8/12/2019 Evelyn Glennie Interview (1)

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Evelyn Glennie Interview

Percussionist Evelyn Glennie talks to a group of reporters who are deaf about her music, her beliefs and how she communicatesdespite her own deafness.

What is your name please?

EG: My name is Evelyn Glennie.

KL: I’m Kabiru Lawal.

EG: I love that name. It ’s a very percussive name. Really nice. Mine sounds so ordinary in comparison with yours.

Where do you come from?

EG: I’m actually Scottish, and my mother ’s side comes from the tiny little islands at the very north of Scotland called the Orkney Islands but I was brought up inhe North-east of Scotland.

KL: I was born in Africa, in Nigeria.

EG: Oh, that ’s wonderful. I ’ve never been to Africa and I ’d love to one day. There ’s lots of percussion instruments there.

How did you start in music and percussion?

EG: I started from the age of 12 at a secondary school in Aberdeenshire and there just happened to be a really good music department. It was a normalcomprehensive school and I was just given the chance to play percussion and I enjoyed it and just stuck with it for all these years.

That ’s great. What kind of work do you do specifically?

EG: I basically specialize in solo percussion playing. T hat means I go around the world and give concerts on just percussion and sometimes I also play withorchestras where the percussion instruments are plac ed at the front of the orchestra as opposed to behind. So all the concerts I give feature percussion as amain element.

When did you start being interested in music?

EG: Probably around the age of eight I became interested in wanting to learn to play the piano. Then from the age of ten I spent one year playing the clarinetand from the age of twelve I started timpani and percussion. And at the age of something like twenty -eight I started the great Highland Bagpipes!

How did you actually start playing professionally?

EG: Well, after school – from the ages of 16 to 19 – I went to the Royal Academy of Music in London and I gained a music degree and from then I basicallyried to sort of sell what I do as a musician. So I wrote to lots of orchestras and lots of concert promoters. I wrote to lots of composers asking for pieces to be

written for me. I just wrote to anybody and everybody on the music business to try to make them aware that I was interested in being a solo percussion player.So basically, you had to create your own opportunities.

I couldn’t just sit there and wait for people to come to me. I really had to go to the people and make things happen. And we all have to do that. Just as you ’vehad to make the journey to come here - you’ve made that happen.

Where do you play?

EG: All over the world, except I haven ’t been to Africa, but really, it could be in the far East – Japan or Singapore, the Philippines,Hong Kong. Also, the Middle East – Lebanon or Israel, Turkey. Or it could be Eas tern Europe like Poland, Lithuania, Latvia,Estonia or Western Europe such as Germany, France, Romania, Scandinavia or America and Canada. Even Iceland. So lots ofdifferent places.

Actually, I’m quite good with maps! So if you need a guide just give me a call!

How do you communicate with other people?

EG: I basically speak as I was not born deaf so it ’s very important for me to use my voice because my work happens to be with hearing people and so really Iike to keep my voice going. That ’s very important.

How do you manage if there is a communication breakdown?

EG: There ’s never a communication breakdown. There ’s always a way to communicate and actually the most important part of our bodies to communicate bys actually the eyes. That ’s often known as the windows of our soul.

Really the eyes can see a lot and sometimes I can be performing with musicians who perhaps don ’t speak English or I may not speak their language so thevoice is never used and so we have to find another way. And that ’s why music is so important, especially percussion, and often it ’s the drum that makes thatink.

How did you learn music, and writing music?

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EG: I t’s quite difficult to say it was done in this way or that way because music is a very fluid subject. It ’s something that ’s always changing.

Nowadays we ’re dealing a lot with technology. But really it ’s much more of a hands- on subject. It ’s really about experimentation , about curiosity, about reallyopening yourself up and having a go. And there ’s no such thing as a mistake in music playing. You try something and it ’s almost like a sculptor – alwayschanging and changing what they do. That ’s what happens with sound making, we are all ‘sound creators ’ really and we just carry on experimenting. So therewasn ’t really a set way of doing anything.

And that’s the great thing about music; we can all start by participating in music at any time in our lives. So you can be 9 -years- old or 99 -years- old. It’s neveroo late to start playing music.

When you were a child you were hearing and you lost your hearing later on. Can you still imagine the sound of music or did you learn to lip -readas well?

EG: Oh yes, I learned to lip -read, definitely. I learned to lip -read through looking at myself, and other people, in a mirror, and really trying to distinguish thesubtleties. So for example, the difference – as in my case – my name, Ev- e-lyn and Eve -lyn. So when you look at that tiny difference in a mirror, you can reallysee that difference, but you have to pay attention to it. It ’s really important, and that ’s what being a musician is all about. It ’s looking at the tiny, tiny detail ofhings and not just things on the surface level. You need to get yourself up to observing what ’s there.

But I do remember some things, obviously, but I wasn ’t exposed to music in any big way as a child because I was brought up in a farming community. Somusic was not a big part of our lives.

So could you hear anything while you were growing up?

EG: Oh yes. I didn ’t lose my hearing until about the age of eight, and by the time I was twelve I was dependent on hearing aids. So’d learnt how to speak. I could understand about accents. I understood about inflection, about dynamics, about placing your voicen different situations.

And that still remains today because that ’s what my job is as a musician as well. It ’s placing sound in the room or the hall or theheatre I ’m in that is relevant to a particular situation.

Have you seen people who learn through a communication method called ‘tadoma ’ where they put the hand on thehroat and they learn how to speak through feeling the vocal chords?

EG: I’m aware of that a little bit and I remember meeting a man from Denmark called Klaus Bang and he basically worked with very small children to try to gethem to understand about inflection and dynamics and phrasing of words and phrasing of sentences, and a lot of that was done through literally putting the

hand onto the voice box, onto the throat, and really being so in tune with what you ’re feeling and this is now being done with babies so it really is an interestingand worthwhile thing to do, absolutely. Very use ful.

What do you like best about music, and percussion?

EG: I t’s very universal so you find that music comes from all over the world. It ’s something that you can participate with so many people so you communicatewith all age groups. It ’s very therapeutic as well. Really useful for sound therapy, music therapy, that sort of thing. And of course a lot of the pieces are likeartwork – they’re just beautiful to look at.

You ’ve got lots of percussion items here. Are they from all parts of the world?

EG: The things I have (at my home) are quite minimal. This is just a collection of bells, some of which I ’ve picked up from different parts of the world. But mostof the percussion instruments are either in the studio, in the garage or out on tour somewhere! So I just have tiny little pieces here.

(What I also have) here is a little Tibetanese drum, and the long little shaft leaning against the cupboard is a nose flute, so you actually blow in it with your nose,which isn ’t very nice!

You were recently awarded an honorary degree from the Open University. What was that for?

EG: They give these degrees called ‘Top Tour of the University ’ for – as in my case – Doctor of Music so that ’s for my contribution to music but that is the titlehat they give.

How did you feel when you got the news that you were to receive that?

EG: I was very happy. As with all forms of recognition it ’s a chance to step back, have a little look at things, see what you can do better and try to achievemore. And I’m a big fan of the OU. I love what it stands for, the opportunities it ’s given to people and its ’ talk about inspiration and achievement and the wholerealm of organising your life in order to move forward with an area that ’s of interest to you. I just find the whole thing inspirational, and of course it ’s internationalas well.

The graduation ceremony that I took part in had about 300 people and the age range was about 25 to 80. The morning before, they had a 95 -year -oldgraduating. So this is hugely inspirational. It really is. So I enjoyed it.

You are the world ’s only full -time solo percussionist, which is such an achievement. Do you feel you have much more that you want to achieve?

EG: Yes, this is only the first step really, because what ’s important about that is that other people can now come on board andsay “ I want to be a solo percussionist ” and so we can all say “fine, go ahead ”, rather than “hmm, I ’m not sure” , or “hmm, thatcould be difficult”, or whatever. So that ’s important.

There ’s now a body of repertoire or pieces of music for people to play to start their career so for me that ’s just the first step sonow I need to build on that and think to myself, well how can I use that? How can I branch out from that?

Things like sound therapy is important, but featuring percussion, and not just hitting something, but really to delve into the soundand the me chanics and how we perceive sound and m y ultimate aim is to set up a development centre that deals with all aspectsof music- making, from the therapeutic side to the serious performance side on a professional level, to the music business, to music technology. Everything,really, that I ’ve experienced as a musician. Because all of those things play a part in being a musician.

The ’re obviousl our lon -term oals. What are our imminent lans?

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EG: Well, the touring keeps going and the recordings keep going. Very often I ’m in a situation where I ’ve got to keep the repertoire going so I ’ve got to askcomposers to write pieces for me. That will carry on forever really because we need to build on the repertoire. There are always new experiences as to whomyou’re performing with, what you ’re performing, and where you ’re performing.

’d love to go to Africa. I’d love to go to Greenland and more places in Latin America. All the audiences are different, they really are and I think how we listen isalso different now. The types of sounds that we ’re exposed to are more cosmetically enhanced and, for me, I want to hold onto the raw and organic and naturalype of things.

What ’s your favourite instrument?

EG: I think...hmmm…If I truly had to be stranded on a desert island I would probably pick the snare drum because it ’s very compact, it ’s a real challenge to play- both technically and musically – and it’s just a very dynamic instrument.

So you like music a lot then?

EG: Yes I do. I feel very happy to be involved with music.

Thank you very much for your time.

EG: Thank you all. You ’re experts!

About this article

This interview was conducted by members of a deaf Project Subway group. The members involved in the interview were Kabiru Lawal, Abdi Hakim Abdirizak,Luyben Kzumanov, Salamata Watara, Jerry Mondata, Alamgir Hussain, Bilikisu Kushimo and Tharmeen Sheik.

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