FGM Turns 200! with Abigail Monroe - Part 1

For Good Measure, by Ensemble for These Times (E4TT)
Episode 206: FGM Turns 200! with Abigail Monroe - Part 1

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 are joined by E4TT’s guest cellist Abigail Monroe, who we spoke to in May 2025. If you enjoyed today’s conversation and want to know more about Abigail Monroe, check her out here: https://www.e4tt.org/abigail_monroe.html.

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/19151344

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 are joined by E4TT regular substitute cellist, Abby Monroe. [INTRO MUSIC ENDS]

Nanette McGuinness  00:28

Thank you so much for joining us today for this conversation.

Abigail Monroe  00:32

Of course.

Nanette McGuinness  00:33

We've loved having you play with us over the past few years, and you do a fabulous job with our social media. So, yeah, tell me about your your musical path becoming a musician.

Abigail Monroe  00:47

Oh sure, well, I started playing the cello when I was nine years old. I was living in Seattle for just a year of my my parents had just moved there for a year for my mom's work, and my mom had, I think, decided that she wanted to find a hobby for me. So I remember being in fourth grade, and there were these instrument classes that happened before school, and my mom took me to kind of see, like a demonstration, or like, show and tell of the instruments so I could pick one to play. And I remember, I really wanted to play the violin, but my mom couldn't take me to the classes on the violin mornings, and so I decided, or she kind of settled, on, playing the cello, kind of against my will. I really wanted the violin, and it's funny because I just saw my mom month ago for wedding, and I was telling her the story, and she had no recollection of it at all. She actually didn't remember that part of it. She's like, No, you really wanted to play the cello. I'm like, No, Mom, that's not how I remember it. She had no idea. And I've told this story for for years. So, you know, I not not wrong about it.

Nanette McGuinness  02:07

I doubt you are. It's funny what our parents do and don't remember of our inner lives.

Abigail Monroe  02:11

Yeah, yeah. But, I mean, it's funny because I, at first wasn't that interested in doing it, and now that's, that's what I do, yeah? So I just kind of played, played cello through later elementary school and middle school class, and then when I was in high school, I had a friend who was going to camp at Interlochen, a friend from from Santa Fe, where I grew up, was going to camp at Interlochen. And my mom was like, You should go. That would be fun. And so I, like, begrudgingly, decided to go to the summer camp because it's six weeks long. I've never gone to anything that long. Sounded miserable, very like summer campy, too. So at the time, was like, maybe not. And then I was there for a couple of weeks, and it's like, this is, this is amazing. And I decided, yeah, really. And I guess in in New Mexico, you think of it, it's such an Santa Fe is such an artsy town, just like, just so much visual art and pottery, and just like the music, even they have the opera in the summer and the Chamber Music Festival, but like, year round, there wasn't a ton to do musically. There's Youth Symphony, and I think I I took lessons, of course, but there wasn't a big community of, like, kids that were really interested in playing instruments. And so I went to Interlochen, and all of a sudden, everyone around me was really, really invested in what they were doing, and they had auditions over the summer to go to the academy, so, like, I would be there year round. And was like, I want to do that. So I auditioned and got into the academy. So I went there for the last two years of high school, and I think at that point, just being immersed in music as, like, the real, really, the only thing that I was doing, like, well, I guess this is, this is what I do now. So I should probably think about going to school for that later on and audition for conservatories. I don't even think I auditioned for or applied for a university. I was like, I'm going to conservatory because music is the thing that I do. And ended up going to San Francisco, and was the, you know, since school, and then I was freelancing while I was in school, and I went back and got a diploma during the pandemic, and had this idea that I was just gonna stay there and freelance, and then other opportunities came up, and so I left. I think that's. Is the bulk of it, I suppose.

Nanette McGuinness  05:03

Yeah, yeah. Well, I assume that you loved what you were doing. That's why you kept doing it.

Abigail Monroe  05:09

Oh, of course. I mean, I think there came a point where I had other hobbies that I did when I was younger. Like, I remember doing volleyball when I was in middle school. I was still playing the cello at the same time, but, like, I remember being really interested in volleyball, but I also remember that I wasn't tall enough, so I was the bench warmer of the team a lot of times, even though I really, really liked it. But I mean, throughout the whole thing, it was just cello that was there the whole time. And I really, I think being an interlock and just around people made me realize, like, yeah, that's, this is what I want to do. There's not really anything else that I can picture myself doing, yeah. And I mean, even now that's still, I still feel that way, right? Yeah, every time. Like, something lose, lose an orchestra audition or not. Don't feel good about my playing. Your instant thought is, like, what else is there for me? What else do I like? Like, I've been doing this and really nothing else for so long, I don't know.

Nanette McGuinness  06:20

Yeah, yeah.

Abigail Monroe  06:21

It's not like I could go and try and be a volleyball player right now, especially not in Louisiana.

Nanette McGuinness  06:30

Oh, right. Well, in any case, you're a very fine player and your own identity is bound up and wound up with the cello.

Abigail Monroe  06:39

Oh, gosh, well, thank you. Yeah, it is... realizing it more and more like, even the way that I perceive myself sometimes is like, based entirely on, Did I sound good today, or did I perform well, or did I audition well? It's like, well, who, who am I, aside from, from that person that wants to succeed and be a good cello player, like, what else? How else do I put value in myself? I don't know. [laughs]

Nanette McGuinness  07:08

It's hard. I mean, it's the same as being, I mean, probably all instruments, but being a singer, if, if your singing goes eventually, you have to evolve beyond that. Otherwise, it's really hard on the soul, right on the spirit.

Abigail Monroe  07:21

Yeah.

Nanette McGuinness  07:21

But, you know, there's an awfully long time when how your day feels is all dependent on how your voice felt that day.

Abigail Monroe  07:31

Yeah, yeah. It's like our instruments are just kind of an extension of ourselves.

Nanette McGuinness  07:37

Yeah.

Abigail Monroe  07:37

Well, especially for... for singers, it literally is your yourself. [laughs]

Nanette McGuinness  07:41

Right, right.

Nanette McGuinness  07:42

[OUTRO MUSIC] Thank you for listening to For Good Measure, and a special thank you to our guest, Abby Monroe, 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]