Juliana Soltis is an innovative cellist who has done extensive research to connect listeners with some forgotten stories of classical music. In this episode we talked about her recent album American Woman on @PARMARecordings which features cello and piano music of women composers; you’ll hear Juliana’s insights into the lives of Mary Howe, Amy Beach, Margaret Bonds, Helen Crane, Dorothy Rudd Moore and Florence Price and hear excerpts from this album which Juliana recorded with the wonderful pianist Ruoting Li. Many listeners will be familiar with Juliana’s playing as a Baroque cellist, and it was fascinating to hear about how the French relinquished their beloved viol relunctuantly to the Italian cello. I really love Juliana’s recording of the complete Suites for solo cello of J.S. Bach and you’ll hear some music from her album Going off Script: the Ornamented Suites for cello.
Juliana shared great advice about performing from an athlete’s perspective and also the joy of connecting with audiences. This interview begins with one of her beautiful greyhounds, and for those of you watching this on YouTube, hopefully you’ll enjoy this comforting canine presence throughout this inspirational conversation. Like all my episodes , you can watch the video or listen to the podcast on all the podcast platforms, and I’ve also linked the transcript both to Substack and to my website https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/juliana-soltis
Juliana Soltis Website: https://julianasoltismusic.com/
Buy me a coffee? https://ko-fi.com/leahroseman
Merchandise: https://www.leahroseman.com/beautiful-shirts-and-more
I wanted to let you know about some other episodes I’ve linked directly to this one:
with pianist and historian Samantha Ege https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/samantha-ege?rq=Samantha%20Ege
cellist Julia MacLaine https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/julia-maclaine?rq=Julia%20MacLaine
cellist Dorothy Lawson of ETHEL https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/dorothy-lawson-ethel?rq=Dorothy%20Lawson
bassist Edwin Barker https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/edwin-barker?rq=Edwin%20Barker
the Euclid Quartet https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/euclid-quartet?rq=Euclid%20Quartet
photo: Teresa Tam
Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(02:37)the greyhounds, American Woman album with Ruoting Li
(05:16) archives New York Public Library, Helen Crane
(07:55) Mary Howe
(10:42) clip of Ballade Fantasque by Mary Howe
(12:20) Mary Howe, resarching these women composers, Parma records
(16:51)Samantha Ege, racist divide between Black and white composers
(18:58) Margaret Bonds, her arrangement of Troubled Water for Kermit Moore
(20:47) clip of Troubled Water by Margaret Bonds
(22:12) baroque cello
(27:02) French baroque repertoire relationship to viola da gamba
(33:57) Courante J.S. Bach Solo Suite number one in G major
(37:14) creating Going off Script: the Ornamented Suites for cello
(37:43) other episodes you’ll like, different ways to support this series
(38:36) the art of ornamentation, recording the Bach album
(43:45) lessons with Catharina Meints Caldwell
(48:33) connecting with audiences, using social media
(50:40) composer Dorothy Rudd Moore
(56:37) clip of Dirge and Deliverance by Dorothy Rudd Moore
(58:00) Kermit Moore, Florence Price, Margaret Bonds
(01:01:05) Amy Beach
(01:04:23) Berceuse by Amy Beach
(01:07:54) Margaret Bonds, Helen Crane
((01:10:25) 3rd Idyll op. 51 by Helen Crane
(01:12:24) next project, West Virginia childhood
(01:14:23) Yeesun Kim’s old cello
(01:16:13) pandemic shut-downs and performing again
(01:19:01) how athletic training helps with performance nerves
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