Articles by Gina Leishman

Exactly 6 months later… and such a different world…

It seems only right that I pick this up again, as the world tilts on its axis into a whole new reality… for the moment, I am blessed with being in this beautiful, peaceful place, relatively unscathed, tho’ I have been out in “the world” only twice in the past month (since I have been here, with the first 2 weeks in full quarantine…)

To recap, I share the email I sent my friends after landing….

“I am in Menorca.  I was in New York, but I realised this was going to be a long haul and I couldn’t leave my sister on her own, so through many, many cliff-hangers, I finally managed to get on the last plane allowed into the island from outside Spain…. I am now in quarantine for 14 days, so as not to endanger the very person I have come to protect! Luckily a friend has a little house that’s empty just up the road from our house – very basic, and yesterday even without water (today I have it, for now).  When I’m settled I will write longer, but for now I just wanted to let you all know where I was, and that so far I’m fine (unfortunately I have been on 6 planes, in 8 airports, in the past 2 weeks, so I’m counting the days…).  There’s a complete lockdown here (even if I weren’t quarantined), no walking or biking, going anywhere for pleasure, only trips to buy food or medicine (or tobacco – this is Spain!), no more than one person in a car, etc…. but I plan to start planting the vegetable garden next week, once the field has been cleared… I knew there was a reason I learned how to grow food!  I feel incredibly lucky to be here, to have been able to get here, both for my sister and myself.  Leaving my apartment in Westbeth was really hard, but I know it was the right thing to do… Please keep in touch and let me know how you all are… far flung we might be, but you are all important to me.”

A month later, and I am still in the “wee hoose” down the road – much as I’d like to be in my own house, it’s good to have my own space – living with sis 24/7 is challenging, and who knows for how long this will be, so I’m happy to be the recipient of such hospitality – thank you, Judy and Caroline, for your generosity… sis and I walk every morning (totally against the rules, but the rules are made in Madrid, and our back lanes here in the country are rarely policed, thank heavens), and often times in the late afternoon. I do chores around the house, then spend hours in the garden and fields, plus time in the studio – but I wake up and go to sleep alone…  the 2 weeks of quarantine were overhung with anxiety, waiting for the axe to fall, but I seem to have managed to come through unscathed, in spite of the numerous airports and airplanes… Since then, I have been out into the world only twice, and both times were deeply unsettling, ever since it was pointed out to me that as a cancer survivor with a heart condition I am a “high risk” individual… what, you mean I’m no longer 35 and and invincible?? So food is ordered and delivered, and we keep to ourselves out of choice as well as necessity… thank god for the garden and our fields…

Happy Birthday, Mum… you would have been ninety-nine…  Exactly 9 months since I last posted on here… I should probably just quit doing this, but it sometimes helps to put things in perspective…

We got the Opera America grant (for female opera composers – that’s me!) in support o the Morris Graves project, so my time in March at The Lake, the Graves estate near Loleta, CA, was such a gift… 3 weeks of total isolation from the world, alone in nature, but taken care of at a distance – a good supper on a tray 5 nights a week, and loads of firewood delivered almost daily, by the Director (and janitor) of the Foundation, Robert Yarber, a truly lovely human being…  He and his wife were the only human contact I had… The beautiful studio, Desiree’s grand piano in the main house, Morris’s library, the forest, the lake, the birds, the frogs, the quiet… the rain, the sun, the wind, the trees, the spring flowers…. I wrote about 40 pages of music, by hand (no computer allowed, no phone, no radio, no nothing – no photos), walked a lot, played the piano every day (it needed it, much neglected, tho’ they had had a technician give it a thorough overhaul and tuning before I arrived, bless them) and read a lot of great books from MG’s library.  I got really grounded, and back to myself, having spun quite far out before leaving New York (the Wau-Wa recording session being the nadir…).

I did a solo gig in SF on my way home, which was a lot of fun – a house concert at Beth’s – and a 4tet gig in NY in early April which was the high point for me – I forgot how much fun I have doing that (planning to do it again next month).  Brad Jones was a great cover for Greg, plus Matt and Charlie, my two angels… at the Parlor Series, a lovely old Chelsea brownstone, packed house, very appreciative – who needs clubs?? And then I headed across the pond to plant the garden and take care of sis.

June I made a mad dash to SF for the Opera America conference – a crazy thing to do, but I felt I had to show up since they gave us the money for BIRD.  Way too many people, all in suits – it was less about the Art of Opera than the Business of Opera – but I learned quite a lot – most importantly from Ben Krywocz (so great to hook up with him again), who told me about the fact that in Greek there are two words for “life”: Bios, meaning “a life”, hence biography; and Zoe, meaning “Life”, hence zoology.  We are definitely after the Zoe, not the Bios… After an exhausting 4-days of too many people, I then had a 4-day vacation visiting various friends and family – Santa Cruz, Sausalito, Point Reyes – oh yes…  Then back across the pond to a much-improved sis – so nice to have our good sister friendship back…

August I returned to NY, including a week upstate with Joan, working on the libretto (and finding the occasional swimming hole).  Jenny Collins lent us her beautiful big house with grand piano and we got a lot of work done, tho’ not all. I gave Joan a hard deadline of Sept 1^st to get me a completed draft of the libretto, and she did, so I gaily headed to Montalvo for the month of September, to hole up once again and write. How lucky can a girl be?  My third and final month there, finally, and perfect timing… Yet another exquisite environment in which to dig deep for the creative juice… Beautiful time of year to be there, the light, the redwoods, the Bechstein grand… Made a couple of weekend trips up to the city, including a major hike to the very northern tip of Point Reyeswith old friend Wendy Parkman; and dear Gail Bernstein’s memorial service in Berkeley; plus a trip south to see the family and take the kids to the Monterey Jazz Fest – Steven was playing with MTO West and got me 3 day passes, bless him.  Elfin (eldest nephew) had just left his family and I reckoned the kids could use a distraction – it seemed to work… but damn… life…

Joan then picked me up and drove me up to Humboldt for a week of rehearsals with singers, to hear what it was I had just written.  Lucky again. Joan took great care of me, and the singers were a good bunch – lovely folk, good voices (the tenor is really pretty great), and willing to go outside their comfort zone… I should have hired a pianist as well – I can’t play everything I write, and it’s hard to really hear what’s going on if you’re concentrating on finding the notes…  next time… But I’ve made a good start, tho’ there’s still a long way to go… Meanwhile Jane Hill is doing some serious fund-raising for the other half of the budget – thank you! It includes my fee…

And now it’s autumn in New York – make the most of it… Hard to talk about the political environment of my two countries, they have both gone from bad to worse. And I fear it’s only going to get worse still – but I must, WE must, hang on to hope – which is not the same thing as optimism – hope that we will see our way through all this… our 45^thpresident threatening civil war while we start the impeachment process, and the UK prime minister dragging the country towards a no-deal Brexit in a couple of weeks’ time, even tho’ it has been declared illegal by Parliament… jesus me beads, as mum would say… glad she’s not here to see it all… tho’ like David Robertson I would love to hear what she had to say about it all… Stay tuned…