Gertrude "Trudy" Létourneau: Therapeutic Musician
02/25/23 • 80 min
Gertrude Létourneau, known to some as Trudy, is a flutist, pianist, singer and a therapeutic musician. During this episode, she tells many moving stories of the residents she has worked with in her many years working at Pearly Health. During the episode she frequently breaks into song and plays a variety of flutes as well as paints a vivid picture of the fulfilling role she plays working with veterans. We also spoke about her mentors Peter Wiegold, Jeffrey Gilbert, and Marie-Claire Séguin. This was an episode very much about going out your comfort zone, connecting with your audience, and learning to slow down and enjoy every day.
Help me keep this series going! https://ko-fi.com/leahroseman
Video and Transcript link: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/gertrude-trudy-letourneau
Gertrude's website: https://gertrudeletourneau.com/ photo credit: Dave Poulin
Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(03:02) how Gertrude got into this work as a therapeutic musician at Perley Health, Performance and Communication Skills at Guildhall with Peter Wiegold
(08:12) making music with the residents, sing-along culture, Kohai Educational Center working kids with learning disabilities
(12:20) learning the repertoire, playing by ear, choosing themes, different aspects of the work at Perley Health
(16:01) difference between Music Therapist and Therapeutic Musician
(17:44) story about Lili Marlene and World War II veteran
(20:55) PTSD story
(25:56) J’attendrai ton retour with story
(28:53) developing as a singer, coaching with Marie-Claire Séguin, finalist in Ma première Place des Arts competition
(34:05) Audience engagement, talking to the audience and building bridges
(38:52) Jeffrey Gilbert
(41:58) childhood music and decision to pursue the flute
(46:35) dealing with grief and loss
(52:54) planning repertoire around themes
(55:36) coping with the COVID Pandemic in long-term care, online concerts with Concerts in Care and the Music Performance Trust Fund
(01:01:03) living in the moment, Québecois culture and La Bolduc, a musician’s last gig
(01:06:50) lessons learned
(01:16:33) Let Me Call You Sweetheart, creative challenges and going out of your comfort zone
Gertrude Létourneau, known to some as Trudy, is a flutist, pianist, singer and a therapeutic musician. During this episode, she tells many moving stories of the residents she has worked with in her many years working at Pearly Health. During the episode she frequently breaks into song and plays a variety of flutes as well as paints a vivid picture of the fulfilling role she plays working with veterans. We also spoke about her mentors Peter Wiegold, Jeffrey Gilbert, and Marie-Claire Séguin. This was an episode very much about going out your comfort zone, connecting with your audience, and learning to slow down and enjoy every day.
Help me keep this series going! https://ko-fi.com/leahroseman
Video and Transcript link: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/gertrude-trudy-letourneau
Gertrude's website: https://gertrudeletourneau.com/ photo credit: Dave Poulin
Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(03:02) how Gertrude got into this work as a therapeutic musician at Perley Health, Performance and Communication Skills at Guildhall with Peter Wiegold
(08:12) making music with the residents, sing-along culture, Kohai Educational Center working kids with learning disabilities
(12:20) learning the repertoire, playing by ear, choosing themes, different aspects of the work at Perley Health
(16:01) difference between Music Therapist and Therapeutic Musician
(17:44) story about Lili Marlene and World War II veteran
(20:55) PTSD story
(25:56) J’attendrai ton retour with story
(28:53) developing as a singer, coaching with Marie-Claire Séguin, finalist in Ma première Place des Arts competition
(34:05) Audience engagement, talking to the audience and building bridges
(38:52) Jeffrey Gilbert
(41:58) childhood music and decision to pursue the flute
(46:35) dealing with grief and loss
(52:54) planning repertoire around themes
(55:36) coping with the COVID Pandemic in long-term care, online concerts with Concerts in Care and the Music Performance Trust Fund
(01:01:03) living in the moment, Québecois culture and La Bolduc, a musician’s last gig
(01:06:50) lessons learned
(01:16:33) Let Me Call You Sweetheart, creative challenges and going out of your comfort zone
Previous Episode
Adam Hurt: Clawhammer banjo, gourd banjo and old-time fiddle
Adam Hurt is an acclaimed clawhammer banjo player and one of my favourite performers in any style and I was absolutely delighted that he agreed not only to speak to me at length about his life and teaching of traditional music, but also perform for this episode some of my favourite music. His albums of gourd banjo music “Earth Tones” and “Back to the Earth” are beloved by a wide range of listeners, I think partly because the sound colour of the instrument is much more mellow than other banjos. You’ll hear him play and talk about the fascinating history of both his gourd banjo and one of his favourite antique instruments. He’s also a fine old-time fiddler, and although he grew up with classical musician parents, his father a violinist with the Minnesota orchestra, Adam’s life-changing musical moment was with a wonderful and dedicated school teacher.
The video version of this episode along with the transcript: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/adam-hurt
Buy me a coffee? https://ko-fi.com/leahroseman
Adam Hurt website: https://www.adamhurt.com/
If you enjoyed this episode you may be interested in some of my episodes with other traditional musicians, including Janie Rothfield and Alexis Chartrand. I continue to feature many players of plucked instruments with some nice surprises coming your way in Season 3. If you subscribe to my newsletter through my website https://www.leahroseman.com/contact, you’ll get exclusive sneak peeks for upcoming episodes.
Timestamps
(00:00:00) Cold open and intro
(00:02:17) antique Dobson banjo, restoration by Will Seeders Mosheim
(00:07:43) intro to “Fortune” played on the Dobson banjo
(00:11:06) Adam’s early music education, difficulty reading music
(00:15:26) Don Payden first Old-Time teacher, learning by ear, mandolin with Brian Wicklund, clawhammer with Marianne Kovatch
(00:27:58) tone production on the banjo
(00:35:39) Ricky Skaggs collaboration on album Back to the Earth
(00:39:11) gourd banjo, performance of “Josie-O”
(00:45:05) history of this David Hyatt gourd banjo and the recording of Eartht Tones album
(00:50:04) African origins of the banjo, racist history
(00:53:47) tablature, Walt Koken story, Adam’s teaching
(00:59:21) Clifftop
(01:04:53) Adam’s father, learning fiddle
(01:09:22) open A tuning, performance of Patty on the Pike on fiddle
(01:14:17) dancing and old-time, Adam’s experience of learning flatfoot syle
(01:16:42) album Fine Times at our House
(01:18:32) why we love Bandcamp
(01:22:20) the hawk story
(01:28:51) Adam’s teaching strategies
(01:36:53) intro to performance of Snowdrop on the antique Dobson banjo
Next Episode
Gina Burgess Catch-Up Bonus!
Welcome to a special Catch-Up bonus episode with violinist Gina Burgess. My original episode with her is linked here, as well as the podcast versions of both, with transcripts: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/e18-s1-gina-burgess-multi-style-violinist If you missed my first conversation with Gina, you’ll be interested to hear her fascinating personal story and how she became so connected with the North.
Gina has had a really interesting year, going back to university in Newfoundland, moving to the far north of Canada in Iqaluit, and releasing her first album as bandleader. We talked about Inuit throatsinging, and have included two excerpts from the album which I encourage you to check out on Bandcamp: https://ginaburgessmusic.bandcamp.com/album/isnow
Please help me keep this podcast going! https://ko-fi.com/leahroseman
Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(02:24) music education at Memorial University in Newfoundland
(03:56) touring life cut short by pandemic and pivoting to teaching
(04:59) placement in Iqaluit
(07:40) Inuit throat singing, Cynthia Pitsiulak
(09:32) intro to Anuri
(12:06) clip from Anuri on ISNOW album
(14:34) album release in Iqaluit with drum dancers, Olivia Chislett throat singer
(16:17) album ISNOW
(17:38) Ravens on the Roof intro
(19:50) clip from Ravens on the Roof
(20:34) crafting, sober jam
(22:09) teaching
(23:22) teaching teenagers, the importance of knowing them
(24:48) playing in hospital
If you like this episode you’ll love
Episode Comments
Featured in these lists
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode
<a href="https://goodpods.com/podcasts/conversations-with-musicians-with-leah-roseman-258270/gertrude-trudy-l%c3%a9tourneau-therapeutic-musician-30337794"> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/badges/generic-badge-1.svg" alt="listen to gertrude "trudy" létourneau: therapeutic musician on goodpods" style="width: 225px" /> </a>
Copy