For Good Measure

Juhi Bansal - Part 4

February 13, 2023 Juhi Bansal Episode 37
For Good Measure
Juhi Bansal - Part 4
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For Good Measure, by Ensemble for These Times (E4TT)
Episode 37: Juhi Bansal (part 4)

Looking for a way to listen to diverse creators and to support equity in the arts? Tune in weekly to For Good Measure!

In this week’s episode, we talk to Juhi Bansal, who shared advice for women and emerging composers and how women inspire her music. If you enjoyed today’s conversation and want to know more about Juhi Bansal, check her out here: juhibansal.com. Parts of this episode originally premiered on Feb 2021, found on Youtube, click here.

This podcast is made possible in part by a grant from the California Arts Council and generous donors, like you. Want to support For Good Measure and E4TT? Make a tax-deductible donation or sign up for our newsletter, and subscribe to the podcast!

Intro music: “Trifolium” by Gabriela Ortiz, performed by E4TT (Ilana Blumberg, violin; Abigail Monroe, cello; Margaret Halbig, piano),  as part of “Below the Surface: Music by Women Composers,” January 29, 2022
Outro music: “Lake Turkana” by Marcus Norris, performed by E4TT (Margaret Halbig, piano), as part of “Alchemy,” October 15, 2021

Transcription courtesy of Otter.ai.

Producer, Host, and E4TT co-founder: Nanette McGuinness
Audio Engineer: Stephanie M. Neumann
Podcast Cover Art: Brennan Stokes
Interns: Roziht Edwards and Merve Tokar

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Nanette McGuinness:

[INTRO MUSIC] Welcome to For Good Measure, an interview series celebrating diverse composers and other creative artists sponsored by grant from the California Arts Council. I'm Nanette McGuinness, artistic executive director of Ensemble For These Times. In this week's episode, we continue our conversation with Juhi Bansal, who we spoke to in February 2022. [INTRO MUSIC ENDS]. You've mentioned that your music celebrates strong female role models, and also that your mother's desire to explore music and martial arts and not being allowed to have made the background for many of the choices you've made in your life. Who were some of these role models? And how have they affected you in your music?

Juhi Bansal:

That's a huge question. Because I feel like it's kind of like the other, there's so many women, I mean, there's just so many inspiring women, I almost hesitate to start listing names, because I know I'll leave out names that are really, really important to me. I mean, I will say that's actually so without specifically naming names, one of the things I find really fascinating about listening to women's stories is that you there are stories of strength and courage and fighting for opportunities and making opportunities at like, every level from like, you know, big names that everybody will recognize to your neighbor, to your aunt to your Mom's best friend's cousin. You know, that's one of the things that always fascinated me, like, I remember, story, my mom telling not only her own stories of when she was a child, and kind of what it meant to be a girl as far as the opportunities that she was given and the things she had the fight to do. And then thinking about like her one of her best friends, and this is a woman I've never met. But I remember hearing about her from my mother about in the 70s. In India, this young woman had a child out of wedlock, and what that meant in India in the 70s, at that time, and you know, one of the things that I find really, really poignant about that is that it's it's kind of every woman's experience, like I can talk about finding, you know, Malala, and Jane Goodall, and all these people who I think are just like fascinating role models, and huge names that have contributed suits so much, that I find truly inspiring, but I actually think there's something about these kind of smaller human stories about what it means to be a woman that almost speaks to me more, because that is everybody's experience doesn't want the same experience. But you know, everybody has their own version of that experience that I think it's, there's a lot, a lot of weight to it. So for me, I don't know, I think when I think about women's stories, it really is both of that I have a long list of women who I admire who are, you know, big names that I think everybody would recognize. But I actually think I find more weight in the stories of average women, or perhaps averages or is wrong word average, or those, you know, their stories are not told in the same way. They're not celebrities, they're not big names. And kind of things that they have had to overcome just to be to survive, to work, to live their lives. I've always found those particularly interesting. In terms of my music, of course, I have a number of projects that do take stories of very specific women and try to tell those, but even in a kind of more general sense, I think we're I can find a way to use women's words, for example, rather than men's boards, not that there's anything wrong with those words. We're have the opportunity to do that. I like to do that just as an homage to not even necessarily a specific woman, but to every woman.

Nanette McGuinness:

shining light on those who aren't getting light and who haven't gotten light in the past.

Juhi Bansal:

Yeah.

Nanette McGuinness:

Who would you consider to be your mentors and or musical influences?

Juhi Bansal:

It's such a varied group. I mean, I look at, for example, as a mentor, somebody like Beth Morrison, and all the work that she's been doing in the last couple of years, to support new music to support women in music to bring new audience into music, but thinking about people who are mentors, people like that, Stacy Brightman, who until very recently was at La opera is another woman that you know, loved learning from and speaking to about music and learning from her work and kind of even thinking about her history of championing for other composers for a very long time. I've had teachers, Eric Gamal, from USC. And that was quite a while ago is making me feel my age as I say that but you know, incredible composer, fabulous teacher, somebody I learned so much from, not just about music, but also about just navigating the musical world. And our field. So just I know I'm leaving out so many women that so many people, mentors who have worked with musicians who I worked with and learned so much from now I feel like you learn something from each new, really each new person that you collaborate with and work with?

Nanette McGuinness:

I think so yeah, every time. That's what keeps us growing and young and not just kind of stuck on a shelf. Do you have any advice for young women composers or emerging composers in general?

Juhi Bansal:

Two pieces of advice one day, because I always get this question about how do you get started as a composer? And I think the answer is not to overthink it and just do it. Just write music. And write I say, loosely write doesn't necessarily have to mean, right pen doesn't have to mean write on the computer, right? Just means create music, play music, record music in whatever way you can. Because I think everything else all the refinement, all the technique comes from there. That has to start with first making sound right. The other thing, and I think this is probably more pertinent as composers get a little further in their career is just how important it is to be flexible. That word came up came up earlier and to be entrepreneurial. I think, you know, or field has just feels like it's rapid fire, how quick it's been changing, even in the last 10 to 15 years, you know, think about technology and people's attention spans and now the pandemic and how that's going to change everything. I really think for us to survive as artists, we have to be almost more entrepreneurial, and more able to pivot and find opportunities than non artists do. That sounds counterintuitive in some ways, I know. But I really think that it's important. So I study business where you can find opportunities where you can make opportunities where you can possibly put something together. I think those are just core ideas that are so important for any musicians right now.

Nanette McGuinness:

[OUTRO MUSIC] Thank you for listening to For Good Measure, and a special thank you to our guest, Dawn Norfleet for joining us today. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to our podcast by clicking on the subscribe button and support us by sharing it with your friends, posting about it on social media and leaving us a rating and a review. To learn more about E4TT Our concert season online and in the Bay Area where to make a tax deductible donation, please visit us at www.E4TT.org. This podcast is made possible in part by a grant from the California Arts Council and generous donors like you. "For Good Measure" is produced by Nanette McGuinness and Ensemble for These Times, and designed by Brennan Stokes. With special thanks to audio engineer extraordinaire Stephanie Neumann. Remember to keep supporting equity in the arts and tune in next week "for good measure." [OUTRO MUSIC ENDS]

You’ve mentioned that your music celebrates strong female role models, and also that your mother’s desire to “explore music and marital arts and not being allowed to … have made the background for many of the choices…” you’ve made in your life. Who are...
Who would you consider to be your mentors and/ or musical influences?
Do you have any advice for young women composers or emerging composers in general?