Oh gosh, I miss real people so much.
Welcome back to Let’s Talk, a series of conversations exploring the struggle and beauty of being alive. Our country needs more healing spaces and experiences, especially now, and my hope is that Let’s Talk may meet that need in some small way.
This week, I’m excited for you to meet my former professor and dear friend, Kelly.
Kelly McElrath Vaneman is Professor of Oboe and Musicology at Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. She knows that probably sounds mind-numbingly boring, but it’s actually one of the most exciting lives she could have imagined. She gets to do things like teach students about Medieval troubadours and Indian hip-hop and take them to Europe, and she performs everything from Bach to the Beatles. She also composes, which usually involves a fair amount of stomping and clapping; through her music, she looks to build a sense of joyful community. For the record, she’s very into Medieval marginalia and the Muppets.
Join us for a conversation about how music transcends time and space during a pandemic — and how it doesn’t — and what history has to tell us about the resilience of society and art in times of great upheaval. Kelly also offers perspective on how different generations are responding to the seismic shifts we’re witnessing today.
Listen above or find us in your favorite podcast app.
When considering the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement happening simultaneously, Kelly remains optimistic:
We've got the twin problems of the pandemic and racial injustice going on, and this is going to sound strange... But I find myself actually being really hopeful. About both of these things together. And part of it comes from spending so much time with younger people. And part of it comes from spending so much time with old history.
On the endurance of civilization and art amidst chaos:
Seldom in history do you have just one big problem to deal with at a time. They always seem to show up together and feed off each other. Even with things like the fall of Rome, when this great empire fell and fell hard — afterwards, amazing societies emerged. There has always been change, and there will always be change. And on one hand, when we see these giant shifts, there are things lost. But there are also new things that bloom.
As I told Kelly, I think that’s cause for hope, indeed.
Learning from Young People and Old History with Musician and Professor Kelly Vaneman