JAMES STRECKER: If you were asked for 50 words for an encyclopedia to summarize what you do, or have done, in the arts, what would you say?
RANEE LEE: I do what is in me to do. Music connects, offering solace from our mutual inheritance. This living organism is within us. We walk and hearts beat the rhythmic pulse of life, languages are musical, and our emotions describe the essence of feelings, like a song. I am a Singer!
JS: What important beliefs do you express in or through your work?
RL: I feel that I am in touch with the power that has made me aware of my personal life awards, And the gifts that principally accompany them. I believe that we are all granted our own set of personal gifts that are designated to our particular personalities and interests as part of the human design, more than any other species we can become anything we aspire to become. Developing self-expression is where it becomes a lifetime pursuit. When we have the opportunity to share in our specialties, we flourish in benevolence.
JS: Name two people, living or dead, whom you admire a great deal and tell us why for each one.
RL: (a) My first thought when I’m asked this question is of my Mother. Every opportunity to explore and become who I am today is due to her total support, and the examples and advice she so brilliantly and lovingly shared with me. Her rules were simple:
Strive to be honest first to self and others.
Do the best you can, then do better!
Respect self and teach others to be respectful of you, and if that’s not possible, move on!
Make room for mistakes and then learn by them.
Believe in the higher Power that lives in us and can make anything possible.
(b) My world is filled with admiration for a great number of people for a great number of reasons. And the answer can vary from reason to reason, but very recently one of the unsung heroes of my admiration is my husband Richard Ring. I say unsung because he is a brilliant and consummate musician who, although truly recognized and admired by the public and the music community alike for his virtuosity, his strongest claim to fame has always been to be by my side and share in the experience of our journey together. He is a man among men and truly one of Canada’s gifted guitarists.
For many reasons, Richard is primarily one of the greatest components to my world of music, and I am grateful to him forever.
JS: How have you changed since you began to do creative work?
RL: I don’t think my views have changed in my creative work in so much as I have always focused on Creativity!
Still, with the everchanging experiences of life, I’ve grown and continue to grow through the many opportunities to expand my horizons and learn from my mistakes, and all the while sharing knowledge and passions in the name of creativity with others on the same journey!
JS: What are your biggest challenges as a creative person?
RL: My challenges are generally more about time rather than ideas. Opportunity of presentation sometimes poses more difficulty because of time. Projects require many forms of attention, and involvement, finding time to nurture new and developing ideas can become the challenge, but never the opposition. Keeps me on my toes, so to speak!
JS: Please describe at least one major turning point in your life.
RL: My journey is frothed with turning points, but one definitive turning point in joint life and career was meeting the wonderful Montreal theatre director who helped turn the course of my career through his trust and belief in my skills and talent as an actor. His respect in my ability and the honesty to portray the character of Billie Holiday in the first Canadian theatre production of “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill” brought acclaim to the production and awarded me the prestigious Dora Mavor Moore Award 1987/88. The tides turned in my career allowing more opportunity to believe in self – and anything is possible with passion and determination, thus honoring more of my mother’s rules.
JS: What are the hardest things for an outsider to understand about what you do?
RL: For the hard-working individual whose daily routine is filled with stress and all types of business and family obligations, who is looking for a special celebratory night out, or just to escape into the world of entertainment, our job of performance could be perceived only as pure pleasure, which it is for the most part, and the choice of our profession is not to feel otherwise, and this is our chosen field after all, filled with the obligation to entertain our public at any cost. “The Show Must Go On” is not a cliché, and the artists who perform generally have one thing in mind, to be good enough, or exceptional enough, for a positive effect on our audiences. They are important to us, it motivates us to reach higher, work harder and open doors to forgotten memories and bring on good feelings. The thing we have most in common, I believe, is we work hard to arrive at the status of creative artistry as professionals, and developing self-expression can be a study in self-confidence as well.
JS: How and why did you begin to do creative work in the first place?
RL: I’ve always believed that we are predestined to cultivate our gifts. In my case, music I believe chose me! I bet that I loved music from the womb. As a child I was always involved in some manner of musical performance or little theatre skits, dance classes, music lessons and the like. I am a movie, theatre and television buff from day one, and I’ve maintained that status to today. However, it was also strongly suggested to me throughout my youth that the security of having a real job trumped being an artist! But try as I would to make music secondary, it always surfaced as the strongest gift that I was meant to pursue.
Music was always played in our home, and my mom played piano and also because she sang in the church choir, I thought she was a star, and she was!
JS: What haven’t you attempted as yet that you would like to do and please tell us why?
RL: Well, I think I’ve just about in all humility challenged myself in the many principal areas of my own creative self-expression.
It’s been the ride of a lifetime getting through the bumps and elevations of my career, but if I think there’s room for yet another explorative excursion, I might like to take a course in anthropology:
The study of humans and human behavior and societies in the past and present.
Social anthropology and cultural anthropology that study the norms and values of societies.
Linguistic anthropology that studies how language affects social life.
JS: What are your most meaningful achievements?
RL: Raising three beautiful now adult children, especially as a working (mother) performer from the sixties on. Finding my place in our country’s musical community.
The fantastic comradery and friendships through music I’ve gathered.
Because of music, the geographical places I’ve visited and performed throughout the world.
To have the opportunity to be musically involved and tutor young vocal musicians at the University level for McGill University, Schulich School of Music, for over thirty years and witness their evolution, following in the footsteps of the legends and making their own footprints in the process.
Never last or least and truly most powerful, was being Awarded “The Order of Canada,” our Country’s Highest Honor!
JS: What advice would you give a young person who would like to do what you do?
RL: Just Do It! But do it your way! Tap into your gifts and work tirelessly and diligently with dedication to self and personal achievement. Don’t compare, copy, or compete, but be unique! It’s a journey that is worth time and effort and a whole lot of honesty. Nothing worthy of the wait goes unsatisfied or happens suddenly. The more you apply yourself, the truer the results.
JS: Of what value are critics?
RL: As valuable and necessary as getting the word out to your public. If you’re on your game, the support enhances everything from attendance to performance. They are the town criers and the guide lines to keeping it real!
Some critics can be constructive to correction, and the conscientious to our body of work.
But the focus is for the good of our audiences, and our best performance, and if that is in place, then………………………!
JS: What do you ask of your audience?
RL: In the immortal words of Pearl Bailey, “Honey, sit back, and have some fun”!!!!
My job is to bring it! Theirs is to be entertained by it! Everything else is extra gravy!
JS: What specifically would you change about what goes on in the world and the arts?
RL: Sometimes I have difficulty changing what goes on in my own world!
But I’m thinking that we could all use a great deal more of respectful support. Especially in music.
Things are changing, but when have they not? Every generation has had a twist or a spin on new and innovative approaches, and there has always been resistance from the conventional side, and yet we’ve come through it.
I believe today’s generation is so fully aware and active and vocal on varying topics and circumstances, music or otherwise, we must be willing to create open minded dialogue between generations, styles and cultures.
JS: If you could relive one experience from your creative life, what would it be and why would you do so?
RL: Some years ago, I had the pleasure of touring throughout Spain with my husband Richard Ring. We performed with and among giants of music in the world of Jazz in many cultural venues, exquisite theatres and historical locations.
The audiences were inviting, enthusiastic and accepting. It infused and established a certain understanding of where I was to fit in the huge scheme of things, and how small a part I play in this field, but how essential all of our parts are. I am a patch in the quilt of musical history and traveling to other lands is an important part of developing and understanding and communicating which is a continuous learning and sharing experience. I will never stop that cycle!
JS: Tell us what it feels like to be a figure who is presented somehow in the media. What effect does this presence have on you?
RL: It’s part of the roll call to our profession. Critics and Media are the umbilical cord to the public. The Media represents the public’s need to know and assess the connection between our worlds. When media is interested in the performer and promotes what the performance offers, it serves as a proper introduction, a conduit to the world of entertainment, bonding and encouraging attendance, serving as the liaison and support of the performers, straight to the public’s attention.
JS: Name two places you would like to visit, one you haven’t been to and one to experience again and briefly tell us why.
RL: I would love to one day return to Italy to perform. Visiting the geographical, cultural and a historical location that was home to the Renaissance inspired me so. It is a reflection of time encapsulated.
I have a strong desire to go to Scotland, and there is an attraction for me that is inexplicable. I feel the history of the land and the heart of its people will open a world of discovery and creativity, I’ll have to go to find out more, and I will!
JS: Please tell us about one or more projects that you have been working on, are preparing, or have recently completed. Why do they matter to you and why should they matter to us?
RL: Choosing projects that would be important to anyone is to explore the reason why I would pursue with personal endeavor of creating at all. It would be to share, to reach and to learn from. I am presently completing the second edition of the children’s interactive story book entitled “Nana, What Do You Say”? Based on a song that I wrote about several grandchildren at the time.
In the performance arena, there are a number of exciting big band concert appearances for me this year beginning with the Toronto Summer Music Festival at Koerner Hall Thursday, August 2, 2018. It will be musically uplifting and promises a grand diversity of ensembles and orchestral contributions that will satisfy magically the listening appetite. Among these special projects is a rare appearance with the Longueuil Symphony Orchestra this winter thrown in for good measure. Lol inside joke!
JS: Let’s talk about the state of the arts in today’s society, including the forms in which you work. What specifically gives you hope and what specifically do you find depressing?
RL: Everything gives me hope because the future is filled with it. I have grandchildren who want to play music as a career choice and have trained in the art form and respect it and teach their friends the respect of music. And they like everyone will go through the joy, the passion and the work, and although it may not be the style of music that I perform, I appreciate their pursuit and I am honored that I have contributed and influenced their musical quest. The character building of the arts diversifies feelings of accomplishment and self, and when we look inside we see an outstanding world of discovery, purpose and prospect.
But unfortunately for some “There are none so blind as those who will not see”. The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know. The proverb has been traced back in English to 1546 (John Heywood) and resembles a Biblical verse.
JS: Finally, what do you yourself find to be the most intriguing and/or surprising thing about you?
RL: How there is still so much that inspires and motivates me. That of all the things I still get a huge thrill from is an audience’s ovation. How music has brought longevity and history to my life. How the more things change, the faster they become familiar. And how precious time is, and how well spent it is when you put it to good use.