It began in June of 2023. And almost two years to the day…
It’s Official. The Juliet Shaw Legacy
Collection Now Resides At the Smithsonian.
Dave Brubeck’s Points On Jazz Played Live
Points On Jazz has its origins in 1958, when Dave Brubeck was on tour in Poland. Its primary melody
was conceived as a way of thanking his audiences for their kind reception. It’s title was “Dziekuye,”
the Polish word for “Thank you.” After hearing the piece on Brubeck’s album, choregrapher, Dania Krupska,
sought permission to use the music for a new jazz ballet. The piece was eventually commissioned by the
American Ballet Theatre.
Short Sci-Fi:
The Aviary On Mars
Although it was created four years ago, it’s barely been seen. Now that missions to, and eventual human
habitation on Mars continue to inspire and fascinate, let’s revisit this fantasy…
Original composition until the aviary is open, then the music “montage” is comprised only of snippets of
jazz, classical and popular music about birds. How many can you recognize?
Londonderry Air
Played on the Juliet Shaw Theremin
The October 15th concert to honor Juliet Shaw featured her own theremin, custom-built for her by the
instrument’s inventor himself, Lev Termen (Leon Theremin). Since Juliet Shaw’s theremin still works,
it on display during the concert and I used it to play Londonderry Air (aka Danny Boy), a song requested
by her daughter, Sandra Shaw Murphy. Juliet herself can be heard playing the song on Track 8 of Music in
the Air – The Artistry of Thereminist Juliet Shaw, Volume 1.
Following her very fist performance at Yale University somewhere between 1936 and 1937, she learned that
Theremin lived in New York City. With her own RCA Theremin in tow, she was able to meet him at his
apartments on West 53rd St. (an event she describes in several handwritten accounts as well as in recordings
of some of her live concert performances). Theremin was so impressed with herself-taught virtuosity that he
offered to trade her RCA, with it’s range of two and a half octaves, for a custom built instrument that would
have a range of six and one half octaves. She continued to perform on that instrument for the rest of her life.
The Swan – From the Concert to Honor
the Artistry of Thereminist, Juliet Shaw
On October 15th, 2023, a live Concert was given at the Silvermine School of Music to honor the
artistry of first generation thereminist/concert pianist/teacher, Juliet Shaw. The concert was the
culmination of The Juliet Shaw Legacy Project, begun in June of 2022 by myself, and Sandra Shaw
Murphy, the daughter of Juliet Shaw. Two marvelous pianists, Peter and Marianne Lauffer, and myself
presented a full program of both classical music, jazz, and occasional mischief. This excerpt from the
concert, a perfomance of Saint Saens’s Le Cynge (The Swan) includes a bit of mischief. Video of the
complete concert is currently in the works.
For more information about the Juliet Shaw Legacy Project, please visit: www.jshawlegacy.com
More Music Is Coming, But For Now…
The extensive work undertaken for the Juliet Shaw Legacy Project has put quite a hold
on creating new theremin videos. So, for our dining and dancing pleasure, here’s a
reprise of the first video I made using the Moog Claravox…
One More Time…
Might have been shot 12 years ago (extremely hard to believe), but here it is again.
Belated birthday wishes.
Cookbook Finalist…Winner?…Oh, Well…
While this still has nothing to do with the theremin, it was worth a try. Our book, Vegetarian Tales
From the Mushroom Rooms,
and Instructional Non-Fiction. We made it that far but that was it. The end.
We’re still making the rounds, submitting to publishers and agent – over thirty so far. The current tally
is four rejections and twenty-six without responses as yet.
Cookbook Finalist…Winner? You Never Know…
While this has nothing to do with the theremin, it’s certainly significant. As many of you know, Pam,
and I are avid foragers. We’re out in the woods and fields every chance we get, harvesting herbs, berries,
and especially mushrooms. It became something of an obsession and we’re happy to bore everyone with
stories and photos. We’re also happy to feed everyone our mushroom meals.
Five years in the making, we recently completed our mushroom cookbook, Vegetarian Tales From
the Mushroom Rooms. It’s now making the rounds of agents and publishers, which is like entering the
lottery; odds are normally extremely slim but you never know. And we also entered it in a contest.
Well, what do you know… it’s now a finalist!
The Juliet Shaw Legacy Project is Complete
Nineteen months after the project’s inception in June of 2022, Sandra Shaw Murphy and I have
successfully completed the unearthing, compiling, organizing, cataloging, archiving and digitization
of the vast Juliet Shaw Collection. Of course, the “jewel in the crown” of the collection is Juliet’s
theremin – built specifically for her by the instrument’s inventor, Lev Termen (Leon Theremin).
But for Sandra’s generosity and determination, Juliet might have been totally forgotten. She spent countless
hours combing through the family home to find objects and items she remembered, but also discovering a
vast wealth of materials and artifacts that even she herself never knew existed.
From the outset, in addition to the goal of preserving her mother’s legacy, Juliet’s daughter Sandra was
determined that everyone be able to discover Juliet for themselves. Toward that end, we produced a web site
that was initially utilized for a fundraising campaign intended to cover the expenses for goods and services
that I was unable to provide on my own. Now that the fundraising phase is over, we’ve retooled the site to
function as a means by which thereminists, theremin enthusiasts, electro-musicians (and everyone else for that
matter) can explore Juliet Shaw’s life and career.
Although the items on the site represent less than 100th of the entire archived collection, they, combined with
the text content, are a wonderful way to see, hear and learn about Juliet Shaw. With the advent of the Juliet
Shaw collection and the Legacy Project web site, Juliet’s well-earned place in the theremin’s history is incontro-
vertible. It is a testament to her extraordinary ability, her 55-year performance career, her massive recorded
output, her charitable concerts that raised tens of thousands of dollars for worthy causes, her tireless dedication
to her students and her devotion to her school of music as both a teaching institution as well as a venue for
concerts and other events. She is among just a handful of musicians who, along with Leon Theremin himself,
can truly be counted as one of the first generation of thereminists.