FGM Turns 200! with Megan Chartier - Part 3

For Good Measure, by Ensemble for These Times (E4TT)
Episode 203: FGM Turns 200! with Megan Chartier - Part 3

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 continue FGM Turns 200!, a mini-series where we talk to Ensemble for These Times' members and past guest artists. Today, we continue our conversation with E4TT's cellist Megan Chartier, who we spoke to in May 2025. If you enjoyed today’s conversation and want to know more about Megan Chartier, check her out here: https://www.meganchartier.com/.

This podcast is made possible by grants from the California Arts Council, SF Arts Commission, Grants for the Arts, 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.
Buzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1903729/episodes/18963643

Co-Producer, Host, and E4TT co-founder: Nanette McGuinness
Co-Producer and Audio Engineer: Stephanie M. Neumann
Podcast Cover Art: Brennan Stokes
Interns: Renata Volchinskaya, Sam Mason, Christy Xu

Transcript

Nanette McGuinness  00:00

[INTRO MUSIC] Welcome to For Good Measure, an interview series celebrating diverse composers and other creative artists. I'm Nanette McGuinness, Artistic Executive Director of Ensemble for These Times. In this week's episode, we continue our conversation with Megan Chartier.

Nanette McGuinness  00:26

Do you have things coming up that you'd like to share with us?

Megan Chartier  00:31

Well, so one of the things that I certainly do, but I think one of the things outside of performance, that as we're recording this in the summer as we're approaching the summer. And what oftentimes happens in the summer, when the season has, you know, is quiet for a few months, is my illustration work and and art kind of take over for a little bit, until the the next season rolls around. And so I have a couple exciting things with art that are coming up, where I'm illustrating a cello technique book. I've got a couple other I guess it'll be published before the this gets posted. But I'm doing the July cover of the July 2025, cover of the Dimitri Shostakovich the DSCH Journal. And so that's that is currently on my desk, and a couple other interesting just my art persona is increment so and so, by itself, increment so has some some fun projects, hopefully over the summer, before this gets posted, a drawing that I'm doing called Curse of the Ninth that is all about... there's all these very nerdy easter eggs all throughout it. And it's kind of like a Victorian poster, almost like a vintage sheet music Victorian design. Hopefully that will be done by the time, because I've been working on this thing for two years, it'll be done by the time this gets posted. So those are the exciting things, you know, outside of music. But of course, you know, we're recording our album, which will be done, you know, this time too, that's that's exciting to come up, yeah, and just excited to see for what next season brings. You know, musically, yeah, it's true.

Nanette McGuinness  02:23

We know what we're doing, but we haven't announced it yet exactly. Now we will have by time this airs, but that's, that's fine. I'm curious, Curse of the Ninth. You mean Beethoven's Ninth?

Megan Chartier  02:35

Oh, do you not know the Curse of the Ninth?

Nanette McGuinness  02:38

Well, maybe, I mean, is it the book?

Megan Chartier  02:41

No, no, no. It's well, it's a, it's a, it's not real. And it's something that Mahler came up with because he saw Beethoven...

Nanette McGuinness  02:49

Yes, okay, yes.

Megan Chartier  02:50

...died after this night. And so there became this, like, fear of death and right? And that the Ninth Symphony was going to be the, you know, the last thing you'd ever write. And of course, if you actually go through and study these things, it's totally a hoax to sensationalize, you know, death. But I think that's fascinating.

Nanette McGuinness  03:11

I had forgotten about that because there's also Schubert and there's Beethoven, and...

Megan Chartier  03:16

So there's exactly... so I'm looking at it. So we have Mahler, Bruckner, Vaughn Williams, Dvořák, Schubert, and Beethoven, those are the so it's kind of like a clock, and the clock will strike at their deaths, and so things like this, yeah. And if you actually, I mean, it's all did these composers actually think about it? Probably not all of them, and some of them, if you were actually to properly number and properly investigate, yeah, like Vaughn Williams is, we're stretching a little bit, but he is part of the myth. And I think that the fun thing to play up with this drawing is that it doesn't matter if they knew or they didn't, it still contributed to this fear of death, and it's something that we still talk about. And so there's this darkness that comes through. And then each of the ninth symphonies have interesting elements of these, you know, fears, especially with Mahler, just that there's so many things at the end of Mahler's life to put in. And so there's all these. I mean, it's the reason why it's taken me two years. Isn't because it's taking me two years to really draw it, design it. Maybe partly, I've been doing other projects and practicing a lot of practicing and performing in between. But there are all these fun things, like Bruckner idolized Schubert and Beethoven, so, you know, he's placed beneath them, and he said that he really wanted to be buried underneath a specific organ. And so there's specific organ at the top, and then it's and it's pulling on different sheet music, like vintage sheet music covers and the designs and to there's just a lot of symbolism, and they. To get that amount of research to make sure it's absolutely perfect, and that I don't want almost anyone to be able to see all of the things. I want you to stare at it for years before you understand a lot of the references.

Nanette McGuinness  05:14

It sounds very, somehow gory, you know, amphigory.

Megan Chartier  05:20

I mean, it'll look nice, it'll look dark, but, you know, it won't, won't necessarily feel that way, unless you you do know the Curse of the Ninth, and that's...

Nanette McGuinness  05:29

Right, right. I don't, I don't mean gory, as in bloody. I mean the artist, yeah, yeah, it sounds cool. That's great. And I have to tell you, as a soprano, when I first heard your name, of your, your Instagram and your, your artistic alter ego of Inkermezzo, I immediately thought, "Oh, is she a mezzo?" And then I was like, "Oh, no."

Megan Chartier  05:49

Yeah, yeah. Intermezzo. So intermezzo...

Nanette McGuinness  05:53

Exactly, exactly.

Megan Chartier  05:55

Ink is my, the, my main medium, and so it's just the thing that happens in between all of the performing I'm doing, which is why, in COVID I was very prolific, right? Pumping things out and and I ended up, actually, it took me two years. It was going to take me one year, but I did an entire deck of cards with composers. But it's all right, yes, it's all classical music, illustration and design. So it's, it always gets squeezed in between performances, which is honestly nice, because musicians, oftentimes, you know, when you have a big performance, you struggle. I struggle. Many people struggle with that kind of, the loss of energy, exactly. And so this fills in the gaps I'm able to I usually know exactly. I have pieces that are attached to certain performances, so I know. And it's, it's not necessarily intentional, but it's i The day after a performance, I usually get to work just I need to put energy somewhere, and so those performances are kind of burned into those pieces?

Nanette McGuinness  07:02

Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. I remember as a as a young singer, when I would do a role, and then there would be like, this wasteland till the next role, and it was like, ah, and then eventually things stack up, and all of a sudden you're too busy. And then, you know, you have a different set of issues to deal with. No but I should point out for those listening that you made your mezzo debut for us. We gave you a piece. You did it wonderfully. We gave you a piece for singing, cellist, yes, and you did great. It was wonderful.

Megan Chartier  07:35

Yeah, I love singing in my car, but I had never sung in front of... outside of my like, my, my sight singing class.

Nanette McGuinness  07:44

But, well, you know, it's funny, Abby, the cellist who you're swapping places with, basically, and who does our social media, she actually sings and is sung in choirs, and so forth. So we had not thought about singing cellist before her, but yeah, then we put that in. But I hadn't been aware that a singing cellist was a thing. But it really it is. There are a lot of pieces for it.

Megan Chartier  08:10

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm very open to it... my husband just joined a choir, so I'm, you know, he's been very excited to teach me all about... 

Nanette McGuinness  08:21

[laughs]

Megan Chartier  08:21

[laughs] Yeah, no, it's been very interesting. And it, I mean, it works so well. I mean, in theory, I we had spoken about this before, that cellists tend to have a lot of tension here, which is funny, because we don't play with those muscles. And so why does it go there? It's because where else will it go? A lot of people will have tension in their feet or their jaw, you know, and their neck and things like that, the places that are not, you know, your child engaged, yeah. And so I think it was kind of an interesting, like, take out the interesting element of hearing and being musical, because you're thinking about these two directions of sound that have to kind of like meet and you have to tune and think about how they combine, but, but just from a physical, technical perspective of releasing certain things and and that piece was was difficult, because there were a lot of big boat arpeggios that just kept ripping. And so how do I keep that rhythm going and take a breath that will probably be much longer than like than the cue you'd have in your arm, and keeping the timing independent, that was tricky.

Nanette McGuinness  09:30

I...you know, I think it sounds, even without this description, I think it sounds intensely challenging to do both things well, because they are very much like patting your head and rubbing your stomach.

Megan Chartier  09:42

For sure. Yeah.

Nanette McGuinness  09:43

Yeah, no, you did it beautifully. And for those who are curious, it was, it's a fabulous piece by Lanzilotti and a contemporary woman composer, and we will be doing more by her this coming season. We have at least one piece of hers  on the program.

Megan Chartier  10:00

mmhmm

Nanette McGuinness  10:01

Well, thank you so much for for joining us and telling us all that's going on. It was a pleasure.

Megan Chartier  10:06

Yeah, great. Thank you so much.

Nanette McGuinness  10:08

[OUTRO MUSIC] Thank you for listening to For Good Measure, and a special thank you to our guest, Megan Chartier, 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, or to make a tax-deductible donation, please visit us at www.E4TT.org. This podcast is made possible by grants from the California Arts Council, the San Francisco Arts Commission, Grants for the Arts, and generous donors like you. For Good Measure is produced by Nanette McGuinness and Ensemble for These Times, and design by Brennan Stokes, with special thanks to Co-producer and Audio Engineer Stephanie M. Neumann. Remember to keep supporting equity in the arts and tune in next week "for good measure." [OUTRO MUSIC ENDS]