The Mind Over Finger Podcast - 182 Njioma Grievous: Backstage Pass

Starting point is 00:00:00 You're listening to The Mind Over Finger Podcast, episode number 182. Welcome to The Mind Over Finger Podcast, where we dive into the world of mindful music making, peak performance, and crafting a purpose-driven life and career. I'm your host, violinist, certified performance and life coach for musicians, and your guide to unlocking your full potential, Dr. René-Paul Gaultier. Hi, everyone. I hope today is a good day for you. I have a great backstage pass conversation for you in this episode. I speak with the wonderful and dynamic violin soloist and chamber musician, Enjioma Grievous. Enjioma is an emerging, passionate, and versatile performer. She's a graduate of the Juilliard School and a winner of its John

Starting point is 00:00:57 Erskine Prize for Scholastic and Artistic Achievement. In 2023, Angioma won both the Robert F. Smith First Prize and the Audience Choice Awards in the Senior Division of the Sphinx Competition and joined prizes in the CAG-YCAT auditions. In 2022, she was the winner of concerto competitions at the University of Delaware and the Newark Symphony Orchestra. Angioma was also a winner of the Music Academy of the West Keston Max Fellowship to study and perform with the London Symphony Orchestra in November 2022. She won first prizes for performance and interpretation in the 2018 Prix Ravel in Fontainebleau, France. A founding member of the Abeo Quartet, Angioma recently completed graduate studies with Ryan Meehan

Starting point is 00:01:48 in the Calidori String Quartet at the University of Delaware, where she was also a fellow in the inaugural Graduate String Quartet in Residence program. Winners of several awards and competitions, the Abeo Quartet studied under the tutelage of the Juilliard String Quartet at Juilliard. In addition to her busy performance career, Angioma loves teaching composition and collaboration to New York City elementary and middle school students from underrepresented communities through the Opportunity Music Project. We had such a fun time talking, and we covered many topics that I know you're going to find interesting, including her performance preparation and pre-performance routines, the importance of receiving and following advice, the skills she

Starting point is 00:02:41 thinks are important to develop, her favorite tool in the practice room and the great way she uses it, how she gets herself to practice when she doesn't feel like it, her number one advice for people taking auditions, the changes she would like to see in the classical music world, and her actionable tip on how to memorize music. And Jioma is a wonderful artist and luminous being, and I know you'll love this conversation. So without further ado, for you, Angioma Grievous, enjoy your backstage pass. Angioma, it's so great to have this opportunity to speak with you. Thank you so much for having me. I've been listening to this podcast for a while and

Starting point is 00:03:37 it's really my honor. Thank you. I'm so happy that we get to play this beautiful piece with you today, the Coleridge-Taylor Violin Concerto here at the Harris Theater in Chicago. Can you tell us just a little bit about the piece and the performance? Absolutely. So Chicago has a special place in my heart now. The Chicago Phil is actually the first orchestra that I performed solo with. So I really have them to thank for so much of what today looks like for me. So we're performing the first movement of Coleridge-Taylor's Violin Concerto in G minor as part of Harris Fest. And Harris Fest is really just an amazing day full of the different companies that are in residence here at Harris Theatre. And Chicago Phil is one of them. This piece, I mean, it's just gorgeous. And it's written by Afro-British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.

Starting point is 00:04:30 And it was actually commissioned by an amazing female violinist of her time, Maude Powell. And I think what makes this piece so special for me right now is that, you know, these two pioneers in their own ways, Coleridge Taylor and Maude Powell came together, both, you know, went through so many adversities to get where they were. And Maude Powell is responsible for really debuting a lot of Coleridge-Taylor's music around not just the U.S., but internationally as well. So there's so much power in that duo. And I feel so much respect and honor playing this piece and me playing it with now a dear friend of mine, Kaylina Bovell, who is an incredible African-American female composer. And I think it's just really special that we get to share this moment together again on stage as we did at the Sphinx competition earlier this year and to be sharing the stage with the Chicago Phil. Yeah, that's wonderful. So we're sitting backstage between the dress rehearsal and the concert. And I'm just so grateful that you are willing to sit with me, answer these questions when usually this is when we want to be left alone in a bubble. So I'm very, very grateful. um so tell me please what's your biggest performance preparation advice so the biggest

Starting point is 00:05:53 performance preparation advice um actually comes from my former chamber music teacher Jeff Myers from the Calidor Quartet and he always told us you know before you perform that day in the morning just being able to look at your score or just your part and just go through the music in your head and just internalize it so that you really feel comfortable with what you're going to be presenting that day how about a pre-performance routine yes so this is where amy cuddy comes in um i remember watching a ted talk that she gave many years ago and she talks about this thing called the power pose striking a power pose and i mean there's so much value in just being able to you know open up your shoulders open up your chest and breathe and just feel

Starting point is 00:06:41 as expansive as you can. It just gives so much confidence and you're really not doing that something terribly difficult, but it just, it's really powerful. Absolutely. I agree because we have this opportunity to, you know, release the shoulder and breathe better and also sort of neutralize the nervous system a little bit with this simple pose. Yes, that's a great one. I love doing that. I think another important pre-performance routine I have, it's not really a routine, but just sort of like a mindset thing is just remembering that, you know, it's not really about you today. It's about what you're sharing with the audience and just thinking about that greater goal makes everything feel better. It's like those little

Starting point is 00:07:25 things, you know, you worked on that, you practice that. So today is about just sharing what you have. That mindset is so important. That's a great tip. What about a habit that you have that you think contributed to your success? Well, listening to my mom has been a really great, I mean, in all seriousness, though, really listening to what the people around you have to say, the people who care about you the most and have your best interests at heart. I mean, that speaks volumes. My mom, especially when I was younger, I mean, she went to all of my violin lessons, recorded everything. I mean, that advice and that presence of mind that she had when I was only four or five years old was so important because, you know, I'm four,

Starting point is 00:08:13 I'm five years old. I don't know what's going on. And just having that person there who's always supporting you is so important. That's a great one. Another question that I think the listeners really like is to hear about the skills that artists like yourself think young musicians should acquire in addition to learning to play their instruments. There's so much happening in 2023, so much more than we can know. What is it for you? Absolutely. I mean, first thing that comes to mind is score study. I think especially when we're younger, that's underrated. I know it was for me, but now, especially with all the travel that goes into being a performing artist having that time away from the instrument and just

Starting point is 00:09:00 you yourself with the score and with a recording of you know a professional recording or if it's just something from your voice memos of you playing that time is valuable to really understand what's going what's happening between the parts you know what do I have with the cello what do I have with you know the bassoon with the oboe that really internalizing that is so key I also think that for young artists being able to feel comfortable speaking about your pieces early on is very valuable and another thing that I think is underrated you know when we're first learning instruments because you know it's all about okay what notes are you playing you know you're practicing your scales all this technique and everything so important of course but I think

Starting point is 00:09:45 being comfortable articulating what it is that you feel about a piece the history behind a piece is equally valuable. I love that. This is a question I'm sure you've heard many times and answered many times. How about a favorite tool in the practice room? Yes. My favorite tool in the practice room, even though I resisted it for so long, is voice memos. I mean, that's your teacher. And I think about so many athletes that go back and, you know, after they play a game, they go back and look at the tape and they review what happened because you know that's how you learn and I think it goes for the same with musicians putting that recorder on when you are performing when you're having a lesson um of course asking before before recording um and even

Starting point is 00:10:37 when you're practicing is so valuable and one of my former teachers Ryan Meehan from the Caldor I remember he told me, gave me this great advice to record yourself giving comments also after you practice or play through a piece and just sort of getting used to commenting on yourself and hearing what you have to say has been instrumental for me. I love that. I've never heard that. I think that's fabulous. Because one of the things that I constantly remind my clients is that articulating things with our mouth, with our words, really solidifies it in the mind in a different way than just thinking of it. But to record it and then listen to our own feedback, that's brilliant. Okay. I'm going to try that one. I'm going to steal that one from you. Okay. Everyone struggles with practicing when they don't feel like it. One strategy or many have many that you use when they're practicing that must get done, but you don't quite feel like it. Well, what works for me, I found is just not practicing right away. If I'm, you know, not feeling it, I feel like that's a breeding ground for

Starting point is 00:11:56 unproductive practice, um, playing the same thing over and over again, um, you know, fiddling around all that fun stuff. Um, and I feel like it's really important when you practice, especially the older you get and the more opportunities you get, you know, you have less time. So having focused, um, clear, concise practice is so important. So for me, it's work to just not practice right away and instead maybe go get some bubble tea or or alongside the bubble tea you know sit down and just make a to-do list of what I need to get done um and just center myself before picking up the instrument I love that so when we take auditions we often don't feel like practicing but what's your number one advice for people taking auditions well I learned

Starting point is 00:12:45 kind of the hard way. Um, I remember one of my conservatory auditions didn't go as well as I had hoped because I started to think too much about what other people were doing. And I remember for some reason that year, it felt like everybody was playing the same exact repertoire that I was playing. So, you know, I had somebody to the left of me doing the same thing to the right of me doing the same thing. And I was listening to them and not focusing on myself and sort of feeding into that self-doubt. And I feel like the best advice that I could give is to wear your headphones and just, you know, work on yourself. And I think about, again, all these athletes that walk onto the tennis courts with their headphones on, you know, they're in the zone. And I think that's

Starting point is 00:13:36 very inspirational for just being on your game in the right mindset that's very very useful and Joma there is so much happening in 2023 things are changing very rapidly and I think that's a good thing in the classical music industry is I think still trying to find itself in this is there something or some things that you would like to see more of in our industry in our world absolutely um i think that classical music has made some progress for sure in the way of diversity equity and inclusion in the arts and you know sphinx is really at the forefront of that for the past um 25 years often aaron dworkin have been working so hard um to uplift the voices of artists of underrepresented minority status composers of the same administrators of the same status and i

Starting point is 00:14:36 think that so much has been done since they started and at the same time though there's there's much more work that can be done so i'm excited to see the face of classical music continuing to change continuing to commission um young composers of color um hiring you know artists of color and you know uh to perform with orchestras and to be a part of more chamber series across the country across the world and yeah that's something that i'm looking forward to seeing and hopefully being a part of that change as well and i think that the effort of the sphinx organizations in music education for younger children is so important i see in my native Quebec where music lessons are being canceled everywhere in schools and the impact it's having

Starting point is 00:15:29 so thank you so much for this answer and yeah I think if we can all be agents of change in opening the doors to everyone but also providing education to you know to our young so they can access this it's very important absolutely and I I'm a very proud product I think of some of those educational endeavors that you're talking about. I grew up in a stream training program in Boston called Project Step. And yeah, that program just means so much to me. It's very similar to Sphinx. They offer mentorship lessons, financial support for festivals and weekly lessons, theory, ear training, et cetera. And I owe so much to Sphinx and to Project Step for opening those doors and I mean Sphinx has those amazing career grants and they have

Starting point is 00:16:27 orchestral intensives for musicians in in college and yeah it's just incredible um you know the number of programs that are starting to come up and I'm excited to see more and more show up yeah very very important organizations thank you so much thank you and Jioma I don't want to keep you for too long but in finishing can you give us an a quick actionable tip that the listeners could experiment with or implement today in their practice or their lives getting really technical I think in the practice room something that's been very valuable to me when memorizing music which is so so key I really feel like I'm at my best when something is memorized even if it's chamber music even if it's orchestra if I really know in my heart like in my blood in my veins

Starting point is 00:17:19 what's going on it's just it calls for a better performance so um something that I suggest you know if you're struggling with memorizing a certain section or or what have it is taking a pen or pencil and taking your staff paper and just dictating from memory your part the baseline whatever that you know will help you to internalize this piece and I feel like for me just feeling the transfer of of information from my brain through my shoulder through my arm into my fingers and onto the paper is uh you know it's just been very instrumental in making sure that I feel so solid on the memory and it's not it's not so that you know like I'm trying to memorize you know exactly what I'm going to do artistically, but just having that foundation of knowing the

Starting point is 00:18:15 music that allows for you to be more free in the performance. Thanks for embodying mind over finger in a few words. Thank you so much. So please tell us a little bit about, you know, projects that you have coming up in the next few months, uh, or where it listeners could go to find out more about you catch your performances? Absolutely. Well, you can follow me on Instagram. I'm ngrevious8. I also have a website made by my wonderful mom. It's called ngomagrevious.com. And in terms of projects upcoming, I'm very excited to be doing a residency with my quartet, Abeo, at Caramore for this season. It's just an exciting opportunity for us to get to perform pieces that are in our repertoire, to learn a piece that we've commissioned in

Starting point is 00:19:10 conjunction with Caramore, and very excited for that endeavor. Not to mention all of the educational programs that Caramore has invited us to participate in, including the possibility of playing for some correctional facilities. So really looking forward to that opportunity. You can also find information about my quartet, Abeo, on our Instagram, abeocortet, or our website, abeocortet.com. And this is a couple months out, but speaking of the Chicago Phil and Kaylina Bovell being here today, Kaylina and I will be playing the Dvorak Violin Concerto with the Salisbury Symphony in April 2024. And I'm very much looking forward to this opportunity to perform with Kaylina again. she's an incredible conductor and I'm so delighted that we can make music again with each other another very exciting project coming up although not right away is being the artist in residence

Starting point is 00:20:09 with Chicago Phil starting in fall of 2024 like I said earlier Chicago Phil gave me my first you know opportunity to solo with orchestra on a big stage and so it's just my honor to have this position and to be sharing music with them for the next couple couple years and yama thank you so much it's such a pleasure to to play with you you're such an eloquent performer it was beautiful sound incredible musicality and i hope that all of the listeners go check out your website uh information about the quartet i'm going to have all of this in the show notes and once again it's just a real pleasure for me so thank you so much thank you so much really appreciate it

Starting point is 00:20:49 there you have it i hope you enjoyed this conversation with angioma grievous you can find more information about angioma by going to angiomagrievious.com and of course i'm going to have this link and all her social handles for you in the show notes and if you feel ready to elevate your performance journey let's connect visit mindoverfinger.com slash coaching or simply click the link in the show notes to schedule your complimentary consultation with me during our call we're going to dive into your current challenges and craft a blueprint tailored to achieve the results you're after. It's all about refining your process and finding your path in the performance world. In our six months of dedicated one-on-one work, I will help you transform your career in

Starting point is 00:21:57 life. The consultation is entirely free, and you're going to walk away with crystal clear clarity, regardless of the next step you choose. So book your free consult today and let's take the first step towards unlocking your full potential. All right, that's what I have for you this week. Much love going your way and à bientôt.

The Mind Over Finger Podcast - 182 Njioma Grievous: Backstage Pass

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