Transcript
Speaker: Music
Speaker: Hello everyone and welcome to the Able Voices Podcast. I'm Dr. Rhoda Bernard, founding managing director of the Berklee Institute for Accessible Arts Education and the assistant chair of the music education department at Berklee College of Music.
Speaker: And I am proud to present this podcast featuring disabled artists and arts educators. We are inviting artists with disabilities to be guest hosts with the Able Voices Podcast.
Speaker: Today you'll meet our next guest host, Jillian Raquet. Jillian Raquet is a New York City-based nonprofit arts administrator, educator, and vocalist with more than a decade of experience in the nonprofit arts and cultural sector.
Speaker: And as an artist with low vision, Jillian is deeply committed to creating more inclusive pathways in the arts. Her work is closely closely connected to the Filamino M. D'Agostino Greenberg Music School, a community music school for the blind and visually impaired, where she began as a student in 2012 while studying musical theater at Marymount Manhattan College.
Speaker: Through her work there, Jillian collaborates with fellow artists with vision loss and is dedicated to expanding meaningful opportunities for artists of all ages and abilities.
Speaker: Jillian's professional background includes positions at leading arts organizations such as TADA Youth Theater, Theater Development Fund, Philadelphia Theater Company, and A Class Act New York, where she developed expertise in arts education, outreach, and program development. Welcome, Jillian. We are delighted to have you as the next guest host of the Able Voices podcast.
Speaker: Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. We're really psyched that you are. I'd like to start off by asking you to tell us your story as an artist. How did you get your start as an artist and how did you get to where you are today?
Speaker: So um I've always liked to sing um and I've always had a ah big um imagination growing up. And when I was in middle school, I auditioned for my first musical and immediately fell in love with theater. um My parents always say it was the first time that I did an extracurricular activity and, you know, actually smiled. And I started auditioning for as many shows as I could, taking voice lessons and dance classes. And then, you know, eventually when I got into high school, I started traveling to Philadelphia and New York for more serious training, which eventually led me to studying musical theater in college at Marymount Manhattan.
Speaker: And through Marymount, my voice teacher there also worked for FMDG Music School. And that's how I became involved in the school. And that's where I've been given the majority of my performance opportunities. Some of my favorites were my first opera, which was Noah's Flood at Park Avenue Christian Church.
Speaker: Or I've had solos at their concerts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art or our annual caroling at the Cloisters. And Through college, I also participated in a bunch of internships, which really helped me develop my interest in theater education, which is where a lot of my professional experiences to date, though I still do love to sing and perform.
Speaker: Wow. Thank you for that. What a great journey you've had. I also know that our listeners would like to hear about your experience with as a person with a disability. Yeah.
Speaker: So I was diagnosed with Stargardt's disease, which is a juvenile form of macular degeneration when I was in the eighth grade. And it was initially very, like a very much a relief.
Speaker: I was first started losing my eyesight in about the fifth or sixth grade. And it was a bit of a mystery for a while. um and But I didn't really realize that, although it was a relief, um that there would be a whole new world of um adjustments that I would have to make.
Speaker: As a person with a disability, there was a lot of dealing with, you know, a lot of people's expectations of what I was capable of changed. And that took a lot of getting used to. um When I got into high school, I decided that I would, you know, just, I didn't need accommodations, I would try to just live, you know, quote unquote, normally, which obviously didn't work. um Because, you know, I wasn't getting the support that I needed.
Speaker: And once I started really pushing for accommodations, again, i found that Many people didn't understand why they mattered. You know, teachers didn't receive the paperwork.
Speaker: um Sometimes they didn't really understand what i was asking for. And sometimes they simply just didn't want to change the way that they taught. So I spent a lot of time advocating for myself.
Speaker: And there were definitely times that I got frustrated and i ended up doing a lot of it on my own. but my perspective has really shifted over time. um And I've realized that asking for accessibility isn't special treatment, but it's just equal access. And ah it's something that doesn't just apply to school. I'm still ah advocating for myself, you know, at the airport or the coffee shop or, or you know, in everyday life.
Speaker: i I love hearing about your, the ways that your feelings and your thoughts have changed, but I can't help just as a person listening to this,
Speaker: um feeling, what's the word? A little outraged, frankly, that all of this burden is on you. Yes. And it's, it's so easy to feel that way.
Speaker: and I have to sort of force myself to have like a attitude of gratitude, if you will. And it it shouldn't be our responsibility as those who are disabled.
Speaker: But a lot of the times people just simply don't know they they haven't been taught they haven't been exposed to it or they haven't had to think about it that way. you know I've noticed over time, i have teachers, I have ah fellow classmates who have come to me now having met other people with a similar visual impairment or even just a different disability um and are now viewing it knowing, having known me.
Speaker: And it's really cool to see how their perspectives have shifted. And that, you know, even though it was frustrating to, you know, go through education, kind of figuring it out as I went, it's nice to know that it can even make a small difference for for someone in the future.
Speaker: I admire your attitude about it. So Jillian, you just gave me the segue into my next question. Our listeners really care about arts education. And so they're going to want to know, I mean, you talked a little bit about how you had a particular voice teacher at Marymount who had a connection to FMDG. but And you talked about accommodations process to some degree.
Speaker: But in terms of your own arts education, how did you learn how to do all this amazing stuff that you do? Well, really, when it came to my music education, i would say that was the place where I struggled the most in high school.
Speaker: My school just could never come up with a practical accommodation for me. My music textbook was literally on poster sized paper. So it was like a thick packet, huge, it couldn't fit in my locker, it couldn't fit in my backpack, my family kept it in the garage. Literally. like And so I didn't bring it to school. It wasn't something I wanted to use. um So I pretty much learned all of my music by ear, um which, you know, wasn't really put me at a disadvantage. I, you know, was always a little behind. It took me a really long time to do like sight reading exercises or anything like that. um And i went to college sort of just expecting to coast the same way. And before any of my accommodations paperwork came in or anything like that, I randomly ended up getting assigned to Charlotte Serkin's voice studio.
Speaker: And It turns out that she is a professional at teaching blind and visually impaired people how to sing. She's been working with FMDG Music School for years.
Speaker: And I was immediately comforted by that. I didn't know that was even possible. And she was who suggested that I join FMDG's vocal ensemble. And I literally...
Speaker: the It was, it's almost cinematic, like in my head, my memory of getting my first piece of large print sheet music, because i didn't even ask for it. I just came to rehearsal.
Speaker: And Dalia Sarkis, who was the head of the chorus at the time, just gave it to me, handed it to me. And I could see every note, I could see all of my lyrics. And it was just such a simple accommodation. And it was something I never asked for.
Speaker: And it really started to shift my way of thinking of what is acceptable and what, you know, is standard and what I can ask for. um And then through ah continuing to work with FMDG Music School, I had the privilege of getting to volunteer with their children's programs. And I started to observe all of their teachers and how the expectation was just that there was nothing that these students couldn't do. They're, you know, they were happy to find a workaround for a new problem.
Speaker: And so I was able to take that to my college classrooms and really start to advocate for myself a little harder than I had been in the past and not feeling apologetic or like i you know, had to, you know, i was making people make an exception for me. I think as a teenage brain where we often feel like, you know, we're making it all about ourselves or, you know, we're adding too much attention. And and that's not what it is. It's just getting, you know, equal access.
Speaker: Thank you for that. And I love how you as a volunteer and eventually as a teacher, how that contributes to you as a student and a performer. It all sort of goes together. And FMDG was clearly, um for lack of a better word, instrumental in that process, which doesn't surprise me. I'm very familiar with the organization, Dahlia as well, and and with their work, they are dragon out there. What they do is amazing.
Speaker: So people should know about them, which is great. What advice would you give to another artist with a disability? So I think it's easy to become exhausted from constantly having to explain ourselves and to advocate for our needs. And so my biggest advice is to not mistake inaccessible environments for your own limitations. And that the right teachers, the right collaborators, the right organizations, they won't just accommodate you, but they'll also want you to succeed.
Speaker: And I think, you know, what I said earlier about having that gratitude mindset is also really helpful. um Not viewing it as a, you know, us versus them, but, you know, as a chance to to really educate others.
Speaker: Wow. Thank you for that. it' Fantastic advice. So what are you working on today that you can tell our listeners about? Well, I am i know i've I feel like I haven't talked about FMDG Music School enough, but I remain super involved with them. um i ah founded our junior advisory board a few years ago.
Speaker: which is just sort of a group of us in our 20s and 30s who are trying to help support the school. that's And so we are all next up for me is we're having an event called the Philemon Sessions. We're doing an open mic night and a pizza party happening in NYC on Saturday, August first There'll be details posted about it, I'm sure, on FMDD socials.
Speaker: But I'm excited to perform and and hang out with best students. And I'd invite anyone listening, you know, i don't know when this episode will come out, but ah to, you know, collaborate with us for sure.
Speaker: Wow, that's great. And I love that you're so involved with that organization. That advisory board's a really great idea. what What made you decide to found it? It really, um it just, there's a group of us who were in, you know, in the middle, not quite the children's program, program not quite the adult program.
Speaker: And we're all really passionate about the school. um I've been involved with FMDG for almost 15 years now. ah Some of them have been involved since they were, you know, six or seven.
Speaker: So we all feel really passionate about, you know, having others experience the same, have the same life changing experiences that we've had truly through the school. So whether that's helping new students get involved or keeping current students, you know, really engaged.
Speaker: Fantastic. um Last question. You mentioned FMDG socials. Are there places online where people can track you and the things that you're doing? Yeah, I am I'm not the best at social media, but I do. i do have an Instagram. um My Instagram is Gemini Jill, but with a three. So it's G3 Minai Jill. And I'm on LinkedIn um as well, just under my my full name.
Speaker: And then, of course, you know, if you do follow FMDD socials, if they post about an event, I'm probably going to be there, whether it's as a fangirl or a performer. I'll i'll be there. Fantastic.
Speaker: I am already a fangirl of yours. I know that our listeners will be when you host your episodes as a guest host. Thank you so much for spending this time with us. Thank you so much.
Speaker: ABLE Voices is a production of the Berkeley Institute for Accessible Arts Education, led by me, Dr. Rhoda Bernard, the founding managing director. It is produced by Daniel Martinez del Campo.
Speaker: The intro music is by Kai Levin, and our closing song is by Sebastian Batista. Kai and Sebastian are students in the arts education programs at the Berkeley Institute for Accessible Arts Education.
Speaker: If you would like to learn more about our work, find us online at berkeley.edu slash B-I-A-A-E or email us at B-I-A-A-E at berkeley, that's L-E-E dot E-D-U.
