Verna Gillis (born 1942) is an American freelance

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

, who has gained recognition for her work promoting and producing music from various cultural backgrounds. Gillis holds a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

ethnomusicology Ethnomusicology is the study of music from the cultural and social aspects of the people who make it. It encompasses distinct theoretical and methodical approaches that emphasize cultural, social, material, cognitive, biological, and other dim ...

. She was an assistant professor at

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus. Being New York City's first publ ...

from 1974 to 1980 and at

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

from 1988 to 1990. Gillis has been the subject of a number of press articles, with ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' describing her as "the closest thing world music has to a doyenne".

Life and career

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 A soundscape is the acoustic environment as perceived by humans, in context. The term was originally coined by Michael Southworth, and popularised by R. Murray Schafer. There is a varied history of the use of soundscape depending on discipline, r ...

, the first multi-cultural performance space in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, 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. From 1984, Gillis worked on career development with international musicians including

Youssou N'dour Youssou N'Dour (, wo, Yuusu Nduur; also known as Youssou Madjiguène Ndour; born 1 October 1959) is a Senegalese singer, songwriter, musician, composer, occasional actor, businessman, and politician. In 2004, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine describe ...

from Senegal (''

The Guide (Wommat) ''The Guide (Wommat)'' is the seventh studio album by Senegalese singer and composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupa ...

''), Yomo Toro from Puerto Rico;

Salif Keita Salif Keïta () (born 25 August 1949) is a Malian singer-songwriter, referred to as the "Golden Voice of Africa". He is a member of the Keita royal family of Mali. Biography Early life Salif Keita was born a traditional prince in the village o ...

form Mali, and

Carlinhos Brown Antônio Carlos Santos de Freitas, known professionally as Carlinhos Brown (Brazilian Portuguese: /kaʁˈlĩɲus bɾaw̃, -iɲuʃ/, 23 November 1962), is a Brazilian singer, percussionist, and record producer from Salvador, Bahia. His musica ...

from Brazil. In 1996, she was hired as a consultant by the

International Committee of the Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC; french: Comité international de la Croix-Rouge) is a humanitarian organization which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is also a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties (signato ...

(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 ICRC to produce a CD. Twenty-five of Gillis' recordings have been released by

Smithsonian Folkways Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was fou ...

and

Lyrichord Lyrichord Discs is a record label specializing in world music and classical music. In 2015, Multicultural Media acquired the catalog of Lyrichord. History The label was founded in 1950 by Peter Fritsch, an Austrian immigrant who moved to America ...

. As well, there have been nine releases on DIW of Live from Soundscape tapes, made during the years that the performance space which was located at 500 West

52nd Street 52nd Street is a -long one-way street traveling west to east across Midtown Manhattan, New York City. A short section of it was known as the city's center of jazz performance from the 1930s to the 1950s. Jazz center Following the repeal of ...

was open. In 2000, she was nominated for a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

in the Producer category for the '' Archie Shepp/Roswell Rudd Quartet Live in New York'', and again in 2001 for

Roswell Rudd Roswell Hopkins Rudd Jr. (November 17, 1935 – December 21, 2017) was an American jazz trombonist and composer. Although skilled in a variety of genres of jazz (including Dixieland, which he performed while in college), and other genres of musi ...

's '' MALIcool''. She has performed "sit down comedy" – and has a One Older Woman show ''Tales from Geriassic Park - On the Verge of Extinction' which won Best Comedic Script in 2014 at the United Solo Theatre Festival in NYC> She has published three books, ''I Just Want to be Invited - I Promise Not to Come'',''I'll Never Know If I Would Have Gotten The Same Results if I'd Been Nice''. and "The I of the Storm." She lived and collaborated with trombonist/composer Roswell Rudd from 1999 - 2017 when he died. They formed a group they call The Olders. Their video AWEMSONE & GRUESOME can be seen on Youtube.

Discography

* 1973 ''Folk Music from Afghanistan: In Kabul'' (Lyrichord LLST 7259) * 1973 ''Folk Music from Kashmir: On Lake Dal'' (Lyrichord LLST 7260) * 1973 ''Folk Music from Iran: Luristan and Fars Provinces'' (Lyrichord LLST 7261) * 1976 ''The Island of Quisqueya - Dominican Republic - Vol. I'' (Folkways FE 4281) * 1976 ''The Island of Española - Dominican Republic - Vol. II'' (Folkways FE 4281) * 1976 ''Cradle of the New World - Dominican Republic - Vol. III'' (Folkways FE 4283) * 1976 ''Peru: Music from the Land of Macchu Picchu'' (Lyrichord LLST 7294) * 1976 ''Vodun: Radad Rite for Erzulie - Haiti'' (Folkways FE 4491) * 1977 ''Suriname - Javanese Music'' (Lyrichord LLST 7317) * 1978 ''Songs from the North - Dominican Republic - Vol. LV'' (Folkways FE 4284) * 1978 ''Rara in Haiti - Gaga in the Dominican Republic'' (Folkways 4531) * 1978 ''Kora Music from the Gambia - Foday Music Suso'' (Folkways FW 8510) * 1978 ''Anpao - An American Indian Odyssey'' (Folkways FC 7776) * 1978 ''Ghana - Music of the Northern Tribes'' (Lyrichord LLST 7321) * 1978 ''Music of the Dagomba from Ghana'' (Folkways FTS 32425) * 1979 ''Comanche Flute Music Played by Doc Tate Nevaquaya'' (Folkways FE 4328) * 1979 ''Music of the Ashanti of Ghana'' (Folkways FE 4240) * 1979 ''David "Honeyboy" Edwards – Mississippi Delta Blues Singer'' (Folkways FTS 32425) * 1979 ''Rev. Audrey Bronson – Are You Ready for Christmas?'' (Folkways FS 32425) * 1980 ''African, New York – Drum Masterpieces with Ladji Camara'' (Lyrichord LLST 7345) * 1981 ''South Indian Strings – L. Subramaniam'' (Lyrichord LLST 7350) * 1981 ''Merengues from the Dominican Republic'' (Lyrichord LLST 7351 * 1981 ''Traditional Women's Music from Ghana'' (Folkways FE 4257) * 1981 ''From Slavery to Freedom – Music of the Saramaka Maroons of Suriname'' (Lyrichord - List 7354) * 1982 ''Nicholas Guillen – Poet Laureate of Revolutionary Cuba'' (Folkways FI 9941) * 1985 ''Music of Cuba'' (Folkways FE 4064)

References

External links

Verna Gillis official siteDiscography at Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gillis, Verna American record producers Place of birth missing (living people) Living people 1942 births Brooklyn College faculty