I am a songwriter, singer, musician, performer, producer, and teacher. I’ve put out ten albums of my own over the past twenty years on various labels. I’ve toured the world playing music. I’ve produced dozens of albums by other songwriters. I’ve composed music for film and I’ve had my songs covered by other artists. As a coach and teacher I also enjoy helping other songwriters realize their artistic vision.
Do you have upcoming events you’d like people to attend?
I’m still in the process of finishing up my latest album and will be touring soon. I’ll keep you posted!
What is/are your favorite songs/albums?
God, I love and have listened to too much music to easily narrow it down. But if pressed, I’ll admit it usually comes down to all Beatles and Beatles related music; the music that inspired them, and the music inspired by them, which is pretty vast.
Who are the songwriters you admire?
Lennon/McCartney, Bob Dylan, Richard Rogers, Harry Nilsson, Willie Nelson, Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen, Morrissey….man…I could go on forever!
Who is your greatest inspiration and why?
John Lennon. He not only wrote some of the most mind blowingly original pop songs in history, after having put together the greatest band of all time, but he used his platform of celebrity towards a greater vision of freedom of thought and the importance of world peace as a goal.
What are the top five things you’d like to accomplish in the next five years?
1) Record an album with my friend Claudia Chopek’s awesome string quartet, The New Retro Strings.
2) Explore musical styles from other cultures.
3) Have a consistently touring band.
4) Write the music for a musical.
5) Compose a soundtrack for a feature length film.
If you could dream of trying something in the arts you haven’t tried, but would like to, what would that be?
Whenever I come back from a gig and my wife asks me how it went, I usually reply, “Not so good, they didn’t laugh at any of my jokes”, or “Great, they laughed at my jokes,” to which she usually replies, “But you’re a musician, not a comedian.” I also had a pretty good audition for the musical, ONCE where I had to do a little acting…it felt fun and natural, so I’d like to pursue that as well if I ever get the gumption!
What was the best gift that someone gave you that inspired or facilitated an interest in your art?
It was advice that I received from an older woman I worked with many years ago in an office. After seeing her type so fast, I asked her how fast she could type and she said 120 words a minute. She then looked me straight in the eye and said, “Be very careful what you do because you’ll get good at it.” I’ve never forgotten that.
I was born in County Offaly, Ireland and lived there with my parents until I was five years old, at which time I was admitted to an industrial school in County Westmeath. Apart from 10 months back at home with my parents when I was eight years old, I remained in the orphanage until I was 17.
All of my 14 siblings spent their childhoods in Irish orphanages.
Many of my poems were inspired by my experiences growing up in care.
When I was 20 years old, I emigrated to the United States and settled in New York.
I worked as a waitress for many years (Tommy Makem’s Irish Pavilion and the
Pig & Whistle, among other Irish bar-restaurants) before enrolling in college in my
early-30s. A bachelor’s and master’s degree later, I secured an adjunct position teaching creative writing at Hofstra University, where I’ve been for the past eight years.
Connie Roberts and Paddy Moloney
What honors have you received for your poetry?
Winner of the Listowel Writers’ Week Poetry Collection Award, 2013
Winner of the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award, 2010
Winner of the Dromineer Literary Festival Poetry Competition, 2010
Awarded a space in the Poetry Ireland Introductions Series
Awarded an Irish Arts Council Literature Bursary Award
Nominated for the Hennessy X.O. Literary Awards
Finalist in the Strokestown International Poetry Competition
Finalist in the Dana Awards
Awarded a space at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Vermont
Recipient of the George M. Estabrook Award at Hofstra University
Why have you chosen poetry over other forms of writing such as short stories, memoir or novels?
Christmas at the Orphanage, 1970. Connie Roberts, far left.
To be honest, I don’t think I had much control over what genre I “chose” to work in. In the mid-90s, when I was an undergraduate in a creative writing class at Nassau Community College, poetry grabbed me by the lapels, and refused to let go. As Professor Gubernat recited Molly Peacock’s poem “Say You Love Me”, about a drunken father pinning his child to a chair, my heart quickened, my throat tightened; I was in. Where do I sign up? I said. Besides the subject matter, which reflected my own background, I found the density of language, the imagery
(the drunken father’s face described as “a ham on a hook”), the rhythm, the sound devices exhilarating.
Now that I’ve been writing poetry for a number of years, I see another possible reason why the genre is a good fit for me. Most of the fodder for my work
(read: Irish-Catholic misery) was foisted upon me—believe me, I’d rather be writing about the heather on the bog or the windswept hills of Donegal—and it is easier swallowed, by writer and reader alike, in bite-sized pieces. The eight-line triolet or 14-line sonnet versus the 300-page memoir.
Connie Roberts at the “Listowel Writers’ Week”
Who are the poets/writers you admire?
Irish writers I admire include Seamus Heaney, Patrick Kavanagh, and John McGahern. I love the sense of place in their work. To say the least, my background is fragmented, so I find myself drawn to their sense of rootedness. Heaney’s Derry, Kavanagh’s Monaghan, McGahern’s Leitrim—they seem to know every blade of grass, every highway and byway, every neighbor and straggler on the road. I envy them their stability, their sure-footedness.
Other contemporary Irish poets I admire include Paula Meehan, Eavan Boland, Eilean Ni Chuilleanain, Moya Cannon and Rita Ann Higgins. Ireland is teeming with talented women poets…
I’m also drawn to African-American women poets: Marilyn Nelson, Gwendolyn Brooks, Natasha Trethewey, Lucille Clifton, Toi Derricotte, among others. I love how they explore and excavate their past, the beautiful and the ugly. I admire their bravery in taking on important—and oftentimes, provocative—issues. But besides all that, they are just brilliant poets—verbal acrobats who use language in an exciting and interesting way.
Connie Roberts on BBC News
Who is your greatest inspiration and why?
I don’t think a day goes by that I’m not inspired by someone. Two examples from the past week or so:
The retired (and retiring) truck driver I met in Scribes coffee shop in Listowel who sheepishly pulled a sheaf of poems he’d penned over the years out of his breast pocket to show me. It was open-mic night; thirty years earlier he might have stepped up to the podium. That night, he recited them to me.
Two days ago, my son and I were working on his “Me-Book” project. In the “My Future” section he wrote, When I grow up, I want a happy family and a happy home like I have now. Like most of us, sometimes, I wish I had a bigger paycheck, a nicer house, or a slimmer waist. But when I’m sitting in that ould rocking chair in the nursing home, the accomplishment I’ll be most proud of is that I brought my son up in a secure, happy, loving home.
Connie Roberts receiving the Listowel Writers’ Award
What are the top five things you’d like to accomplish in the next five years?
Publish my first poetry collection in Ireland (which will actually happen next year)
Record a poet & piper CD with the premier uilleann piper Jerry O’Sullivan (which is on the cards for this summer)
Drawing on my own poetry, collaborate with other artists on a multi-media project
Secure a full-time teaching/administrative position at a U.S. college
Create an (audio/video) oral history of Irish industrial school survivors.
A massive undertaking I know (hint, hint: any sponsors in the crowd?), but their individual stories need to be documented. In their own words, not by scholars and intellectuals. Yes, there’s the Ryan Report. Yes, there are a handful of film documentaries. But the majority of survivors are still voiceless. And with each passing day, the chance of these elderly inmates (in Ireland, the UK and beyond) being heard grows slimmer.
What was the best gift that someone gave you that inspired or facilitated an interest in your art?
When I was in secondary school in Ireland, my English teacher, Mr. Costelloe, encouraged me to enter a Credit Union essay competition. I won at the local level and went on to the Leinster final, which I subsequently won. My first validation—I’d dipped my bucket in the writing well. But Mr. Costelloe’s gift to me wasn’t merely his encouragement. He also gave of himself. No parental figure from the orphanage accompanied me to the awards ceremonies. But he did. It was Mr. Costelloe who stood behind me for the newspaper photograph; it was Mr. Costelloe who took my friend and I for a celebratory bag of Tayto crisps and bottle of red lemonade in the local pub. It was Mr. Costelloe who took time out of his busy schedule as a teacher and father to reach out, to care.
Another gift I was given is a bit more tangible, and one that I’ll treasure for a lifetime: a handwritten note from Seamus Heaney. A few years after he won the Nobel Prize in Literature, on a visit to NYC, he happened to walk into the Irish bar-restaurant where I waitressed. Unfortunately, I was off duty that evening, but my friend, knowing how much I admired the Great Poet, asked him if he would write me a note (I had just won a prize for poetry at Hofstra U.). He obliged.
Connie,
It is a far, far better thing you do now than you have ever done. Stick with it…Congratulations. Keep digging for the good turf…
When you’re a Nobel Laureate, everybody wants a piece of you. Doubtless in the years after Seamus Heaney’s trot over to Sweden, he must’ve been pulled in a 100 different directions. I’m sure on that visit to New York in 1998, SH would’ve liked nothing better than to slip anonymously into a nondescript bar downtown and enjoy a pint in peace. Instead, he took the time to write a note of encouragement (on an American Express reservation card) to an insecure, fledgling poet.
Great note. Great poet. Great man.
What is your favorite quote?
Since I turned 50 last December, Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape has been spooling in my ears:
Perhaps my best years are gone….But I wouldn’t want them back. Not with the fire in me now. No, I wouldn’t want them back.
If you were recording this interview, I’d be laughing. And then, maybe, laughing some more. The tough question first? That’s the name I was born with; I’ve only been using it professionally a few years. I have a new stage name waiting in the wings, but that’s still a secret.
A notable producer and new friend once said to me, “If you’re born 7 feet tall, you play basketball. If you’re born feeling everything too deeply, you create.”
I’ve been singing since I was 8 and writing all kinds of nonsense since 12.
Do you have upcoming events you’d like people to attend?
I’m in recording mode, yet I do have a set coming up on Thursday, June 13, 8PM at Two Moon Art House & Cafe. I’ll be performing along with this great duo from California, David and Olivia, in celebration of their album release. Info/Details/Updates on my social media page: Salina Sias Music Facebook Page
What is/are your favorite songs/albums?
In this moment without thinking too hard, because then I would go on and on:
Adagio for Strings (Barber)
Air on a G String (Bach)
What a Wonderful World
God Bless the Child
Les Triplettes de Belleville Soundtrack
Tom Waits’ Mule Variations
Eminem’s The Eminem Show
And many, many more….
Who are the songwriters you admire?
Tom Waits, The Bee Gees, Mercer, Gershwin, Leonard Cohen, Tori Amos, I could ramble on…and currently I’m admiring Anna Ternheim from Sweden.
Who is your greatest inspiration and why?
People inspire me; the connections I make inspire me.
My children. Above all else, they breathe new life into mine every day.
What are the top five things you’d like to accomplish in the next five years?
Mount an episodic play I began writing in 2001
Write a song I can sing with a youth chorus
Write & record a few songs in Spanish
Perform in places I’ve never visited
Sing/Collaborate with more great singer-songwriters
Buy a house (Shoot. You asked for five.)
If you could dream of trying something in the arts you haven’t tired, but would like to, what would that be?
Audition for SNL
I do have some experience in comedic acting. But still. SNL.
What was the best gift that someone gave you that inspired or facilitated an interest in your art?
Due to recent overexposure to mystical readings (and Flan O’Brien), Don Creedon is beginning to suspect that he only exists as a product of his own imagination. That imagination currently tells him he is a playwright, screenwriter, director, actor, and producer, originally from Dublin, Ireland and now living and working in New York. His plays include The Lobby, Celtic Tiger Me Arse, Shackled, Divine Intervention, Dry Rot, and Guy Walks Into a Bar (winner Audience Award for Best Play 1st Irish Festival 2010). Imagined screenplays include A Very Married Man, Mir Friends, and Work of God. He also seems to have directed numerous other plays and is the president/founding member of Poor Mouth Theatre Company, which appears to be based in An Béal Bocht Café in Riverdale, the Bronx.
Do you have upcoming events you’d like people to attend?
A reading of a new rewrite of my first play The Lobby, an Irish comedy farce. This reading will be public, not just in my own head. I think. Date and venue TBD.
Guy Walks Into a Bar – with Bill Rutkoski and Walter Michael Deforest, written and directed by Don Creedon
What is your favorite dramatic work/s?
The Misanthrope, Noises Off, Loot, Juno and the Paycock, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Much Ado About Nothing, To Be or Not to Be, Bringing Up Baby, The Philadelphia Story, Father Ted, Nurse Jackie, Arrested Development, Fawlty Towers, any Laurel & Hardy.
Who are the playwrights (and writers) you most admire?
Molière, David Ives, Christopher Durang, Joe Orton, Caryl Churchill, Beckett, Pinter, Martin McDonagh, Flan O’Brien, Jennifer Egan, Joseph Heller, Dave Eggers, Salinger, PG Wodehouse, Roddy Doyle. Oh…and Shakespeare (esp. the comedies).
Who is your greatest inspiration and why?
Bob Dylan, for his timeless imagery, unique mode of expression, continuing relevance, complete disregard for public opinion, his “never-ending tour”, and the relentless pursuit of his vision. I consider him today’s Shakespeare.
Shackled – with Katherine O’Sullivan, Andy Fitzpatrick and Bronagh Harmon, written and directed by Don Creedon
What are the top five things you’d like to accomplish in the next five years?
Have my latest full-length plays The Lobby and Dry Rot produced outside of my head.
Adapt my screenplay Work of God for the stage.
Rewrite the play Spudmunchers (with Colin Broderick).
Continue to produce new, original work at Poor Mouth Theatre Company—keeping the Bronx safe for theatre!
Achieve nirvana.
If you could dream of trying something in the arts you haven’t tried, but would like to, what would that be?
A one-man show with me in it.
A two-man show with me playing both parts.
A three-man show with me playing all three parts.
I think you get the drift.
Boys Swam Before Me – at Poor Mouth Theatre Company, written by Seamus Scanlon, directed by Don Creedon, featuring Katherine O’Sullivan and Paul Nugent
What was the best gift that someone gave you that inspired or facilitated an interest in your art?
An A for an English essay in secondary school. (In Ireland, A’s for anything are quite rare—they don’t like to over-encourage!). Before that, I didn’t know I had a “voice”.
I grew up in a small town in southeastern Massachusetts and lost my father, who I adored, at age nine. Post loss-of-parent, I spent considerable energy rebelling against my catholic/catholic boarding school life—shortening my uniform skirt to unacceptable lengths, smoking, running away from school, and drinking beer. My other extra curricular activity involved being on stage whenever there was something dramatic or musical happening. Oh, yes, and I learned stuff. I’m always trying to learn—that’s what so great about being a journalist. You’re always finding out new things or looking at something from a new angle. I saw New York when I was about 10. It was the proverbial love at first sight. So I grew up—up to a point. I took a few wrong turns and finally got to New York and I’m not leaving. Then, I did what I thought I couldn’t do—I became a writer.
What are you working on at the moment?
A revision of a play I wrote last fall. The play features two teenage girls who are best friends. Their relationship falls apart over their changing beliefs.
And a revision of a musical I wrote entitled, “I Heart My Car.” I’m working with a fantastic composer, Rob Hartmann.
Do you have upcoming events you’d like people to attend?
I just had a reading of my play Ice Floes or don’t stay, please go, no wait . . . on May 11th at the Hudson Opera House in Hudson, NY. I will be having a reading of Darwin Day—the new play––but probably not until the fall.
And I’ll be letting members know about The First––and possibly only––Bacon Theatre Festival. More later.
Who are the playwrights, past and present, you admire?
There are many. Certainly Samuel Beckett has been a big influence. Tom Stoppard’s plays have always made me think. I love his ideas and constructions. When I went to see the revival of Awake and Sing on Broadway a few years ago Clifford Odets’ work really astonished me. I went because “his plays were historically important.” But what I experienced was the work of a master of our craft who led me to feel deeply for his characters. Recently I loved the production of Golden Boy. Others: Edward Albee, John Guare, Tony Kushner. The Bard. David Ives. David Lindsay-Abaire. Playwright, Arthur Giron, who has mentored me from the start. I love Annie Baker’s dialogue and the way she fills silence and understands how people talk about their personal disappointments. She draws us in so that her characters problems directly connect to our own. I recently read a great book by Frank Gilroy, “How to Write for Love and/or Money.” Gilroy is a terrific playwright (The Subject Was Roses) but this book is something I’ll read again and again. Just the way he lays it down on the page.
What are your three (more if you like) all-time favorite plays?
For different reasons and in no particular order:
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Top Dog Underdog
Private Lives
Auntie Mame
Arcadia
Waiting for Godot
Glengarry Glen Ross
August Osage County
Noises Off
One Man, Two Guvnors
El Grande de Coca-Cola
Richard III
That’s 11. I’ll stop.
Who/what is your greatest inspiration and why?
John Kennedy when I was a kid because of the how he brought people together in pursuit idealism—ask not, etc. He asked us to work for a better world. I was committed.
For the past 27 years, my husband, Jerry Flint, who died in 2010. He was a great journalist, iconoclast, wonderful writer, and a fearless, relentless reporter and later, columnist. And he believed in me. That gave me the courage to keep working towards becoming a better writer. He was a wonderful editor—read all my stories when I’d finished them and gave me feedback. He taught me so much about writing. I miss him. When Jerry died I founded a scholarship/internship in his name. It was fully endowed within eight months and I have now three scholars who have been awarded the scholarship from the Overseas Press Club Foundation.
Name five things you’d like to do or accomplish in the next five years.
1. Get the musical produced.
2. Write one full-length play a year. So let’s see, that five new full lengths by 2018? Hold me to it.
3. Launch a program I created called “What’s Your Story,” a week-long theatre workshop for disadvantaged kids. It aims to tap their creativity to, not only tell their stories, but to help them understand that the stories are an important part of the fabric of our society. We’ll do exercises and write in dramatic form. It culminates in a performance brunch open to friends and families. I hope to pay them each $50. I’m doing the first one in July at the Hudson Opera House and then I want to create a guide and give it away to interested communities around the country.
4. Learn how to sing. I’ve always sung, but I’m learning how to use the instrument now.
5. Get the 1961 VW Bug I bought, running. I’m going to take it apart and put it back together. And I’m thinking of turning the project into a reality show. Seriously.
If you could dream of trying something in the arts you haven’t tried, but would like to, what would that be?
1. Okay, fantasy land? I’d like to work with Peter Brook and his group and improvise an entire play. (He’s 88 and lives in France so this is a dream.) I’d love to do the same with Mac Wellman. And he lives in Brooklyn! I get to have puppets, a live orchestra, and as many actors as I want.
2. I’m always imagining these big conceptual art projects in my head. One day, maybe I’ll build one.
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
I don’t think of time as spare (as in extra). Occasionally, I try to sit down and just sit down. It never works out because I invariably come up with an idea. Or I’m reading or writing. I love to cook and put great, interesting, different people together over a good meal. It’s an act of love and it is very satisfying to create conversation and good energy. Aside: My rhubarb pie just won second place in a Rhubarb Fest!
Some of my colleagues at Artists Without Walls know that my day job is being an auto writer. You can—and should—join my blog Girl Driver USA. People who don’t care anything about cars say that they enjoy reading it. You don’t have to read it. Just join—become a follower. I need the followers. Also, the Overseas Press Club Foundation
A kid from the south side of Chicago, a spunky little chick, Milo’s mom.
What are you working on at the moment?
My life! What are you working on? Let me get back to it!
I’m getting ready for the the New Folk Songwriting Contest in Kerrville, Texas. I’m a finalist! Kerrville is so much more than a music festival. It’s Lourdes for folkie songwriters. The song is sacred there.
Do you have upcoming events you’d like people to attend?
But of course! Check out my website below for details.
Playing a set, and teaching a workshop on songwriting at the NYC Ukulele Festival on May 31st.
Performing in Joni Mitchell’s Blue: A 40th Anniversary Celebration at First Acoustics on June 1st in Brooklyn Heights.
Who are the singer/songwriters, past and present, you admire?
I admire a range of performers including singers, singer/songwriters, actors, and comedians. I tend to get into women more. Judy Garland, Carol Burnette, Ella, Billie, Piaf, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Judy Collins, Suzanne Vega, Joni Mitchell, Gilda Radner, Barbara Stanwick, Kate Hepburn, Sarah Siskind, Anais Mitchell, Susan McKeown, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Amy Sedaris, and Patti Smith. Doris Lessing is a great writer.
What are your three (more if you like) all-time favorite songs or pieces of music?
What a pleasurably agonizing task. “Where is Love?” from Oliver, for sentimental reasons, but all of West Side Story is dear to me. “God Bless the Child” for my Chicago soul. “Kisses Sweeter than Wine”, “If I Had a Hammer” from the American folk tradition. “Sweet Music Roll On” by Christy Moore reminds me of my father. Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” or Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker Suite” are both rich in joyful, vivid music-storytelling. So much more, especially stuff that makes you dance. “ABC” by The Jackson Five!
Who/what is your greatest inspiration and why?
I have a guru, spiritual guide, master, sensie, whatever you want to call it. It’s tough to describe why he is so inspirational because his greatness is something unseen like the depths of an iceberg, Love itself.
Name five things you’d like to do or accomplish in the next five years.
1)Establish a solid fan-base in folk music.
2)Have more people (possibly famous people!) cover my songs.
3)Make three or more CDs.
4)Feel inspired and write more songs that I’m proud of.
5)Fall in love with a man who is my equal, and who will be a true companion.
If you could dream of trying something in the arts you haven’t tried, but would like to, what would that be?
Something visual and tactile. I used to paint as a hobby. I would like to do that again someday. I enjoy getting absorbed in it.
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
I’m a big fan of being lazy so I try to fit that in as much as possible, but I tend to be driven even in my idle time. I like to stalk people on the internet. I find them fascinating. I like to make stuff up in my head, daydream, fantasize, think.
Please check out my website where you can sign up for my mailing list and please like my Facebook page!
That really depends on who you’re talking to. To some I’m a carpenter, to others, a writer, to a small handful I’m an ex husband, to others, I’m that crazy Northern Irish guy who drank a lot and now writes and makes movies, and to my four year old, Erica, I’m just daddy.
What are you working on at the moment?
At the moment I’m in that rare terrain where it’s all about publicity and selling my new memoir That’s That, which was published by Crown Publishing Group.
Do you have upcoming events you’d like people to attend?
Tuesday night, April 30th, 7pm I’ll be reading from That’s That at the Artists Without Walls’ Showcase at The Cell Theater, 338 W. 23rd Street.
Everyone should come to my book launch at Barnes & Noble, Warren street in Tribeca, May 14th at seven pm. The actor Josh Brolin will be there to introduce me, so that should be fun. I believe he is going to interview me about the process of writing this memoir which Random House are billing as “The first book to paint a detailed depiction of Northern Ireland’s Troubles.” There will be an afterparty at the Scratcher Bar all are welcome to come along with us after the reading.
Who are the writers, past and present, you admire?
Philip Roth, Hemmingway, Graham Greene, Fitzgerald, Jonathan Franzen, Bukowski, Adrienne Rich, and Woody Allen, to name just a few.
What are three of your favorite literary works?
A Moveable Feast; Hemmingway
The Great Gatsby; Fitzgerald
The End of The Affair; Graham Greene
Who is your greatest inspiration and why?
My daughter because she brings me into the moment and reminds me that innocence is still attainable.
Name five things you’d like to do or accomplish in the next five years.
Buy a little house in the country.
Write a novel.
Direct this feature movie that I’ve written and complete another.
Win both an Oscar and a Pulitzer.
Stop worrying so much.
If you could dream of trying something in the arts you haven’t tried, but would like to, what would that be?
I’m going to start playing the Bodhran shortly.
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
I don’t have much of that at the moment, but if I do get a few hours I love to watch movies. I’m addicted to the screen; aren’t we all.
I’m a classical violinist from Germany. I’ve toured, however, with the Riverdance-like international show Barrage for three years and have since become a fiddler, as well. Last year I began writing music and I enjoy combining the violin with other elements such as singing, acting and dance.
What are you working on at the moment?
My goal is to produce an album this year so with that in mind I’m focusing on writing and arranging music. I also dream of being on stage in a big show as a violinist/actress/singer/dancer. I’m working on collecting experience, auditioning and learning, learning, learning.
Do you have upcoming events you’d like people to attend?
I am a composer/dancer/violinist for the Westfest Dance Festival that takes place at Westbeth on April 28th.
I am part of a six week workshop of the musical/theatrical concert “What I Am Failing to Learn” I play the violin, sing, act and I have stepped in as the musical director (debut) at 13th street Repertory theatre, Wednesdays at 7 pm, Saturdays at 3 pm, from May 15th until June 15th
“Chaconne” for solo violin by Bach, a perfect piece of music.
Who are the musicians and composers you admire?
Prokofiev: He wrote music with a sense of humor. He also composed beautiful melodies, but always in a strange setting. I love that.
Bach: He wrote the most incredible music…and plenty of it. He wrote incredibly high quality compositions every week for most of his life. The solo violin sonatas are absolute perfection.
Musicians: there are so many!
Elvis: One of the most intuitive performers.
Feist: I enjoy her songs so much. She’s always experimenting with new sounds, even when performing, which I love.
Janine Jansen: My favorite classical violinist. She plays with so much soul.
Who is your greatest inspiration and why?
I am a huge fan of Elvis. He wasn’t secure enough to get through his life as a healthy man but he followed his dream and believed in it and never gave up. He was such a big inspiration to so many people. Who knows if the Beatles would have existed without Elvis.
But generally anybody who is innovative and goes for what they love is an inspiration for me. I admire any musician who plays with soul and heart.
What are the top objectives at this point in your life?
1.) Touring with my own music. Wouldn’t that be wonderful if other people would get something out of what I find important to share.
2.) Being a violinist/singer/actress/dancer in a Broadway show. Ever since I saw the show Once I knew that there was a way to connect the instrument with something else and that’s what I am dreaming of accomplishing.
3.) As much as I love to freelance I would love to be in a situation where I would be able to see my family and friends in Germany regularly. I do get homesick.
4.) Find a place that I can call home. I know my homes are Germany and NYC but a bit more defined home would be nice.
5.) Playing with a person or group I admire very much and being able to have some impact on the music I play.
If you could dream of trying something in the arts you haven’t tried, but would like to, what would that be?
I would love to act in a movie. Directing a show would be great, too.
What was the best gift that someone gave you that inspired or facilitated an interest in your art?
Well, first I have to say that my parents never stopped me from doing anything like moving far away, or being a musician, in fact, they were an enormous help. What a wonderful gift. As a teenager I used to travel with an orchestra in Europe and China. Touring and traveling with my violin has opened my eyes to so many other music forms and ways of living.
Who is Matt Keating?
What was the best gift that someone gave you that inspired or facilitated an interest in your art?
