comes out of
a different time period. Sandra is the executive director of the Silvermine
School of Music and she still does recitals and concerts all the time. And
there's the theremin in precisely the same place that I have left it 14 years
before then she said doesn't work. Got it to work again. But this time all over
the chairs are just piles and piles of foot high of old crumbling, oxidized
newspaper articles, magazines, tons of spread everywhere, a stack of at least a
dozen reel-to-reel tapes, and boxes and boxes of cassette tapes. None of it was
in any particular order. And that's when I asked her if she would allow me to
start helping her to organize at the time she was 84. And she just turned 85 on
February 7. It's an overwhelming task. And I asked her if she would be willing
to allow me to help her organize this thing. And that is when she consented to
let me take everything to finally get all of the materials we can find whether
it's ephemera, printed materials, audio materials, video materials, organize
it, preserve it, archive it correctly, which it all is now and then donate it
to an institution. We've approached a number of institutions that are two more we're
going to approach there at Yale University at the Smithsonian, New York Public
Library, Peabody Institute, and there's going to be one or two more and EMEAPP who has already agreed they want the whole thing. The reason why we're so
assisting others as opposed to just give it to the Electronic Music Education
and Preservation Project is because Karen and Sandra originally wanted to get
it to Yale because Juliet's first public performance on a theremin took place at
Yale University. I worked with vendors in Ohio, in Arizona, in New York City
and other states to do the digitization of things that I couldn't do myself. I, at this point, spent between 800 and 900 hours. With the exception of certain
proprietary types of tapes and audio, which I'm unable to do myself, I digitize
everything, all the photographs, every lecture, all the handwritten sheets,
recital programs, it's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of artifacts that I
digitize myself plus 21 audio cassettes 32 reel to reel tapes, 16 vinyl
recordings, all of them have now been digitized. And believe it or not, audio
cassettes 20 and 21, I just acquired yesterday. It's a tremendous legacy
plus Juliet's theremin. Turns out Juliet Shaw acquired that theremin in
the very early 1930s, as a result of visiting him in his apartment. She brought
her RCA to him, she played for him, and he said, I am going to build you an
extended octave range of six and a half octaves. There are handwritten
accounts, plus audio accounts on tape, Juliet describing her meeting with what
his apartment was like, which no one has ever described. And the fact that he
said, I will build you this. So I think we pretty well established that it was
built for her specifically. That's the term that he gave her or sold her I
don't know whether she bought it or traded it with her RCA. It's in rough
shape, but it's still played. She played that thing forever, up until the late
80s, early 90s When she could no longer play any of the others.
Rick Reid
21:47
Why is
it important to you and to the listeners of this show that we preserve all of
these artifacts from Juliet Shaw's life and career?
Kip Rosser
21:57
The fact
is that Theremin Clara Rockmore, Lucy rose and Samuel Hoffman, George Goldberg,
and some of these other people. They're the absolute first generation of
Theremin players. Julia Shaw is among that group. Did she tour the world know
why she world famous? Not really, but what she did arguably was as unique as
anything any of them ever did. First of all, she founded a music and art center
called the Sasqua Hills Music and Arts Center. When she left West Hartford,
Connecticut, she founded the Silvermine School of Music. She was a concert
pianist from the very late 20s to early 30s. All the way through the rest of
her life. She, as far as I know, is the only concert pianist, flash them in the
world that has ever been her piano playing is extraordinary. And she devoted
her life to being a teacher, a feminist and someone whose entire Mo was to
bring culture and music to the area in which she lit her Silvermine School of
Music was never just a school where piano students came there were concert,
huge social gatherings, and she donated proceeds from her concerts to all sorts
of causes the Red Cross to high schools that needed band uniforms or needed to
go to Florida to compete in a band competition. She gave away 10s of 1000s of
dollars raised at her concert, she created this thing called the 12 piano
symphony. Where have you ever heard of 12 women in pink chiffon evening gown 12
pianos on stage playing for an hour concert. And she would break up this
concert by playing theremin herself. She really played the theremin beautifully.
She played in New York City. She played in Hartford. She played all around her
area. And I think that is just as important as any of the other theremenists, she
championed the instrument. She had nothing but amazing things to say about
Theremin. And so she used to talk about it and lecture about it during her
concert. She's one of the first generation just as valid, and I think just as
important as any of the others. And the whole thing is just this huge body of
work. To me, it's just worth preserving. It's fascinating to be able to be a
part of this thing. That's why I'm doing it, how can people get involved. And
now we're in the fundraising phase to try to raise enough money to make sure
that Theremin is preserved and restored just a little bit. And also the pay for
things like the cost of the vendors that have imported all these tape materials
and video materials. I have been personally doing out of pocket. I've spent all
my own money to get these things done, because I don't want to hold the project
up. So the funding will pay for all of those costs. Hopefully that means
reimbursement. But I'm not making done on this, to me, being the person who
center entrusted with this, to put it together has been compensation and not
because you just wouldn't believe what I've heard the things that I've been
able to watch that no one has ever seen for 70 years and we keep discovering
more.
Rick Reid
24:56
If
somebody donates I understand you have a premium or gift for them.
Kip Rosser
25:00
Anybody
who donates $20 or more will receive free the first volume of Julia Shaw's
music ever to be released. There are recordings that are just absolutely
astounding to listen to. And I'm including in this collection, mostly theremin
music, but I want people to hear what kind of concert pianist she wants. I want
people to be able to hear how her love of experimental contemporary music influenced
what she did.
Rick Reid
25:26
So how
do people find out about this opportunity to support your efforts and to get
this recording?
Kip Rosser
25:33
All
anyone has to do is go to JShawLegacy.com All the information is there. All
you have to do is click to make a donation. It goes right to paid now, I make
absolutely nothing other than reimbursement for what I've already put out. And
anything that's leftover if we reach the goal amount goes immediately to Sandra
Shaw and the Silver Mine Music School. Simple as that.
Rick Reid
25:56
David Brower
29:48
