Majel Connery is a singer, composer, producer, podcaster, and rock musician, who is in residency at Loghaven Studios in Knoxville this January. Established in 2020, the Loghaven Residency, which is located on ninety acres of wooded property near the southern bank of the Tennessee River, gives resident artists time, space, and resources to work on their craft. Additionally, they receive financial support in the form of living, travel, and a materials stipend. As a composer, Majel has collaborated with Glenn Kotche (of the band, Wilco), and Jason Treuting (from So Percussion). As a singer, she has premiered works by Caroline Shaw, Sarah Kirkland Snider, and many more. Just a few weeks ago, her self-produced podcast, A Music of Their Own, was co-released by NPR and Capradio. A Music of Their Own (https://www.npr.org/podcasts/1135809831/a-music-of-their-own) uncovers extraordinary stories of women in music who have carved a path to success. Her guests include Sarah Kirkland Snider, Nathalie Joachim, and Wu Fei, among others. In this interview, we discuss her path to becoming a rock musician, her style and experience as a composer, her time at Loghaven, what she has discovered while producing her podcast, and we conjecture about why pop/rock inflections are so "frowned upon" in "Classical Music."
Majel performs in conjunction with kinetic artist, Tony Orrico, at the Knoxville Museum of Art on January 22nd from 2-4pm. Additional information at https://knoxart.org/kma_events/sky-creature-tony-orrico/
More information about Majel, including links to some of her music on Youtube, can be found here: https://www.majelconnery.com/
