Thanks, Judy, for joining us here on Ocean State Stories. You have had such a distinguished career in so many artistic fields and we will explore many of them here. Let’s start with your background. We see on your website that you hold bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from Juilliard. Tell us about your education and accomplishments at Juilliard.
Thank you for reaching out, Wayne. It’s an honor to be in the company of such esteemed community members.
In terms of my background, I began playing piano by ear at age three, gave my first public performances at five, entered Juilliard Pre-College while in elementary school, and I was trained as a pianist from childhood through my bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees at Juilliard. I’ve been on the international music scene since I was a teen.
The selective conservatory environment at Juilliard is, as you can imagine, extraordinarily competitive, but it is also remarkably inspiring to be among talented colleagues and renowned mentors.
During my education there, I was proud to have been apparently the youngest person ever admitted to their doctoral program, and I was honored to have received talent scholarships throughout the years and to win the prestigious Juilliard Concerto Competition.
These were formative years in which I was blessed to experience the highest level training with some of the world’s most exceptional musicians. I made lasting friendships with musicians whose careers are off the charts and with whom I continue to collaborate.
And let’s return in time a bit. When did you first become interested in music and did you have mentors and influences in your childhood?
I discovered my passion for music when I was very young. I had a nurturing home environment with music-loving parents. While I couldn’t identify it at the time, I believe that I was drawn to music because of its profound effect on emotions and feelings.
I was fortunate to garner inspiration from the finest musical mentors – pianists, violinists, conductors – working with and alongside Rudolf Serkin at Marlboro, being in Leonard Bernstein’s orbit at Tanglewood, studying piano with the musical guru Leon Fleisher. I often consider the role these influences played– they were an integral part of my journey. I’m proud of this legacy. I’m in a sense a descendent of Beethoven, as the lineage of pianists goes like this: Ludwig van Beethoven taught Carl Czerny who taught Theodor Leschtiszky who taught Artur Schanbel who taught Leon Fleisher who taught… me! — A noble lineage handed down from generation to generation, and an extraordinary tradition and responsibility to carry forth!
I’ve forged lifelong musical partnerships with icons such as Wynton Marsalis; I appeared with Herbie Hancock on a Bose commercial; performed at The Grammy’s celebration in honor of Rostropovich; performed with diverse musicians from members of the New York Philharmonic to the Beach Boys; was named Honored Artist of the American Prize as pianist and composer; served as a visiting artist in Russia, China, Scotland, France, Israel, and in the U.K.
Upon completing studies at Juilliard, I began my position as Rhode Island College’s Artist-in-Residence, leaving the Big Apple for the Little Apple – Li’l Rhody! In my continued role as Artist-in-Residence at RIC, I serve as an artistic ambassador, and do everything in my power to enhance the cultural fabric of the college, the community, the state and beyond.
In order to bring music to wider audiences and to best deliver messages on a broader scale, my career expanded and has evolved to include not only my work as a pianist but also as a composer, choral conductor, music director, educator, and filmmaker.
Artists are compelled to use the arts to express. Oftentimes we serve as interpreter, but we can also use our gifts to create, and to find innovative ways to engage audiences.
OK, now back to the professional Judy Stillman. Give us a snapshot of your piano playing. What are some of the places where you have performed?
It’s difficult to select favorites from among the many and diverse venues. The ones that stand out the most have a parallel story connected to them. Premiering a work in Beijing, China, at the Central Conservatory of Music was a musical highlight. What was striking also about that extraordinary winter visit was that, although I wore three pairs of wool socks to visit the Great Wall, I still nearly wound up with frostbitten toes! Performances at Lincoln Center were so gratifying, with full houses and standing ovations – and, from the West Side to the West Indies (!) – I performed on a magical island there and was housed in David Bowie’s opulent former residence. The tropical exoticism of the island was intriguing until I had the unforgettable experience of being stung by a scorpion! Lovely and picturesque churches in Switzerland were wonderful acoustically and overflowing with appreciative audiences – and cows processed outside, during my concerts, each having its own bell tone. Amazingly, the cowherds could identify each cow by the pitch of its bell!
Please give us a snapshot of your composing.
As the great cellist Pablo Casals said: “Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart.” My goal in composing is to express what’s in my heart and to touch the hearts of listeners. Many of my composing projects are designed to give a voice to the voiceless. To that end, I most often create works that are both instrumental and vocal, typically as both composer and lyricist, as text can convey messages powerfully in tandem with the music.
My passion has been to use the arts as a vehicle for human rights, women’s rights, social justice, honoring significant milestones, and more.In my mission to reveal the magic of music, I try to help listeners experience viscerally what they might be processing cognitively.An important facet of what composers can bring to the world is our ability to join others in a shared imaginative life. When we compose, we challenge and invite others to engage their imaginations with ours.
In my projects, I often combine an educational focus/scholarship with creative artistry. I have a burning drive to bring projects to fruition often to underscore world issues and topics of global significance, to enlighten audiences. To that end, I compose multimedia works, original music and narration or lyrics, attempting to synthesize my interests as pianist, composer/arranger, writer, director, art enthusiast, and educator, and I produce these events for live audiences, and for television and video – with the goal of bringing a visceral understanding of, for example, the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, climate change, women’s rights, civil rights, the dire need for diversity, equity and inclusion, the complex lives of artists in history, and more. I also create multidisciplinary plays-within-a-concert, upon which I’ll elaborate in answering your question below about filmmaking.
And your music directing.
Ah, another passion of mine! I’ve just served as the Musical Director for the rockabilly-inspired show Cry-Baby at Rhode Island College. The students were wonderfully committed, full of boundless energy, and trained in a highly professional manner by my terrific colleagues in the Department of Music, Theatre and Dance. It was exciting to serve as musical director for a summer opera festival in Rome and Verona, Italy. More about music directing in answer to your “what’s next” question!
And your filmmaking!
While live music and productions have that ephemeral, in-the-moment beauty that can never be replaced, capturing these projects on film enables us to ultimately reach a much wider audience and, potentially, for posterity!
I began filmmaking and winning multiple film awards with projects that were near and dear to me.
Among them, I’ve created multidisciplinary plays-within-a-concert™® designed to shine the spotlight on composers in which the emotions shared in their music often parallel the emotional arch of their lives’ stories and struggles. These are my trademarked/signature staged composer portraits highlighting, for example, Beethoven on his 250th, Mozart on his 200th, and other great musicians, in which viewers take away a feeling of a personal connection to the composer: as if they’ve witnessed Beethoven’s anguish while he penned his Heligenstadt testament in which he wrestles with his increasing deafness and contemplates suicide, or as if they shared a bottle of Beaujolais with Francis Poulencin a bustling Parisian Cafe, or or as if they were present to comfort black woman composer Florence Price on the glaring absence of a response from the conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra to her heart-wrenching plea addressing race and gender.
The great Leonard Bernstein gave musicians a mandate – “in times of crisis, we must make music more devotedly, more beautifully and more intensely than ever before.” That was the goal of some of my pandemic film projects. I think all artists passionately seek ways to express and share what’s in our hearts. During [the pandemic] lockdown, when live performances were completely shut down, the need for creative expression became even more necessary – we were desperate! When we were quarantining, I discovered and embraced my inner hermit – and that environment, which felt like my own personal artists’ colony, without certain kinds of distractions, was conducive to my composing, creating, rethinking, reimagining.
For example, I composed and performed the film score for a short movie that came out of Hollywood that was filmed in 8 different countries, delving into the universality of experiences during COVID. Also, an operatic work I composed, capturing struggles during the pandemic and premiered by Grammy Award-winning baritone Will Liverman of the Metropolitan Opera, won first prize in the OperaVision International Quarantine Competition.
We note on your website that you use your “creative platform to champion human rights, women’s rights, and diversity & inclusion, to further genocide education, and to give a voice to the voiceless.” Why is this so important and what inspired your passion for advocacy?
It’s been a calling. I’ve both witnessed and experienced injustice, discrimination, inequality, and deep sorrow. Along with tremendous joy and good fortune, my life was also interlaced with trauma. Although no doubt reflecting only a microcosm of the pain of many others, it provided a window into the need for advocacy and impelled me to pursue this path.
For example, to amplify Women’s Voices, I created Women Trailblazers in Music. This project, which also became a film, highlights the rarely heard stories and music of women composers in an attempt to redress the historic imbalance of the patriarchal music culture. I was driven to create this work in part because my talented mother’s and grandmother’s careers never took off in the male-dominated societies in which they lived. This propelled me to champion women composers who were repressed, undervalued, discouraged, and all but forgotten due to the politics of their existence. By examining the past we can hope to change the shape of the future.
Turning to Rhode Island, from your website we see that you are Artistic Director for Judith Lynn Stillman & Friends from the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra at the Carter Center, and the Artistic Director for Masterworks Concerts at the Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts. What are those centers and what are your roles?
As the Artistic Director of both series, I serve as the person responsible for programming, organizing, contracting, as well as curating, designing, oftentimes composing and scriptwriting, and serving as pianist. The Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts is on the Rhode Island College campus and the Carter Center is the home of the Rhode Island Philharmonic’s Music School.
You have won many awards, including a Pell Award for Excellence in the Arts. We took special interest in that, considering we are based at The Pell Center in Newport. Do you have any memories of the award and Gala you’d like to share?
The gala was glamorous! Wynton Marsalis, as a personal favor to me (we’ve been friends since our teen years, as well as colleagues in concerts, master classes, and on recordings), came up from NYC to present my award. I remember wearing a red sequin gown and performing Debussy. Wynton, Jason Robards (the Lifetime Achievement Award winner) and Oskar Eustis (Artistic Director) were enthusiastic – and – what remains indelible was to see the evening through the eyes of my young daughter, who attended with me and took pride in her mom’s achievement. To this day, that Debussy work is her favorite piece of music, and every time she comes back home she asks me to play it for her. The Pell gala was a special evening of joy and celebration.
What advice do you have for people of any age who have an interest in artistic creativity, but may be afraid to take the first steps?
Follow your heart. I have a guiding principle which I share in my master classes and workshops: ‘The Three P’s: Passion, Practice and Perseverance.” It’s natural to experience fear and anxiety, but these elements can help us overcome the difficulties inherent in pursuing a path which is immensely challenging but can be remarkably rewarding. Please also feel free to contact me at www.judithlynnstillman.com I would be happy to provide guidance.
Finally, what’s next for Judy Stillman?
I am excited to share that I will serve as the Artistic Director, Pianist, and creator of the musical score for The Gamm Theatre’s upcoming production of Amadeus. I am looking forward to working with the brilliant director Tony Estrella and the talented cast and crew.
The more we can make music an active, vital part of our society, the healthier and richer and the more imaginative and creative our world will be. Louis Armstrong said it best: “Music is life itself.”
