Maria Gillard and her trio March 11 at Downstairs Cabaret Theatre in Rochester. Photos by John Addyman. 32
55 PLUS - July 2019 May/ /August June 2020
teaches vocal music at Finger Lakes Community College, and is an avid student of the folk music art form, attending workshops and seminars in Texas, Tennessee, West Virginia and New England. She is tuned to introspective vibes. If a group of women, say a bridal party getting together before a wedding, relaxed in a Finger Lakes location and played Gillard’s music for hours, they’d find that she hits every note on love, separation, loss of parents, struggling to be the woman they want to be, family relationships, parenting, personal tragedy, hope and fulfillment. There is such gentle urge and understanding in her voice, such joy and empathy in the lyrics, it’s not hard for someone to think, ‘This is my sister singing about something we both feel.’” But as “Steady Woman,” she is also singing directly to males, young adults and those who have lost both parents. Her dad was a high school vice principal who died in a car accident when she was 7. Her mom was a firstgrade teacher who raised Gillard and her five siblings. After high school, Gillard walked a meandering path to end up in folk music. She got her degree in music education from SUNY Potsdam and did spend time at the Rochester School of the Deaf where she lived on campus and immersed in that environment. “I absolutely loved that. I almost went back to school to get a degree in sign language,” she said. Instead, she took a job in a grade school in Canandaigua. It took her two and a half years to find out being an elementary music teacher didn’t hit her right chords. “I was the only music teacher for 900 kids. I like kids, but I was going insane. After that I said to myself, ‘If I don’t see another kid for 10 years, I’m good,’” she said. To make ends meet, she started a home business, teaching guitar and piano. And the call to folk music snuck up on her. “I started playing music with another teacher, Frank Meyer. He found out I played the guitar. He invited me over for a jam and I sang some harmony. He told me, ‘You’re a great harmony singer, why don’t you come play with me?’” she said. Meyer was an English teacher