Juliette Liu on the Founding of Interlude

Francesca McNeeley

Our dream is to grow our audience and to share our passion with other music lovers.” —Juliette Liu

Juliette Liu founded Interlude with the simple goal of enriching her own passion for music, but from these modest ambitions bloomed one of the world’s most popular resources for texts on classical music. Since its launch in 2010 Interlude has accumulated hundreds of original articles that range from intimate, light-hearted texts to more robust academically researched pieces. Browsing the website reveals a vast array of topics of interest to both performers and enthusiasts, such as “Forgotten Cellists” (a multi-part series), “Overture to Injury Prevention,” “Rehearsal vs Concerts: Playing to an Empty Room,” Beethoven’s Immortal Beloved”—and so much more. 

When CelloBello’s Artistic Director Paul Katz sat down for a conversation with Mrs. Liu, it became immediately evident that these two founders share a wonderful idealism and purity of mission: to enrich the passions of others by creating a free, global resource for learning. Juliette described how lucky she’s felt to have accumulated an incredible team of contributors over the years, each with unique insights to bring to her website. Musicologists, mind & body coaches, composers, performers (both professional and amateur), art journalists, and even physicians from different areas of the world publish articles regularly on Interlude.  Mrs. Liu has always searched across disciplines and experience levels for information and articles because, as she puts it, we can find music everywhere, in everything if we want to find it.”

It is with great excitement that CelloBello will be bringing select Interlude content to our website in the coming months. In particular, as we approach the launch of our CelloWorks by Women Composers database on March 8th in celebration of Women’s History Month, we will be featuring articles by Janet Horvath. She served as associate principal cellist of the Minnesota Orchestra from 1980-2012, and has published over 300 articles to date for Interlude. Her multi-part series on long-lost cello repertoire may be of particular interest to our community, as well as her series on the chamber music and cello repertoire of women composers. 

While these are only a small sample of the invaluable resources available, we highly encourage our readers to explore the Interlude website today. You’ll find no shortage of topics to whet your musical appetite.

AUTHOR

Francesca McNeeley

Haitian-American cellist Francesca McNeeley has received critical acclaim as a collaborator and soloist, and enjoys an eclectic career in the Boston area. Recent musical collaborations have included soloing with the Boston Landmarks Orchestra and touring with the Grammy-nominated A Far Cry chamber orchestra as a guest principal cellist. She is frequently featured with Castle of Our Skins, the New Gallery Concert Series, and the Celebrity Series of Boston. She has performed with the Boston Symphony and Sarasota Orchestras, and can be heard on BMOP/sound with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Ms. McNeeley graduated Princeton University Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in Politics, and went on to receive scholarships to attend the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University and the New England Conservatory for her graduate degrees in cello performance. She is dedicated to community engagement through teaching and mentoring. She has been involved with CelloBello in various roles over the years, but presently is the Development & Communications Administrator.

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