Diane Jarvi
Presenter:
“I Sing Your Evening Into Stars”
Diane Jarvi is a singer-songwriter and versatile performer of folk and world music. She has seven solo recordings and has been the recipient of a McKnight MacPhail Performing Fellowship and awarded a Minnesota Arts and Cultural Fund grant through the Minnesota State Arts Board. She has performed and taught workshops across the U.S. and in Europe.
Under the name Diane Jarvenpa, she is the author of six books of poetry and has received The Midwest Independent Publishers Association Award. Her newest book, Shy Lands, from Blue Light Press, celebrates and grieves earth's wonders, those that are extinct and those that are still with us. She was awarded a grant to bring together her music and poetry to create the short video, The Way She Told Her Story. She intertwines her creative disciplines with teaching as a teaching artist with the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project MN.
Diane Jarvi's recordings, Foreign Winds, Revontuli, Flying Into Blue, Paper Heart, Wild Gardens and Bittersweet are heard on radio throughout Europe, Australia, Canada as well as around the U.S. She is the subject of two film documentaries, Muistot and Kaipuu, by the award-winning filmmaker Erkki Määtänen.
Her recent recording, This Ordinary Day, explores the relationship of melody, power and intricacy in poetry and songwriting. All of her recordings blend the artistry of her songwriting with her love of world music and poetry.
Describing her songwriting presentation, I Sing Your Evening Into Stars, Diane said “For me as a poet there exists a relationship between poetry and song lyrics. Not always symbiotic, but they orbit each other. Lyrics can be created from our own stories and poetry, from ancestry, from borrowed texts, and using collaboration. This workshop will explore the variety of ways to approach creating song lyrics that are uniquely our own.”