Green Anthem History
Julie Lyonn Lieberman residencies
Julie Lyonn Lieberman's composer bio
Contact: 203-304-1238 or by email
After thirty-plus years performing and teaching throughout the United States, Canada, Central America, and Europe, Julie Lyonn Lieberman (JulieLyonn.com) began to visualize a curriculum that could include her priorities as a music educator and long-time environmentalist. Her eight music books, five DVDs, over fifty music magazine articles, along with thousands of workshops (from middle schools on through to revered institutions such as Juilliard) have focused on moving musicians and music educators into 21st century music education: a curriculum that invites students to compose, improvise, assume leadership skills, and learn the traditions, techniques, and repertoire of music from around the world, with a strong emphasis on music created here in America. She built these values into the Green Anthem Music Teacher's Manual.
"My concerns about pollution and its effects on the earth started at an early age … I grew up camping every summer with my family. As a young adult, I bicycled and rode horseback in a different state each summer, experiencing America’s diverse landscapes first-hand. I can’t really identify the exact moment I understood that our ever-enlarging human footprint was gradually eroding natural resources that could never be replaced. All that I’d taken for granted as permanent was up for grabs by big business and their well-paid lobbyists. I began to become conscious of how irreversible the outcome of our penchant for profit, comfort, and consumerism had become and felt quite helpless as an individual. I realized that we are all the custodians of this precious planet and the survival of all living creatures – us included – depends on the decisions we make. I joined a number of environmental organizations, and noticed that their membership was comprised of mostly adult populations, with a weak educational outreach to young people and resolved to do something about this.
I was inspired by folk singer Pete Seeger’s project to clean up the Hudson River in New York City. I had served as a member of the crew on the Clearwater Sloop when I was only 16 years old. I learned that one individual does have the power to inspire others to action: Seeger started with an idea, rallied support, built a ship, educated communities, and cleaned up the river.
I became an active participant in many Earth Day celebrations, and later produced an Earth Day special for WBAI, a New York City radio station; I also premiered a work titled Balloon People at Carnegie in 1981 … it was a commentary on American consumerism.
My jazz opera, The Roaring Brook Fiddler, premiered in 1993, and was recorded later that year with musicians such as Rufus Reid, Dave Samuels, and others. It is the story of a young girl who lives in the “ancient future,” the future, as it will be created if we continue to pollute our environment. The girl lives in a city encased in glass and eventually heals the planet through music. Some may call this optimistic vision of music and humanity naïve and unrealistic, but I’ve always believed in and fostered the individual’s ability to change and to effect change.
In early 2008, I decided to dedicate seven months (which ballooned to fifteen months plus...) of my life to create this heartfelt contribution to a sustainable earth. The Green Anthem started out as a piece of music … an anthem for the planet. Then the project organically evolved into an interdisciplinary teaching curriculum designed to simultaneously foster 21st century music education and mobilize America’s youth with eco-friendly projects and concerts.
Just as in the folktale, “Stone Soup,” I started with a soup pot and one stone combined with the will to make a difference. Inspired by my green initiative, The Music Educators National Conference chose to include The Green Anthem as one of the songs for the 2010 The World’s Largest Concert. They will run The Green Anthem lyric-writing competition and have been publicizing The Green Anthem lesson plans. They also decided to focus their program “Music! Just Imagine …” essay-writing contest on green topics for 2010.
In order to survive as a species, we must learn how to create a sustainable earth through changes in our values, our lifestyles, and our laws. You can help!"
Julie Lyonn Lieberman is an eclectic-styles violinist and vocalist, and a dynamic, participatory workshop leader. Her ability to stimulate participants to think and grow in new ways has earned respect for her work throughout the world. She has presented for schools and organizations like The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, The New School, Berklee College of Music, Eastman Conservatory, Carnegie/Weill Hall/Juilliard’s “The Academy,“ National Young Audiences, the Carnegie Hall LinkUp Program, American String Teachers Association, European String Teachers Association, Music Educators Association, International Association of Jazz Educators, Suzuki Institute, National String Workshop, National Orchestra Festival, International String Workshop, Strings Without Boundaries at Duquesne, Mark O'Connor Fiddle Camp, and the Juilliard MAP Program in addition to middle and high schools throughout the country.
Ms. Lieberman can be booked to perform with your school's Green Anthem concert. She will send some additional scores in advance and rehearse with your students beforehand. If you would like to book a lengthier residency, she offers the following workshops:
• Improvisation: creative music-making plus improv in folk, blues, rock, jazz, and world styles
- based on her books, The Creative Band and Orchestra, Improvising Violin, Planet Musician, and The Contemporary Violinist• "Rhythmizing" the Brain: Rhythmic Games for Musicians
- based on her DVD Rhythizing the Bow• Playing Healthy: Natural joint and muscle function; how to protect from injury during practice and performance; what to do when injured; and much more …
- based on her critically acclaimed book, You Are Your Instrument and spin-off DVD, Violin in Motion• Eclectic String Styles: left- and right-hand techniques and repertoire
- based on her DVD, Techniques for the Contemporary String Player and her book Alternative Strings: The New Curriculum• Vocal Aerobics: an integrated, ergonomic approach to sound production
- based on her DVD, Vocal AerobicsPlease download this booking form and email it to the address on the form
Julie Lyonn Lieberman's Composer Bio:
Lieberman is the recipient of over a dozen ASCAP awards and eight Meet the Composer awards. She has performed her original music on and off Broadway, throughout the U.S., Canada, and in Europe, and on television and radio and has five recordings of original music to her credit.
Six of her string orchestra scores have been published by Alfred Publications. You can go to Alfred.com to see/hear Midnight's Celtic Run, Folk Dance from Provence, Rockin' It, Lebedike Honga (Klezmer), Twin Sisters (old-time), and Hotter Than Blues. Soon to come, Flop Eared Mule (old-time).
Lieberman has been the composer-in-residence for four seasons at the City Center Manhattan Theatre Club "Writers in Performance" series. Her music for Alec Baldwin's/Steve Lawrence's production of The Devil and Daniel Webster aired on WNYC after premiering at City Center. Other productions included, The Don, based on Edith Grossman's new translation and in celebration of Don Quixote's 400th birthday starring Mario Cantone, Ruben Santiago-Hudson and Daphne Rubin-Vega,; Hemmingway, starring Peter Gallagher, and Edgar, based on the life and writings of Edgar Allan Poe.
Lieberman's world jazz string quartet, commissioned by Manchester Music Festival, premiered to a standing ovation in 2000. She composed and recorded the sound track for the Taoist exercise video Body Logos in 2002. Her music for the play The Yellow House by Leonardo Shapiro won critical acclaim in the late eighties. To date, she has fulfilled close to a dozen alternative string orchestra commissions including Cedar Rapids Symphony, Duluth High School (premiered at GMEA), Milwaukee School for Languages, and so on.
Ms. Lieberman's recordings of original music include Empathic Connections, 1981, Arcturus, 1984, Roaring Brook Fiddler, 1991, and Mixing America, 1994. She was a also a guest artist on Laura Nyro's album, Mother's Spiritual, 1984, designing her own violin lines for the album.
Ms. Lieberman was the composer-in-residence for the first feminist theatre company in the world, "Emmatroupe," for several years back in the 1980s. The productions were supported by Gloria Steinem, Kate Millet, and Andrea Dworkin and directed by Eleanor Johnson.
She has also composed for and performed with such theater companies as Shaliko Company, The Magic Circle Opera Company, Imaginations Unlimited, and the Women’s Ensemble Theatre. Compositions for dance companies include Sundance, The American Spanish Dance Company, and choreographers Merian Soto, Judy Dworin, and Holly Fairbank.
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To date, Julie has fulfilled commissions for:
• City Center's "Writers in Performance" series (4 commissions)
• The off-Broadway production of "The Yellow House" written and directed by Leonardo Shapiro that premiered at La Mama for 30 days and went to Theatre of Nations for another 30 days
• The off-off-Broadway productions of "A Girl Starts Out" and "Against Silence" for Emmatroupe
• Cedar Rapids Symphony
• Manchester Music Festival
• "Body Logos" (an exercise DVD)
• Numerous theater and dance companies and dozens of schools throughout the U.S.
Solo Violin
Lieberman's compositions for blues, jazz, and world styles can be found in her books Rockin' Out with Blues Fiddle, and The Contemporary Violinist.
