(classical music) - Production of 'Applause,' an Ideastream Public Media is made possible by the John P. Murphy foundation, The Kulas Foundation, The Stroud Family Trust, and by Cuyahoga county residents through Cuyahoga arts and culture.

(jazz music) - [David] Hello and welcome to 'Applause.'

I'm Ideastream Public Media's David C. Barnett.

♪ So I'm digging for my heart ♪ Growing up in South Euclid, Liz Bullock always loved to sing.

As a preteen she joined the 'Singing Angels of Cleveland,' and in high school, Liz stepped on stage at Playhouse Square with 'The School of Rock.'

She went on to sing with 'The Bad Boys of Blues' at Brothers Lounge and the band known as 'The Tremonts' with her long-time guitarist, Gavin Coe.

However, in the latest term for her tuneful talents, Liz has added health care to her resume.

She's a certified music therapist at university hospitals.

Recently, Liz Bullock and Gavin Coe joined me at the Ideacenter in Playhouse Square for 'Applause Performances.'

- So my mom is a now retired social worker of 30 years and she was the one who told me about music therapy because she worked in a medical setting and I didn't know what it was.

And a lot of people who don't spend a lot of time in hospitals have never seen medical music therapy.

And so as I got older, she said, 'you know, this would be a really great option' cause she knew I, I love working with people.

I love doing outreach and then being able to put the music into it as well.

♪ When I was a girl ♪ ♪ I would walk the floor and sing all this music He gave me ♪ ♪ means most everything ♪ ♪ music's in the spirit ♪ ♪ when the spirit comes to you, ♪ ♪ you just open up your heart and let it tell you what to do ♪ ♪ I'll be a light on the hill ♪ ♪ In the darkness all will see, ♪ ♪ using my gift from God ♪ ♪ and letting my voice be free ♪ ♪ oh ♪ ♪ I want you to come over and hear my song ♪ ♪ I know that my faith in Him is strong ♪ ♪ come over and hear my song ♪ ♪ 'cause I'm right where I belong ♪ ♪ where I belong ♪ ♪ Yes I am, yes I am ♪ I was kind of just trying to figure out, you know, when you're an older teenager, like, what am I going to do next?

- [David] Yeah, right.

Where am I, am I going to go to college?

What am I going to major in if I get there?

And I thought, well, I'll just do social work like my mom, like I love working with people.

I want to keep working with patients.

And she was like, you know, I don't, I don't know if you'll be able to live without doing music on a daily basis.

And I was like, 'that's a good point.'

So she mentioned that field and then I kind of, once I got to Cleveland state and started studying music therapy, doing some clinicals, actually, you know, getting my feet on the ground and working with the community and working with patients, it just changed my life.

Are you ready?

- Mm hm - 1,2,3,4 (sweet melody) ♪ I met a man from Wyoming ♪ ♪ he sang kind ♪ ♪ he sang true ♪ ♪ he had no strings attached to this city ♪ ♪ but he reminded me of you ♪ ♪ I don't know if I could live there ♪ ♪ where it's quant and quiet all the time ♪ ♪ I need cars and trains and things and people ♪ ♪ To help distract my mind ♪ ♪ I don't want to love ♪ ♪ love on borrowed time ♪ ♪ and I don't wanna keep going no when you're not mine ♪ ♪ do you see all this hurt running through my veins ♪ ♪ and it'll never be the same ♪ - You walk down the hospital hall, with your scrubs (Liz chuckles) - Yeah.

- and you have your guitar in hand.

You go, 'hey, wanna hear some music?'

(laughs) What do you do?

- So yeah, I am walking the halls in my scrubs with my cart of instruments.

- [David] I see.

- And I have my list of people who have been referred to me.

Some are referred by nurses, physicians, social workers, just any discipline in the hospital can refer music therapy.

And I basically visit my patients and, you know, explain my services, explain how music therapy works.

And I usually say, you know, 'we're using music to help you cope with your symptoms while you're here,' whatever that looks like.

And it's a very in the moment kind of thing, based on how that patient's feeling, their level of interaction shapes what songs, what instruments, what kind of interventions I might do.

(sweet melody) ♪ I walk along the forest path and pick up all the flowers ♪ ♪ and we can watch as the sun goes down in our final hours ♪ ♪ when I cry you dry my tears ♪ ♪ for you I'll dry them too ♪ ♪ you know, nothing in this world compares ♪ ♪ to what you do ♪ ♪ and I just want you to know ♪ ♪ none of this compares to you ♪ ♪ I just want you to know ♪ ♪ nobody loves you like I do ♪ - [David] Sounds like a little bit of a club, a little bit of the club experience where it's, again, it's in the moment, you're kind of - [Liz] Yes.

- feeling out that the audience, - Mm hm - but it's two different kinds of audiences, isn't it?

- [Liz] Yeah.

In the club it's like a bunch of people - [Liz] Right.

- and this is, you're just focused on one person talking.

Well, how's that difference?

Can you navigate that?

And how hard is that to do?

- Yeah, it's definitely different, when you're on stage in front of an audience, I think, you know, I'm playing my music for them and you know, interacting with them in a way where they can respond to me, but it's not going to change what I do on stage so much.

Like I'm still gonna play my material, you know.

- [David] Mm hm, mm hm - Whereas when I'm with a patient, my focus is on them.

The music I do is about their preferred music.

It's different in that, like when I'm on stage with an audience, I feel like me and Gavin are more the center, our focus.

And when I'm with a patient, that patient is my focus.

- Interesting.

- So it's not about me in that moment.

(soft melody) ♪ Feeling a little less shaken up ♪ ♪ you can't take everything ♪ (music speeds up) ♪ for once I've got my mind made up ♪ ♪ intuition grows instead of shrinks ♪ ♪ this isn't for what is ending ♪ ♪ but what's unfolding now in front of me ♪ ♪ so I'm digging for my heart, ♪ ♪ in all it's glory and all it's scars ♪ ♪ I think I buried it in the backyard ♪ ♪ oh five years ago in March ♪ ♪ oh five years ago in March ♪ ♪ well I ♪ ♪ realized ♪ ♪ this wall is made of bricks ♪ ♪ but these two hands ♪ - [David] That was my interview with Liz Bullock and Gavin Coe, you can hear more and take a look at the entire performance by going to arts.ideastream.org.

(starter pistol) During the 1936 Olympics, (Liz and Gavin continue song) ♪ for my heart ♪ Cleavelander Jesse Owens won 4 gold medals.

♪ in all it's glory ♪ Next time on 'Applause,' we'll see how his accomplishments are bearing fruit.

♪ and all it's scars ♪ And Jazz musician Moises Borges shares his plans for getting people dancing again.

♪ I think I buried it in the backyard ♪ (drumming) Also we'll meet a team of artists who work together ♪ oh five years ago in March ♪ to create something fresh and modern.

All of this and more on the next round of 'Applause.'

♪ years ago in Ma- ♪ (gentle music) Up next, next we travel to Key Largo, Florida, to meet artist Caroline Guyer, who makes eye catching leather masks.

Inspired by animals, Guyer transforms leather into wearable art that features rabbits, dogs, goats, and more.

Here's her story.

- [Caroline] My name is Caroline Guyer, and I'm a leather worker who specializes in making theatrical costume, leather masks.

And I live in beautiful Key Largo, Florida, in the Florida Keys.

It was clear from the beginning that whatever kind of a creative artistic aesthetic is in my head translates well into a leather mask.

(upbeat music) I love studying the animal faces, you know, I like looking at animals, so I'm happy to, to study them and see if I can make a mask.

And at the same time, that is what people seem to want more and more of.

I'll never forget a customer asking me to do a rabbit and you know, struggling with it at first, trying to figure out how do these animal faces.

And I did the rabbit and people loved it.

There seems to be like a creepy rabbit mask thing.

That's almost like a, like a modern archetypal, collective unconscious kind of thing where people really respond to creepy white rabbit masks over and over again, regardless of what movie they've been in.

They're in movies again and again and again.

So I find that is something that kind of persists year after year.

And then of course, wolves are always popular and then I'll have people that'll be like, 'oh, can you do one of my dog?'

I have people who wear them, people who hang them on the walls, and then people who do both: will just leave them on the wall until they have a masquerade event to go to.

But I certainly sell to people who are only going to wear them and people who are only going to hang them on the wall.

(thinking music) I create the masks entirely by hand.

If I have an idea of a mask that I want to make, and I don't have a pattern yet for it, and over 20 years I've got hundreds of patterns, I'll research the design and create a pattern.

And then I trace that onto the piece of leather, cut it out with a blade, and then I wet that piece of leather, blot it dry.

And then I wait until the leather gets to just the right point for it to be molded.

And that varies from piece of leather to piece of leather and also depending on the humidity in the air, stuff like that.

When the leather is at the right point to be molded, I sit there and I mold it all by hand, and then I set that on the floor or on a towel or something, let it dry overnight.

Most masks I'll do an airbrush base.

So I go outside and I airbrush the base on.

And then after that's dry, I buff it up a little bit and I add some detailed hand painting with acrylic paints.

And then when that's dry, I brush on an acrylic sealer.

And when that's dry, I sand the back so it's comfortable, I add some felt padding if that's needed, some masks need it, some don't, and then I'll put on ribbon ties or sew on elastic straps, and then it's ready to go.

I work very hard to make them comfortable.

And that is one of the hallmarks in my masks.

And that is why a lot of the groups, theater groups, dance companies come back again and again from my masks, because you could put them on and almost forget about them, is my goal anyway.

And that is one of the nice things about the leather is they tend to just breathe a little bit more than a synthetic mask.

I could just make goat masks all day long.

And I have a dream project, that I need to do eventually, where I want to do all the different breeds of goats, you know, cause there's so many different kinds of goats and I would love to do a beautiful mask representational of each one.

People who buy masks, seem to enjoy goat masks.

And then it's always fun to do something like a, a leopard or a mountain lion.

You know, if it comes out good, that's the kind of mask where I'm like, 'Ooh, look what I made, that's kind of pretty,' you know, just like the animal is.

(calm music) - [David] During the pandemic, artists of all genres have been busy trying to capture our shared experiences.

During the shutdown, Ohio State University dance professor, Susan Van Pelt Petry, found inspiration creating 19 different dances.

Take a look.

(faint speaking and wood cracking) - [Susan] Well, we were doing our, our last travel that I can remember in March at spring break down to Wilmington, North Carolina, and all of this was starting to implode.

And on the way back, kind of the news came out that all the students had to stay home, go home, that we were going to teach from home, et cetera.

So that all was overwhelming, and I think disorienting for everybody.

And part of my practice as an artist, I think my instinct at that point was to make lemonade, right?

To do something out of this time, that felt so confusing and unprecedented -the most used word of 2020.

So I sat down and the word COVID-19 was everywhere.

So I decided to make 19 videos, 19 pieces, and just try to make something of this time.

Well, right away in my 19 ChOreoVIDs notebook, which this is, I wrote, I brainstormed a list of 19 possible topics or themes, you know?

And it was pretty easy to quickly say, 'okay, definitely the theme of isolation, there's a theme of being on Zoom, there's a theme of not being able to touch, there's a theme of the social distancing.'

So I came up with a number of different, actually I brainstormed, I think 18 of my initial list, but I don't know what the 19th will be, but I'll get there.

And I gradually worked through them, not in that sequence.

I did what sort of popped up first.

Very first one was dealing with Zoom.

This was the 12 boxes that we created for Zoom.

And for example, this is the combination of improv and structure that you have to do.

I improvised a lot of them, but I had to have a structure, so I wanted a variety of dynamics.

And my husband, Ric, helped a tremendous amount with this one.

So I've simply recorded myself on Zoom, in a little tiny corner of my upstairs studio office.

And so I'm in this little tiny box and you see this figure trying to get out.

I had 12 versions of that and then we created a, he created a grid to look like a Zoom meeting.

Find your corners.

Find your corners, find your edges and above all find your diagonal.

The diagonal has the X, the Y, and the Z axis it's the most dynamic line.

And then I moved on through a number of other ones, some are funny, amusing, humorous.

People, people, enough of the bad angles, enough of the chins.

Some are much more serious.

(faintly speaking "The Pledge of Allegiance") I just finished one that I filmed actually downtown in front of and with National Guard and State Patrol behind me.

I was petrified that they would kick me out, and it's called 'Pledge.'

And it's very much my Martin Luther King Day offering, my Inauguration Week offerings.

More personal reactions to politics and struggles that we are feeling.

(somber music) They've all been recorded in one take, that has become a rule.

So there's no internal edits in any of them.

I'm not a filmmaker.

I don't pretend to be making high art film, but they are, because of COVID, they are performances that you could only see on the video.

By keeping them in one take, it felt like I'll keep each one focused on a single idea and not get carried away with filmography.

(paper flying) (materials moving) I decided early on to do something with social distancing and a little play on the word, social distancing.

If you write out distancing, you write D I S T etc.

If you take away the, I S T it becomes dancing.

So social d-ancing.

So that's the little play there.

And then I thought, 'what if I could get a skirt that's a 12 foot diameter?'

Anybody around me is six feet, and that I just imagined I would be dancing somehow, reaching out to people, but never able to touch them because we're keeping six feet.

And how sad that is.

I got a trampoline hoop that is designed to hold up a screen around a trampoline, so it's exactly 12 feet diameter.

And I- constructing the material, came from, we used to do 'Blue Apron' and 'Blue Apron' food always came in these thermos cases.

And I just thought the, the material was cool.

And I saved it, thinking I would do something with it some day.

- Hi.

- You're not allowed to dress like that in public property.

(material shuffling) - Now this is more wind than yesterday.

When it comes up, the hill catches that end.

- [Male Voice] It's a metaphor for the year of the plague.

- Yes.

When we do this for real, your hands will be just there by your sides, comfortable.

And then when I go like this, you'll reach.

I was thinking, I would just have one fellow to partner or not partner, but now I've decided to have a whole bunch of people, and I will dance between them.

We'll see, we'll see (classic piano ballad) I think you could look at every single choreo-vid, and you would get something about this long, long, wait that we're all in.

Kind of like this big 'hold your breath' moment.

It's a year and a half, two years long.

I think it shows up in every single little piece, just can't get away from it.

I am very empathetic, and I have felt very alarmed and sad for the people who are less fortunate than I, I mean, I have a job, I have a house, I mean, we're fine, you know?

Everything has gone as good as it gets, but the numbers of people in this world and country who are out of work, unable to connect at all, maybe they're completely alone.

The sadness of that really weighs on me.

(music continues) 19 is a lot of pieces to make.

And so you should be careful what you wish for.

It was just, you know, the number because of COVID-19, that's the name of it, from 2019.

So I got the bit between my teeth to make sure it actually happens.

We are creating an incredible archive of this time in history.

I think historians will look back and look at artists' work as a way to understand what was going on beyond the facts and figures, but what were people feeling?

What was the experience?

What were we trying to figure out about human nature and what silver linings were we finding?

Oh, that's a slight pun on this skirt.

We've been joking about all the silver linings, that there are some, I think everyone can name a few, that this time has given us silver linings.

So the skirt kind of has a little nod in that direction too.

(gentle music) - [David] And that's it for today's show.

For more arts and cultural programming connect, with us online at arts.ideastream.org.

As we say goodbye, here's another look (Liz and Gavin play) at our 'Applause Performances' guests, singer Liz Bullock and band mate, Gavin Coe.

I'm David C. Barnett.

Hope to see you next week for another round of 'Applause.'

♪ What is means to respect life ♪ ♪ because we all bleed red ♪ ♪ my father taught us to know our roots ♪ ♪ I've embraced my African heritage since my youth ♪ ♪ I take it with me ♪ ♪ everywhere I go ♪ ♪ well I've been helping people my whole life ♪ ♪ I know my roots ♪ ♪ I take pride in my story ♪ ♪ and this one is mine ♪ ♪ well from the garden my father made wine ♪ ♪ we'd stomp the grapes fresh from the vine ♪ ♪ it was wonderful time ♪ ♪ when I was a child ♪ ♪ from Alabama my parents came through ♪ ♪ they bought this house and I still live here too ♪ ♪ I take it with me ♪ (drumming) (opening sound) (classical music) Production of 'Applause,' an Ideastream Public Media is made possible by the John P. Murphy Foundation, The Kulas Foundation, The Stroud Family Trust, and by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga arts and culture.