Name Verna Gillis | Role Music Producer | |
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"Cultural Preservationists" with Verna Gillis
Verna Gillis , born 1942, is a free-lance producer who has gained recognition for her work promoting and producing music from various cultural backgrounds. Gillis holds a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology. She was an Assistant Professor at Brooklyn College from 1974 to 1980 and at Carnegie Mellon University from 1988 to 1990.
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From 1972 to 1978, Gillis recorded traditional music in Afghanistan, Iran, Kashmir, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Surinam, and Ghana. In 1979, she opened Soundscape, the first multi-cultural performance space in New York City, on west 52nd Street which she directed for the next five years. Gillis, Soundscape and the music played there is the subject of a web based project by WKCR Radio 89.9 NY [1]
From 1984, Gillis worked on career development with international musicians including Youssou N'dour from Senegal, Yomo Toro from Puerto Rico; Salif Keita form Mali, and Carlinhos Brown from Brazil.
Gillis has been the subject of a number of press articles, with the New York Times describing her as ".... the closest thing world music has to a doyenne" * [2]
Her present collaboration is with Roswell Rudd, trombonist/composer. They have formed a group they call THE OLDERS and will shortly release their song AWESOME & GRUESOME.
In 1996, she was hired as a consultant by the ICRC to accompany musicians on a trip to Angola, Liberia, Kenya and South African to witness first hand the results of ethnic cleansing. Gillis worked with the International Committee of the Red Cross to produce a CD.
Twenty-five of Gillis' recordings have been released by Smithsonian Folkways and Lyrichord.
As well, there have been 9 releases on DIW of Live from Soundscape tapes made during the years that the performance space which was located at 500 West 52nd Street was open.
In 2000, she was nominated for a Grammy in the Producer category for the Archie Shepp/Roswell Rudd Quartet Live in New York, and again in 2001 for Roswell Rudd's MALIcool.
Her song FUNKY LITTLE SWEET THING can be seen on youtube.
She has recently been performing " sit down comedy" - and has a One Older Woman show 'Tales from Gerriassic Park- On the Verge of Extinction'. She has published two books "I Just Want to be Invited - I Promise Not to Come, and I'LL NEVER KNOW IF I WOULD HAVE GOTTEN THE SAME RESULTS IF I'D BEEN NICE. Available on Amazon.