Heather Bishop
Welcome to the first edition of "3 Questions" where we feature special performers who are part of our Facebook Fan page.
We hope that you'll check out their websites and music, and get to know them them better. I would encourage you to listen to some of their music and catch them at a live concert when you can. I could think of no better person than Heather Bishop to be our inaugural performer. She is an accomplished performer, accomplished artist and I feel honored to know her and to help you get a glimpse of this wonderful lady's career.
Question 1: You are one of Manitoba's best known performers both within our province, thruout Canada, as well as abroad. What have been some highlights of your career that hold a special place in your heart?
The fact that I have been able to maintain a successful career for 35 years is probably the biggest highlight of my career. I feel so privileged and blessed. But there are a myriad of special moments that I absolutely loved - performing with Canada's major symphony orchestras - playing to the 80,000 people that attend Australia's Woodford Folk Festival, touring the Australian outback playing to Aboriginal children, playing the Edinburgh Children's Festival in Scotland, touring Wales and having all the men in the audience sing along wholeheartedly - or maybe it's the night Buffy Sainte Marie and I were sharing a stage in Kansas when the tornado warning siren went off and she and I and the crew retreated to one side of the basement and the 2000 audience members retreated to the other side of the basement until the siren sounded again and we went back up and finished the concert - or maybe it was receiving the Order of Canada with Shania Twain - or it could in fact be just one of those precious moments on a gymnasium floor with 800 kids having the time of our lives singing together in some small town somewhere. Somtimes the life of a performer looks glamorous to an audience but many people aren't aware of some of the struggles in the music/performance industry that an artist faces.
Question 2: How would you advise an emerging performer of skills they need to develop to make a lifelong career in this industry?
It is essential that young performers come to understand very early in their career that the music industry is a business and they are a small business owner. I really encourage them to take advantage of the numerous great programs now available that offer business training. Get yourself very well organized, acquire the skills you don't have or find someone better than you are to purchase expertise from. And most of all, remember that an arts practice is just that. First you have chosen it because it feeds your soul and is the passion of your life - which will help you through the many lows you will have to traverse to survive in the business - but also it is a life long practice of perfecting your skills as a musician. Get very, very good at what you do. In the end, that will set you apart and give you the tools to reach the audience and touch them with the music and what it is you wish to communicate. Finally, join at least one of the professional organizations this province offers to artists and become part of the family of Manitoba musicians that is currently taking the world by storm.
Question 3: You are a talented performer, painter, and mentor. But you have quietly hidden your construction skills from us. I hear you're a wild woman with a hammer and voltage meter. You built your own energy efficient house. How did all that come about?
My father and grandfather were both master carpenters and I was so blessed that my father never felt, back in the 1950's, that my gender should exclude me from acquiring those skills from him. From the time I was tall enough to lean over a table saw, Dad taught me the old school skills that to this day, I treasure. When I began my career in the music industry, I also began my journey of living lightly on the land. I purchased property in southern Manitoba and set out to build the house I could never afford to buy. I went to Red River College at night and picked up my Electrical Wiring skills, and I learned how to do plumbing by guess and by golly. In 1979 I built a state of the art Passive Solar Home that 30 years later is still ahead of it's time. Having spent the majority of the past 35 years on the road, I never fail to feel so blessed when I return to southern Manitoba and my beautiful, warm, sunny home.