Final Ethnography Interview with Joy Weaver (Anna Phillips)

Partial Transcript: Anna Phillips:
Hi, thank you so much for talking with me today. Can you tell me your name, and then a little bit about your musical background? So what instruments you play, where you went to school — that kind of thing?

Joy Weaver:
Yes. My name is Joy Weaver. I have a pretty extensive background, so I'm going to try to condense it. My mom was my piano teacher — since I was five — so I played all the way through high school. And then I auditioned to play piano in college and then graduated with a music degree in piano performance. I played saxophone in middle school and high school. And I sang in a children's choir, and then I sang all through high school and college. And then, let's see, that's just my musical background. Did you say “where do I go to school?”

Anna Phillips:
Yeah.

Joy Weaver:
I went to James Madison University.

Anna Phillips:
Did you always want to be a musician? How did that sort of come to be?

Joy Weaver:
So it's an interesting thing. I just always was a musician. And I didn't really... it was just... yeah, it was basically like who I was — it was an identity. And I never thought about it as a career. Like, "I want to be a musician." Because I already was. So I thought I was gonna be a veterinarian, or, yeah, I was going to be a vet. And then when I graduated high school, or like, when I got close, I realized I would be really sad… Because I was in choir, I was in band, I was playing piano and practicing piano every day. I decided I would be really sad without it. So then it felt like I should go to music school because that's what I'm good at.

Segment Synopsis: Joy discusses her musical background and her journey to becoming a musician.

Keywords: Choir; College; Musician; Piano

Partial Transcript:
Anna Phillips:
Yeah, and so when you were in music school, did you have any particular career aspirations that you were thinking of? Or how did that play out between graduating and then your first music job?

Joy Weaver:
So since being a music major was kind of a last minute decision, I didn't have any aspirations. All growing up, my aspiration when anybody asked me what I wanted to be was I just said I wanted to be happy. I never said like a specific career. So all I really cared about when I was in college was getting the degree because it was really hard. And a lot of people dropped out halfway through my program — the piano performance — and I just wanted to finish it because the last couple years in my high school were pretty rough, just like with my family and everything, and I just wanted to have this one thing that I accomplished.
And then you know, as you're getting close to graduating college, they start asking, "So what do you want to do when you graduate?" Because usually with my major, you have no choice but to just go back and get your Masters and then get your Doctorate and be a professor. And I didn't want to do that. I knew that because it was actually miserable in some ways to be stuck in a practice room for four and five hours a day. And I felt like I didn't... I wasn't able to be social. I was just by myself, and I'm extroverted. And I felt like I didn't make an impact in college because I was always in a practice room. And it made me very sad my senior year. But I am very grateful for my degree. But I decided I didn't want to go back to school for more piano. I was satisfied with my level — graduating college.
So I didn't know what I was going to do. I moved to Richmond right when I graduated, and I worked at Outback Steakhouse for four months. And then all of these different jobs just kind of started falling into my lap. I did not apply for anything [laughs]. It just happened based on like connections and mentioning "Hey, I'm here if you need me for these different music gigs," and then people would find me. So this job at the church found me. I had no intention of being a music director.

Anna Phillips:
Really?

Joy Weaver:
No, no, no. I didn't take any conducting lessons in college except for instrumental conducting for orchestra — because it was an easy class I was told. So I took that. I wasn't thinking, "Oh, maybe with all of this choral experience I have, I would possibly be a choral director." But it's fine — turns out, you can still teach choir and you don't have to have a choir degree. Apparently, some people will just look at your experience and your success and trust that it doesn't always have to be a specific piece of paper that says you did something. So I work at a private school as a director, and I like the idea of working at a private school because I didn't have to have my teaching certification.

Anna Phillips:
Ah, I see.

Joy Weaver:
And I kind of get more leeway on what I want to do. And the school doesn't tell me what to do. So like in a public school, you have to learn certain things. And there's... yeah, there's a specific...

Anna Phillips:
There's a lot of, like, very strict rules with the curriculum.

Joy Weaver:
And little music textbooks and certain songs you have to do. And I just want to do what I want to do, and what I think that they should learn, and what I think would be fun. I think that answers that question.

Anna Phillips:
Yes.

Segment Synopsis: Joy provides an introduction to her four music jobs in Richmond.

Keywords: Choir; College; Music; Music Director; Piano; Richmond; Teacher

Partial Transcript: Joy Weaver:
Oh, and I did not ever... where I grew up, ballet did not have a live pianist, because I grew up in a small town. So I didn't really know anything about that. And also, that job fell into my lap — playing for the Richmond ballet — because I was like, "Well, I don't know how to play for ballet." And they said, "We'll train you." So then I went and got trained, and I was pretty — very inexperienced at first. But now I feel very comfortable, and I'm playing for the professional company and the trainees. And it's one of my favorite jobs because I actually get to really play piano like what I did in school. So it's my least paying job, but it makes me really happy.

Anna Phillips:
That's awesome. What is the training like for playing for ballet? How is that different from anything else?

Joy Weaver:
So basically, you're given a starter pack of random music. The person who was training me said, "Well, you should learn at least 50 pieces to start" [laughs].

Anna Phillips:
Oh, wow.

Joy Weaver:
And at the time, that was really stressful for me. Now I can kind of just sight read, and I could sight read back then but I wasn't confident in that. And just my ability to... instead of reading the notes on the page, just note by note by note, I've learned to kind of play what's really important. And just, I'm playing all the time, so my sight reading has gotten way better, and my ear has gotten better. But the training is — are you familiar with a ballet class?

Anna Phillips:
Somewhat.

Joy Weaver:
Okay, so every ballet class, every rehearsal day for the professional company starts off — you have an hour and a half of ballet class when you're a professional and throughout your training. And there are exercises that always happen in ballet class and then some variations. Teachers will do things differently, but you always start with a plié, you start with a tendu, you do dégagé, frappé, a slow one — Adagio, rond de jamb. You have all these different exercises that the instructor will demonstrate, and then you're supposed to — as this pianist — get an idea of the tempo and the style of music that you should be using to go along with what the dancers are doing. So that was a learning curve for me because at the beginning, I always just never had enough music. Because they would — the teacher would kind of show something and I would think "I don't have anything that matches that even closely." So it was very uncomfortable for me because I felt unequipped. But it was definitely like an exponential learning curve. And it's a luxury for them to be able to have a live musician because otherwise, they have to use a CD, and they have no control over how fast it goes and when to stop it. And if they need like an extra eight counts for something, having a live musician allows you to just do what you need.

Anna Phillips:
That makes a lot of sense.

Segment Synopsis: Joy discusses her job as an accompanist at the Richmond Ballet and outlines her training for the job.

Keywords: Accompanist; Ballet; Piano; Professional; Rehearsal

Partial Transcript: Anna Phillips:
Are you responsible for choosing the repertoire? Is there —

Joy Weaver:
Yeah, I'm mostly responsible for it. Some teachers will make a request just every once in a while. And you can play for different teachers and if after a song, they say, "Oh, I really liked that one, who wrote that” or “I really liked that one, play that one anytime." You kind of get used to preferences on the instructor. But for the most part — I mean, there are ballet standards that pretty much any ballet accompanist should have. But I've been recently... I have hundreds and hundreds of songs. And I'm still like… I get tired of some of them. Because you play for hours at a time — or an hour and a half, but I sometimes play in a day for way longer than that. And then when you come week after week, it's just... So I just got in a spree of finding a lot of new music and kind of changing songs to fit the exercise. And I've been trying to fit in a lot of music that people recognize, and I can kind of make it sound more classical.

Anna Phillips:
That's really interesting.

Joy Weaver:
So that's been really fun for me because then it makes it really enjoyable for the dancers because they know the song, and it makes them happy.

Anna Phillips:
Can you give some examples?

Joy Weaver:
Yeah, I was gonna maybe play this one today, but I just started incorporating "Traitor" by Olivia Rodrigo for Adagio —

Anna Phillips:
Oh my goodness, that’s so fun!

[Joy plays “Traitor” on the piano]

— and maybe like, it can be for a couple of things. And I could change it — I could change the feel of it to go along with other exercises within a certain extent. And I got "A Thousand Years" by Christina Perri. I've done music theater songs, so I really have been into "Close Every Door" from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I'm liking that one. I've played the Halo theme — no, not the Halo theme, but "something something forgotten" from Halo 3, which is really pretty. Yeah.

Anna Phillips:
That's really cool that you can incorporate the modern songs in something that I feel like —

Joy Weaver:
I definitely always play classical music and big stuff — but I really am trying to incorporate things that people recognize from now, and kind of adjust it to the ballet world. So that's kind of fun for me.

Anna Phillips:
Yeah, that's really cool. It's nice that you have some freedom with that.

Joy Weaver:
I make it my own. I get very territorial, unfortunately, about my music. I like it when no one else is playing what I'm playing.

Anna Phillips:
Gotcha.

Joy Weaver:
Like, I don't want to hear somebody — another pianist in the next room playing what I just played. Because it means that the dancers are hearing the same stuff, like all the time. So I like to just try to —

Anna Phillips:
Like mixing it up for you and for them. And like that's, that's really cool. I don't have a lot of knowledge about piano with ballet.

Joy Weaver:
I didn't either. I started eight years ago. Now I'm finally — I'm completely comfortable. I'm just chillin' when they're doing the exercise because I know immediately, usually, what song I'm going to play. And I know a lot of things by memory at this point, so even if I forgot my music one day, I could probably do a whole class.

Anna Phillips:
Wow.

Joy Weaver:
So it's nice to be in that position. Because when I first started, I was lost and scared.

Segment Synopsis: Joy discusses her role in choosing repertoire for the ballet and provides examples for how she incorporates modern music.

Subjects: Accompanist; Ballet; Classical; Modern Music; Piano; Rehearsal; Repertoire

Partial Transcript: Anna Phillips:
Well, that makes sense. So you play through rehearsals for the ballet — for the professional company. So what are all the different things you play for within the Richmond Ballet?

Joy Weaver:
No. So right now, because of my new job at the high school, I'm only at the ballet for three hours a week right now.

Anna Phillips:
Okay.

Joy Weaver:
And so I played for the company for a long time, but now I'm just playing for trainees because of my schedule. But I don't play for their rehearsals. Let's see, the trainees come in at 12:30pm. The professional company comes in the morning and then they have it all day until dinnertime. And the trainees come in at 12:30 and they have like a half day — they do rehearsals probably until late afternoon or dinnertime. So like I was saying, every trainee rehearsal day and every professional company rehearsal day starts with the ballet technique.

Anna Phillips:
Okay, the technique.

Joy Weaver:
And the hour and a half, like that's what I play for. To basically warm them for rehearsal and they're still learning. They're still learning — even when they're professionals, they're learning how to be better with their technique.

Anna Phillips:
That makes sense. Yeah, I guess I was misunderstanding rehearsal versus technique.

Joy Weaver:
Usually for rehearsals, they're using tracks because it's usually for a specific classical ballet.

Anna Phillips:
That makes sense.

Joy Weaver:
But the orchestra plays for it, when they perform. So if they need to, they will have a rehearsal pianist that is like the conductor of an orchestra that knows the whole orchestral score. But I have thus not been asked to do that yet. But I could. But I don't do that.

Segment Synopsis: Joy clarifies her role as a ballet accompanist and differentiates between regular rehearsals and technique.

Keywords: Accompanist; Piano; Rehearsal; Technique

Partial Transcript: Anna Phillips:
Okay. Can we talk a little bit about your job at River Road United Methodist Church?

Joy Weaver:
Yeah.

Anna Phillips:
Where we are currently. So how long have you had this job? And what is your designation or your title?

Joy Weaver:
How long have I been here? Since 2014. I started as an intern because the current music director at that time wanted to leave for six weeks because his wife was sick. And then after I was an intern, he said he wanted to retire. So then, I was the interim music director. And then they wanted to have the position filled basically, for permanent. So I applied for that, and some of the choir members were on the committee to hire this person, and luckily, they wanted me there. So I stayed. And so my title is the Director of Traditional Music and Worship, and then I also play — I play and I sing in the contemporary band. So yeah, just "music director."

Anna Phillips:
And so what are your different roles or different jobs or tasks you have as music director? I'm sure there's —

Joy Weaver:
Yeah, so the choir sings a different song or anthem every week, so I usually try to plan all of those in bulk at the beginning of the season. So I'll plan everything for the fall through Christmas at one time — because that helps me in my brain. For the most part, I can switch things around based on availability of people. So I plan the choir anthems. I lead choir rehearsals on Thursday and Sunday morning and direct the choir. I can bring in... Basically I'm in charge of all the music for the service. So if I want to bring in an instrumentalist one day, I just will do that. Just like randomly whenever I want. Or, since I'm a pianist and a singer, I can schedule myself to play piano one day or sing. And if I don't want to, I don't have to. And we have an organist, so I converse with her about, you know, working together on certain things she plays for the choir. And I meet with a pastor to do worship planning, maybe once a month-ish. For hymns and special services, we have to talk about those and meet together for that and work together and collaborate. And then I go to band practice every week and staff meeting every week.

Anna Phillips:
Oh, wow.

Joy Weaver:
But it is a part time job. So I don't have any full time jobs — no benefits.

Segment Synopsis: Joy provides background on her job as a music director at River Road United Methodist Church, including her schedule, roles, and responsibilities.

Keywords: Choir; Church; Music Director; Traditional; Worship

Partial Transcript: Anna Phillips:
So what is the process of choosing the repertoire? And so are you talking with Pastor Darcey about that, too, in terms of... How does that all work? I guess another additional question for that is — how long did it take you to become familiar with all the different hymns? Did you grow up singing a lot of these hymns? Or?

Joy Weaver:
A lot of the hymns I grew up familiar with. I grew up in a Presbyterian Church. This is a Methodist Church, so there are some differences. But a lot of the hymns are — I would say 75% of the hymns are the same. So I have those. I've learned some new hymns that I really like. And since I can sight read, Darcy, the pastor, when we meet, she's always like, "how does this one go" when we're in the coffee shop and I'm just leaning over and singing it, so she can hear the tune. While we pick that and there's... Usually you have all the sudden days laid out and you know, which Sunday is Christmas Eve, which is All Saints, which is Lent — the season of Lent, the season of Advent, Thanksgiving, Time Sunday. So you have all these themes that you work with. And we have a huge music library here that I can look through. And there's a database, if I wanted to use that, and then I always go on a website called JW Pepper, and search through different anthems there and listen to different anthems. And I usually say if I don't like it within 30 seconds, move on to the next one. So, yeah, that's the process for that. And I also keep in mind the abilities of our choir and the strengths and the "not strengths."

Anna Phillips:
Would you say that the choir here is pretty consistent with who's in it? Or is it always like — does it move around a lot?

Joy Weaver:
We have core members basically, I would say, we have about eight core members that are the choir. And then we have some people that come — they come around once a month, and sometimes you never know when they're going to come. And then we have some that come a couple of times a month. And then some guest singers who only come on the special services — Christmas Eve and Easter — which I always try to bulk up the choir because those are very well attended services.

Anna Phillips:
Okay. And can you talk a little bit about the musical differences for you, like, obviously directing the traditional, but then also being involved in the contemporary? How is that different for you?

Joy Weaver:
Yeah, luckily, we wear robes at the traditional service. Because I always felt like, you know, dressing for the contemporary service, and then going right to the traditional service... Contemporary is casual and traditional is more formal. It's kind of the culture to dress up more. So I felt like I almost had to change costume — more casual to more dressy. So that's a difference. But I'm very comfortable with both styles because the church I grew up in was traditional. And I'm a classical pianist. And I grew up in choir. So I'm just very — that's like my element actually. And then also, I'm younger so I am familiar with being in a band setting, although I've had a learning curve for that as well, actually. Because when I graduated college, I didn't know how to read a lead sheet. I didn't know how to just play chords, and like, I would know what a chord is — you know, G major chord — but I didn't know any of... I couldn't have done what I do now.

Anna Phillips:
Gotcha.

Joy Weaver:
I had to kind of learn that. And that was also uncomfortable at first. But yeah. So I was always... I'm also familiar with the contemporary stuff because that's also what most of the young people, when they go to church, they're doing contemporary, so in college and stuff like that I was attending more contemporary services.

Segment Synopsis: Joy outlines the process of choosing repertoire for the traditional service at RRUMC, as well as discusses her perspective on switching between traditional and contemporary services.

Keywords: Choir; Church; Hymn; Pastor; Repertoire; Service; Traditional

Partial Transcript: Anna Phillips:
Gotcha. How about we switch gears really quickly and talk about your new job at the high school. And so obviously, you're the director here, but then how is it different teaching high schoolers choir?

Joy Weaver:
Yeah. So this is an all-girls Catholic school, and I got hired in August of this year. So it's a very fresh thing for me. And a couple of things about that job now are uncomfortable for me now. And I know if I stay in that job, it'll just kind of be like how it is now for my other jobs. And I didn't know until the first day of school that I was in charge of planning the music and executing the mass that they have —

Anna Phillips:
Oh, wow.

Joy Weaver:
— twice a month there. So I'm in charge of mass and I just had no idea.

Anna Phillips:
So what does that entail?

Joy Weaver:
It's basically like here except — it's like a church service, but it's Catholic. So I'm not Catholic, so I knew 0% about Catholicism. But I am the director of two choirs there. That's what I do there. And one of them was an auditioned choir, but I was hired in August, so I was not the one who auditioned them. So I had no idea who was in there, what they sounded like, what they knew. And then there's a non-auditioned choir — chorus — and some of those girls didn't register for that class. I didn't want to be there. They were placed there. And that's very different from when I was in school. The music program was very strong and you didn't get placed in choir, you sign up for choir, and you liked it, and you were good. So I learned... I passed out a music theory test that was not graded on the first day of school to just see what people knew. And a lot of those auditioned choir girls didn't know very much at all. Someone didn't know what a quarter note was. Someone didn't know what a measure was. And they're in auditioned choir. So I've been teaching them music theory at the beginning of every class. Luckily, I see Honors Ensemble every day, except for Thursdays. But it's been good. I mean, Honors Ensemble sings at every mass, and we've got a winter concert coming up. They sing the national anthem at the football game. And everybody says that they sound really, really great. So that's been really nice. And they're very sweet girls. So it's definitely different being in a high school choir setting. Because I was in high school choir, but I was not the director.

Anna Phillips:
Yes.

Joy Weaver:
So I'm finding out what it's like, especially in a private school where they don't invest very much in their music.

Anna Phillips:
I see, I see. So what is it like teaching an all-women's choir in terms of the repertoire you pick?

Joy Weaver:
Luckily, I'm familiar with… Because every summer I always do a women's only piece here. So I'm familiar with that kind of repertoire. And they have a music library at the school too that I can pick from. I didn't use any of the music in their music library. I picked... Oh, and the children's choir that I was in growing up — that's all treble voices. So, for example, two of the songs that I'm doing with the non auditioned choir, one of them is from one that I use here at Christmas Eve every year. But it's a soprano, alto, tenor bass, but I'm just having them sing the soprano-alto part. And then there's a soloist. So the audience isn't gonna know that. It's still gonna sound really nice. And then Carol of the Bells — I sang that in children's choir. And then yeah, the Honors Ensemble, most of that is just stuff I already knew. So I'll figure it out. I mean, they have a music library that I haven't even looked at yet. But I know there's plenty of options.

Segment Synopsis: Joy discusses her newest job as a choir director at Saint Gertrude High School.

Keywords: Audition; Choir; Choir Director; High School; Private

Partial Transcript: Anna Phillips:
And so you also teach piano privately, correct?

Joy Weaver:
Oh, I forgot about that job [laughs]. I have a lot of piano students.

Anna Phillips:
Can you tell me a little bit about that? And how it sort of came to be that you started teaching? And then how many you have?

Joy Weaver:
Yeah, so I didn't intend on teaching piano. Um, I didn't want to be a teacher. When I graduated college, I didn't want to be a teacher. Because I felt that, you know, I'm a piano performance major. I felt like that's not what I wanted to do. I wanted to perform, I wanted to, like, be a musician, but I didn't want to be a classical pianist, which is interesting, because I went to school for classical piano. But, um, so I was playing at the ballet and there is a man there, who — he's a pianist, as well and he's a teacher of piano. And he came up to me one day and said, "this business is looking for more piano teachers, would you be interested?" And so I said, "I mean? Sure, I'll teach for a day, like a day or two a week.” So then I started teaching and I actually really love teaching. I love children. And I love developing... like I see potential in people — I love developing them to like the best of their ability, the best of their potential. I love light bulb moments. I love when I can mentor somebody to be a better musician to learn things they didn't know, to do well, and for them to be happy. I love it. So I didn't plan on doing it. And I kind of scoffed at it, I think at first but yeah, the piano thing — I just kept getting more students. And I was just like, "okay."

Segment Synopsis: Joy explains how she became a private piano instructor and highlights her favorite parts of the job.

Subjects: Children; Piano; Piano Instructor; Private Lessons; Teaching

Partial Transcript: Anna Phillips:
So, obviously we've talked about your role as a teacher, and as a director, and as an educator — but what role does performance play now in your life as a musician?

Joy Weaver:
Yeah, so I would say working at the Ballet is my chance to… that’s really a performing opportunity for me — to the dancers. It’s performing with the dancers. And it’s experience playing in front of people so that I… I don’t get really nervous playing for people anymore because of how often I play in front of people. And I consider… working at the church every week and singing in the band and playing sometimes at church and singing sometimes at church — it’s not… you wouldn’t call it a performance but it is a display of your music and what you’ve been working on. And then occasionally I’ll play for weddings, sing for weddings, funerals. And then occasionally get some gigs here and there. I spend most of my time teaching, but I feel like performing are opportunities that I pretty much have to create for myself.

Anna Phillips:
Gotcha. And so, do you have any future music goals or professional goals? Or even like personal music goals?

Joy Weaver:
Yes, I think I want to record more music. I’ve written some songs in college, and I want to get my music out there. And remember to impact people. Yeah, so record more and probably perform more. And I want to learn more — like I don’t know anything about jazz. I would like to learn a little bit more about jazz chords and certain little things like that. I still want to expand my music knowledge because I’m always learning.

Anna Phillips:
And so you don’t think you’ll go back to school?

Joy Weaver:
No, no [laughs].

Anna Phillips:
Thank you so much for your time. This has been really, really amazing. And then…

Joy Weaver:
Do you need me to play anything?

Anna Phillips:
Yeah, how about you can play some.

Joy Weaver:
So this is the 18th variation from “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.” And the bride wanted this one.

[Joy plays “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” on the piano]

Segment Synopsis: Joy outlines her future personal and professional goals, and she finishes by playing classical piano piece.

Keywords: Ballet; Church; Jazz; Performance; Songwriting; Weddings