Welcome to episode 220 of Sweetman Podcast with support from our sponsors – T Leaf T and Yeastie Boys

Now – as you probably know, as well as the usual platforms (this site, soundcloud, iTunes/Apple) you can now get to Sweetman Podcast on Spotify – follow it there and have it saved in your Spotify library.

This episode is my conversation with Ruby Solly.

Ruby is a Kai Tahu musician, teacher, music therapist and poet from Wellington. In fact she lives on the same street as me. We’d see each other often and smile, say hi. Then for a while she was teaching my son in music class so we got to have a few more chats. But this is easily the biggest conversation we’ve ever had. And the best.

I had wanted to talk to Ruby for a while – she’s busy with many projects. She has a book of poetry out next year through VUP. She has played cello on stage with orchestras, with Trinity Roots, with Yo Yo Ma when he visited.

She is also a practitioner of Taonga puoro (traditional Maori instruments) and both the cello and the Taonga puoro feature in dialogue with birdsong on her brand new album, Pōneke.

Ruby is also a music therapist – so we talked about all of these things. And the influences in her life that have moved her towards this practice and the many disciplines within music.

Earlier in the year Ruby wrote an article called Being Māori in Classical Music is Exhausting. This is an amazing piece of writing and it caused something of a stir, Ruby was invited to talk about it on RNZ as part of Bryan Crump’s show. So I share those links now as background, though on some level Ruby was a bit talked-out on this subject we had to cover it as part of our conversation. It’s my hope that we did that without it dominating the rest of a really great chat.

It’s also my hope that you check this out and enjoy it. Ruby is a phenomenal talent and a fun person to sit down and speak with and hear from.

So here now is episode 220 of Sweetman Podcast – my chat with Ruby Solly.

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