Today we’d like to introduce you to Dianne Betkowski.
Hi Dianne, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I am a cellist and composer, and I began by being active musically from a very early age. When I was around 5 years old I often organized the kids in my neighborhood growing up (Champaign IL) to sing shows for the parents. I made instruments and made up songs to sing. I found an old guitar in an alley in New York City one summer and figured out a few chords to play on it. I invented songs and sang them all day long.
I made drums out of coffee cans and played them, and tried to find ways to make music. I had formal piano lessons first, at which I was abysmal. I tried violin as well, but then switched to cello soon after, and stuck with that. I was always very rhythmic and most wanted to play percussion but was not allowed by my school music teachers or my parents (hence the coffee can drums).
Eventually, I realized my best musical attribute on the cello was my rhythm, and that was a bit of an epiphany because that’s not what the cello is known for. It’s known for its melodious tone, its lower register, etc… but in the context of playing chamber music, I realized my strength was my ability to offer good rhythmic support as well as play so in sync with others no matter what musical interpretations or liberties they took, and that was good to realize. It’s good to know what you do well, for a lot of reasons.
I began serious musical studies at the National Academy of Arts high school in my hometown (Champaign IL), and during that time I learned how to play the blues and improvise a little from a few of the other cellists there. It was a boarding school and I met musicians and dancers from all over the world. Later, I studied at the University of Illinois, then Boston University, getting degrees at both institutions.
I also studied at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati and Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, playing in ambitious student string quartets at all of these schools. My biggest dream had been to be the cellist of a professional string quartet, and I came very close to doing that when I was one of two finalists for the cello position in the Lark Quartet which was based in NYC. (The cellist who got the position joined the Juilliard Quartet when the Lark Quartet disbanded in 2019.) I also have composed music since I was 15 or so.
My compositions have been performed by various chamber ensembles like the Lafayette String Quartet, and also orchestras: the Rochester Philharmonic, and the National, St. Louis, Houston, Amarillo, Utah, and Honolulu Symphonies, among others. I’ve also performed, toured, and recorded with the St. Louis, Utah, and Honolulu Symphonies. But if the right professional string quartet position had materialized for me, I’d never have ended up in Denver playing with award-winning World Music ensemble, Miguel Espinoza Fusion.
This is what I was meant to do! I met Miguel because of a concert series I’d started, Denver Eclectic Concerts, which juxtaposed classical with nonclassical music. At our concerts, two sets of performers would play, and then find a way to collaborate on a final musical offering. Someone suggested I contact Miguel Espinoza, one of the best Flamenco guitarists in the world who has spent the last twenty-five or thirty years composing his music and creating a fusion of styles that is enveloped by traditional as well as ground-breaking Flamenco structure and rhythmic elements. He had been looking for a cellist to play with for quite a while.
When I contacted him and he found out that I was a cellist he asked if we could play together. We worked on composing a few pieces together for weeks, and then I was invited to join him and some other musicians to perform at Swallow Hill Music, without rehearsal! I’d never met the other musicians before, and they were probably horrified at the prospect of having me, a stranger, on stage with them the very first time we played together! I now realize what a risk that was, but I was naive at the time.
Little by little we developed more new repertoire and rehearsed as a group, recorded four albums (so far), have toured the US three times, and are embarking soon on several more tours. We have begun to perform and teach at colleges and universities around the country. One of the things I think I do best is teaching, and so I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with students as well as perform when we are on tour.
The reason I live in Denver is that my husband Adam looked for work here. He is passionate about skiing and so Denver was a very convenient place for us to live. We have three daughters, two of whom I homeschooled at their insistence, and the third had a somewhat unconventional education as well! This homeschooling turned out to be one of the biggest pleasures of my life. I feel like I was living an on-the-job, hands-on exploration of childhood development and education.
We explored our interests to the extent we wanted to, and I enabled the girls to pursue theirs. We made art and read books, cooked and baked, cared for our animals, took day trips to museums and parks and exhibits, and generally had daily adventures that were wonderful. One of my daughters took 15 hours of dance class weekly and entered a dance competition. Another was invited to be the make-up person for a play at the Curious Theater here in Denver.
They both helped make the weekly mozzarella at Lala’s restaurant once and worked for a day at Sazza restaurant. They created intricate dolls with an internationally known doll maker. We went to the library weekly and to concerts and shows and plays and dance recitals and poetry readings. We had a wonderful time and it was life-changing for me. Now the girls are grown, two are still in college and the oldest recently graduated with a job here in Colorado.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My struggles, musically, were that I had talents that were not utilized in chamber ensembles or orchestras. I could most easily support myself as a classical freelancer or in orchestras, and I did well enough that way, but my biggest personal talents were my rhythm, and my ability to improvise, which has no place in 99.9% of the classical music world.
Of course, all successful classical musicians have a good sense of rhythm, but one is expected to play the notes written on the page and, more than be accurate rhythmically, to fit into the section. I did those things, but I felt I could do other things even better. I just lacked the context to do it in. When I joined Miguel Espinoza Fusion, I found my musical home, and have been forever grateful. Another struggle is that, while I was playing classical music, I could see that it was losing audiences. I love classical music. It engages listeners on long journeys, but our attention spans have been increasingly shortened during my life.
Also, much of classical music is instrumental. People hang on to lyrics and find more immediate meaning in them. This is part of the reason I started the concert series, Denver Eclectic Concerts: to show audiences that great music is great music and that the same people can play different styles, that we can transcend categories and stereotypes, that in the end, great music is great music.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
As a cellist, I am most proud of my contribution to Miguel Espinoza Fusion. We are a unique ensemble doing what no other group in the world is doing. We sound original, expressive, and passionate. We aim to remind people of their humanity, and I think our music touches hearts. Recently we completed three tours: one from Minneapolis to Maine, with concerts in NYC, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Chicago, and other cities.
Another took us through the Midwest, and a third smaller tour was in New Mexico and Southern Colorado. We have more tours planned for 2023-2024 and beyond. We will be performing and teaching at colleges and universities more and more, including St. Olaf College, Duquesne University (Pittsburgh), and the University of Texas in Austin, to name a few.
We recently recorded our fourth album and it features the collaborations of David Balakrishnan (Turtle Island Quartet) and Howard Levy (Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Trio Globo), both two-time Grammy winners. We have more plans to record, including a potential collaboration with violist Paul Cortese in Barcelona Spain. We love sharing our music with people, especially in intimate settings like house concerts and garden concerts, but also in parks and concert halls. We compose all of our music; it comes from the heart and goes to the heart.
We’ve also founded Urban Arts Music, to not only share our music, but to promote music education in Denver, the US, and the world. We have a music camp we have done in the summer, with all kinds of activities and unique experiences for music students. We make sure all interested students can attend even if they don’t have the financial means. You can learn about it at urbanartsmusic.com. We have a session planned for July 14-18, 2023.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
I think that being kind, finding something to love about everyone you meet, thinking of unusual ideas, discussing them with people of all backgrounds and professions, and asking, asking, asking for what you want is great.
Always let someone else say no, and don’t do it for them (by default) by being afraid to ask. Find ways to offer mutually beneficial projects and creations, build bridges, and connections, and find ways to make dreams come true!
Contact Info:
- Website: miguelespinozafusion.com and urbanartsmusic.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/miguelespinozafusion
- Other: https://miguelespinozaflamencofusion1.bandcamp.com
Image Credits
Gray Thompson and Kit Hedman
