IMC's Creative About Music Podcast

IMC's BAN BAM podcast: Episode 4 with guest Ríona Sally Hartman

May 01, 2021 Ríona Sally Hartman Season 1 Episode 4
IMC's Creative About Music Podcast
IMC's BAN BAM podcast: Episode 4 with guest Ríona Sally Hartman
Show Notes

Welcome to the fourth episode of IMC’s weekly BAN BAM podcast, where we explore creative work from inspiration to execution, through conversations with a host of women working in jazz and creative improvised music today. 

My guest on this show is Ríona Sally Hartman, a vocalist, composer and educator from Dublin. Ríona is also a board member of IMC as a representative of the Irish musician community, and a collaborator with IMC in developing the BAN BAM initiative to support women in jazz.

We reflect on how the BAN BAM initiative developed 5 years ago, when IMC and Ríona, as a new board member, began researching and talking to women on the Irish scene, working to influence programming policy and support and promote their work, and question why so few women and girls were, and still are, less visible in jazz, and in the wider music scene. 

We also chat about the importance of the artist as an activist, Ríona's own work and evolution as an artist, and her own creative processes.

www.rionasallyhartman.com

​“Ríona Sally Hartman is capable of using her voice like an instrument, but she is a writer too, interested in the observations and speculations of the poet….delicate vocal harmonies and sparse acoustic settings, fresh and unclichéd, perhaps bearing most comparison with intrepid New York singers like Theo Bleckmann and Becca Stevens.”
– The Irish Times

​Ríona Sally Hartman is a bi-lingual vocalist, composer and songwriter based in Ireland. Her music has become known for its lush vocal harmonies, acoustic softness and the surrealist stories that accompany her songs.

Her debut album Big Starving Thing was released in May 2015 and was described by The Irish Times as a "finely crafted debut album...fresh and unclichéd”.

As well as leading her own solo project Ríona performs as a member of many varied collaborative projects, and has been awarded both an Emerging Artist Bursary for the Creation of New Work in 2015 and a Professional Development Arts Grant in 2016, both from Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council and is a member of the Improvised Music Company’s board of directors as a representative of young, emerging Irish musicians.

The song featured on the show 'Bloodmoon' is available here: https://rionasallyhartman.bandcamp.com/

Improvised Music Company (IMC) is an Irish Arts Council funded resource organisation for Irish and Irish-based jazz musicians, and a specialist promoter of jazz, improvised and ethnic music in Ireland.  

BAN BAM is an activity which began in 2017 to develop and support the work of women in jazz and improvised music, particular female instrumentalists and composers which are underrepresented in this genre.

The next BAN BAM Commissions will be awarded in 2022.

www.improvisedmusic.ie

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Our podcast theme tune is a track by Irish jazz artist Justin Carroll's Togetherness