“ I hope that anybody who’s trying to embark on an artistic journey will go for it, and not to be afraid and not give up.”

About Our Guest in this episode:

In addition to numerous stage and screen credits, Tricia Paoluccio is an accomplished artist who has elevated the classic art form of flower-pressing into unique design partnerships with luminaries in the fashion, publishing and music industries.

Most recently she collaborated on the design of the gown Taylor Swift wore on the 2021 Grammy Awards Red Carpet. Tricia says her goal is to celebrate the resilience and beauty of the wildflower through her art.

When not pressing flowers into vibrant floral designs, Tricia is a versatile actor and producer. She recently guest starred on Blue Bloods in NYC, where she played a judge. And the indie film she starred in, A Portrait of a Young Man, is currently being submitted to festivals.

Tricia produces and stars in the web-series mommy blogger, a comedy co-created with playwright, Eric Pfeffinger. Mommy blogger is being developed into a TV show, with the new title of LIKE ME, and is now being pitched to networks.

Her Broadway debut came as Brittany Murphy’s understudy in the role of Catherine in the Tony Award-winning revival of A View from the Bridge. Other Broadway credits include Julie Taymor’s The Green Bird and Fiddler on the Roof as Chava. Off-Broadway highlights include originating the role of Donna in the comedy Debbie Does Dallas, Cressida in Troilus and Cressida, and Carol in Edward Albee’s Lady from Dubuque.

Tricia grew up on an almond farm in Modesto, California. She’s an avid baker and crafter who loves dividing her time between NYC, where she lives with her husband and two sons, and her Modesto farm. In addition to her many creative and artistic pursuits, Tricia finds time to volunteer in the NYC prison system, which she has done for the past 9 years.

Connect with Tricia here:

• Personal Instagram: @triciapaoluccio
• Art Instagram: @modernpressedflower
• LinkedIn

Subscribe to our YouTube channel here

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Transcript of Episode:

Robin: This is the Net Effect, Career Conversations and Connections, episode 43. We have as our special guest today, Tricia Paoluccio. We’re so happy that she’s here with us.

I am your host, Robin Jones, Director of the ABF Career Alliance. Welcome, Tricia.

Tricia: Hi, thank you for having me.

Robin: It’s so nice to see you, and we appreciate you taking time out of your busy, busy schedule to be a guest today. I thought we would just jump right in. You’re an actor, right?

Tricia: Yes.

Robin: And an artist, and you kinda got your start acting, am I right about that?

Tricia: Yes, I moved to New York to become an actor when I was about 20. I’ve always been artistic and love to make things.

When I first moved to New York, I brought a little flower press and handmade papers and would make little cards and collages and sell them on the street or in boutiques while I was starting out as an actor.

I joked that for, 20 years, my acting career has helped pay for my artist habit because being an artist is very expensive.

So I like to say that acting is my day job and the art was my fun hobby that I loved.

Robin: So when you started with acting, how did you get rolling with that? Were there some special things that happened? Tell us a little bit of how you got started with it?

Tricia: It was a different time back then. It was before the Internet and social media and I would answer ads in the newspaper. There was a newspaper called the Backstage. My first job I got without an agent, without any help at all, was a Broadway show. I was Brittany Murphy’s understudy in a Broadway show called A View From the Bridge with Allison Janney and Anthony LaPaglia.

That’s really how I started my professional career. Ever since then, I’ve done quite a few Broadway shows and off-Broadway shows and a lot of television and film and voiceovers and commercials, and basically anything you can do to make a living as an actor I did in New York and do. So I’m really grateful and I’m proud about that. That I’ve been able to make a living as an actor up until this point.

Robin: So when the pandemic hit and you’re in New York, that was the epicenter of all of this.

Tricia: It’s such an interesting time to remember how we were all stunned and were like, is this real?

I had a friend that said you should go to your parent’s farm. You have a place to go. And so we bought tickets, they were like $75, it was so cheap or something to fly. And I called my parents like, are you sure? I’m like, yeah, I think we’re going to come home just for a couple of weeks till this blows over.

We ended up quarantining in their little cabin in the foothills. And it was a really special time. had a bunch of projects that I was working on where I needed flowers. I thought, if I am stuck in New York City, in an apartment, during this pandemic for months, I’m not going to be able to do my art.

So I said, you know what, we’re going to go quarantine in nature. We flew out the day that the schools decided to close. So we came out to California. Then we stayed five months. And I was able to pick and press thousands of flowers from my parents’ property and their farm and my sister-in-law’s farm.

I made a lot of art during that time.

Robin: Tell us a little bit about, how you got started with that, was that a hobby that you had that you mentioned earlier, why wild flowers?

Tricia: My mom gifted me a little book by a British artist named Penny Black and she made beautiful little handmade cards with pressed flowers.

My brother built me a press, and I started just doing it for fun as a hobby. And it became something that I really became passionate about and I always really loved it. For 35 years now, I’ve been making press flower cards and little collages, and it’s just something that I’ve always loved.

I had visions that it could be something more than what it was for all those years. I thought, oh, I’d love to write a book someday. I’d love to, put this on objects. And, but I didn’t really know how to do that. The technology wasn’t there for me to do that.

A couple of years ago, I had this idea. I started making digital copies and here’s one. This is a copy. It’s not real. It looks so real. Right. When I realized that the technology could enable me to do that I thought, wait a minute, why can’t this be on fabric? Why can’t this be on the wallpaper and wrapping paper?

Why is everything floral that we see water colored painted or drawn? Why can’t it be the real imagery? I couldn’t believe I had come up with something I thought was pretty new. So I started devoting myself to capturing all of my pressed flower art.

Rather than just selling the originals, I started photographing them in super high resolution so I could expand them and experiment with scale. A neighbor of mine knew what I was doing and knew some of the fashion houses that have reached out to me. I had quite a few different people in the fashion world reach out to me.

Someone at Steinway knew about this and they said, Hey, we have this idea. We’d love you to wrap a grand piano for us. And we are connected to this gallery in New York City and we showed them your website and they’re very interested in having a showing of your work.

All of a sudden I had this opportunity and I was so grateful because of the pandemic I was here in California and I made dozens of works of art.

So I was really ready to go.

Robin: And when you were ready to go, they were ready to have you go, right?

Tricia: It worked out so beautifully. Never in a million years could I have ever envisioned that I would have a gallery show in New York City. It’s just so prestigious and beyond what I thought I could ever pull off.

I was so grateful to be handed this amazing opportunity, to create that piano, that I was able to produce a lot of music videos and offer it to so many different performers and artists.

It became a symbol, I think, of the arts coming back alive in New York City to me. It’s a really special exhibit.

Robin: How do you find the inspiration? How did you find the courage and the confidence to launch it forward and how did it just materialize for you?

Tricia: Right before the pandemic, I had a very exciting meeting with somebody that wanted to do a collaboration with me, I couldn’t believe it. I was blown away, so excited. And then the pandemic hit and it was done.

There was no word from anybody, no contact, nothing. I remember being at the cabin and being just hit with a wave of grief, like, oh no, I can’t believe that I almost had something so exciting and it’s gone.

I remember just so clearly that in the same second that I had that feeling, I had another thought come to my consciousness, which was like, no, nothing good can be lost. And the good that you built and created, it’s not lost. I just, in a very simple way, just chose to say okay, I’m going to believe that. I just held on to that.

I everyday picked and pressed one little handful of flowers. I was very methodical about it. Very simple about it. I didn’t think about the future. I didn’t think about what I was making. I wasn’t trying to make beautiful art or inspiring art. I didn’t, I just, every day went to work.

And then, one by one, all of the opportunities that I thought I lost, came back, and I was ready because I had worked all those months without any indication that any of that good was going to come to fruition.

I did the work, and whenever I started to feel down or worried about things, I just said, no, no, I really felt like what is that, what is that phrase, where I stand is holy ground. I felt like that time period where it was so full of uncertainty and seeming loss, I thought it was a really, actually crucial, important time to be an artist.

Robin: So you’re, you’re casting your net on the right side, right. Instead of allowing fear and all those things to come in, you really were pursuing your passion. Do you pick the flowers yourself?

Tricia: My parents have acres and acres in the foothills and they have a beautiful farm here in Modesto. I have wonderful farmer neighbors just down the street, my sister-in-law’s next door. Everyone’s very generous letting me just pick and pick anything I want.

I have about 10 flower presses going at all time. So everything you see there, literally everything you’ve seen in all my art, I pick everything. I press everything. And it’s a very lengthy process. I’m actually teaching my class tomorrow on how to do this. That’s one other interesting provision that during the pandemic, I discovered Zoom and I started teaching classes on this, how to do this on Zoom. It’s been amazing how many people are interested in. It used to be, I would beg my friends, do you want to come over to my house? I’ll bake, cookies and serve tea and I’ll teach you how to press flowers. And all my friends, these are good friends, good people.

They’d be like, I’m sorry, busy doing the homework, doing laundry. Nobody cared.

And now every time I launch this class, I have hundreds of people from around the world that want to learn how to press flowers. It’s very amazing. I feel so grateful that the pandemic did allow people to slow down, look around them and say, Hey, what can I make with my own two hands? And this is something that anybody can do.

Robin: And it really is a family thing, right? , You mentioned your brother building the press. And how about the kids? Did they get involved?

Tricia: No, they like to tease me. They’ll be like, like when they see all my press flowers laying around, they’ll say, mom, this is garbage? And I’m like, no, no. That’s like my precious baby, you know? And so no, nobody’s really into it, but they’re all very supportive.

Robin: Where do you go from here with this? What are your thoughts for the future?

Tricia: I just partnered with two incredible people in the fashion industry who create and launch brands.

And I have about 30 emails sitting in my box of people wanting to collaborate and make something with this art form. I want to build it right. I decided to partner with these people. And so we are set to get to work, to try to see where we can take this because I I know that it can branch out into more fashion and to home line and paper stationary.

I feel like I’m creating a real business, so I’m very excited about that.

Robin: What other projects have you worked on while you’ve been in this state of transition and launching a new business. Are there other things that are happening?

Tricia: Yes, there’s something very exciting. I don’t know if I’m really allowed to talk about it, but I’m going to talk about it. Cause I’m so excited. So in addition to this, during the pandemic, we got an email from a theater that Gabe my husband had worked at, called Florida Studio Theater.

They said, listen, we got a PPP grant. And if there’s a one or two person show, you want to write, we can offer you this grant, if we approve of it. And for about 20 years, I’ve had an idea of a two person musical. Because I know probably doesn’t look like it. You probably can’t envision it, but I can channel Dolly Parton, and I have my whole life.

I’ve always been able to sing like her and sound like her. I played her in Nashville at the Ryman Auditorium. I did the Broadway musical Nine to Five. I did all the demos as Dora Lee before the show went to Broadway and I did the ad campaign as Dolly. And did Sacramento Music Circus production of Nine to Five.

I’ve always had this little thing that I could do that brought people a lot of joy. I always wanted to write a two person show about like an über fan and his fantasy friendship with Dolly Parton. An opportunity for me to sing all of her amazing music. I didn’t want to be Trisha. I didn’t want to talk about me.

I didn’t want to have it be about me at all. I wanted to, I just wanted to be her, and talk like her, and have a conversation with someone, and get to sing all those songs.

So we got the grant. We wrote a two-person musical, our lawyer loved it and said, I know Dolly’s lawyer and sent it to Dolly. She read the script, watched the Zoom reading, listened to the recordings.

I have professional recordings of me singing the songs like her, and she loves the show. She approves of me. She had one note to fix one little thing.

And just yesterday we got the signed contract. I’m going to brag now.

Look.

So she gave us the grand rights to her show. I don’t mean to be too biblical, but my cup runneth over. There’s too many good things happening right now. Look at this!

That’s Dolly Parton’s signature, everybody.

Robin: Oh my heavens, that is so fun!

Tricia: She’s like, I approve of Trisha playing me forever and all time.

Robin: How fun, that is so great!

Tricia: You know, I cannot believe it. My age, and my stage of career, that this could have happened. It’s really wonderful. If I ever, feel like, oh, no things aren’t working out or I’ve lost this… I’m going to remember this period of time and say, wait a minute. I can’t believe all of these years, decades of working towards something, working on honing, something has led to this great, amazing fruition. I’m just, I’m blown away.

So anyway, that’s a two-person show, that’s going to be on a little national tour. We just had a meeting today that people want it in the UK.

We have the worldwide rights for this musical. So I’ve got to work really hard the next couple of months. Well, my fingers can be dirty and short making all this art because then I’m going to be like, that’s my brand managers are going to take this and run with it.

And I’m going to be doing a musical as Dolly.

Robin: And singing and dancing, right?

Tricia: That’s right!

Robin: I do have a question as it relates to the flowers in the project. Actually, it’s not my question, it’s Betsy’s. She would like to know how you relate the art of the flower, and beauty, to God to the divine Principle, to that grand intelligence.

Tricia: You can’t believe the perfection in a flower, it’s just unbelievable. And so there’s something so pleasurable and beautiful about working with nature like that.

I didn’t have an intention to try to create something that was inspiring or happy or beautiful.

I really didn’t. My job is very, very practical. I pick the flowers, I press them. I know how to do that well. I understand the craft of how to do that. I’m very good at gluing, but I give all of the artistic credit to God, to mother nature, to his creation because I didn’t make this. I’m really just shepherding it from one form to a different form that can be saved forever.

At the gallery show it was really moving, how many people walked in and said, oh my gosh, I feel so happy right now, just being. And I knew that they were happy there. They’re surrounded by God’s creation. I really don’t feel a sense of ego, like I’m this great artist at all. I just feel like I absolutely just get out of the way.

All I’m doing is taking care of the botanicals and the way that keeps them the most beautiful. As I’m laying them out in the composition, I really just am following direction. I’m not willfully putting it this way now. I just instinctively lay them out and they turn out the way they turn out.

I feel like the process for me being an artist, when it’s really good is when you’re most out of the way, when you’re the clearest reflection, or the clearest windowpane for something else to shine through, that’s when the art is good, you have to get out of the way.

Robin: Do you have any advice for a new person entering into the business? I’m not sure if they mean artist or actor, so let’s just look at it in general, what would you say for someone entering into a new business today, being a business owner and being entrepreneurial you’re whole life?

Tricia: Well, I, I read a wonderful Christian Science article decades ago that really has stuck with me. And it’s about a young man was talking to his father about wanting to become an actor and he was gonna move to LA and be an actor.

The dad said, son, I want you to remember something about the horse and buggy business. The horse and buggy business went out of business because their sense of themselves, their identity, was that they were a horse and buggy business, and not in the business of transportation. And this is crucial because if you are holding onto this idea of yourself as an actor, as a painter, that’s what I am. And if I’m not doing that, I’m not doing my art, you’re in trouble.

You have to say, wait a minute, I’m in the business of telling stories, of creating beauty, of disciplined craft. Those are all translatable between being an actor, being a visual artist, being a good baker, being a gardener.

These are just qualities of life. When you have that very expansive view about what your career is, you’re never unemployed. You always have the opportunity to be a good storyteller, or to share beauty, or to express soul through music. You don’t have to have a paying audience, to be an artist, or to be a performer.

It’s the small mortal mind, ego thinking that thinks that I’m not validated until, unless I have X and here’s the truth. It’s like, once you’re in a Broadway show, you’re like most people, when you’re in a Broadway show, you’re dying to get out of that Broadway show. You’re like, what’s my next Broadway show going to be?

People don’t stay satisfied in that. It’s not satisfying. After a few weeks, you’re like, oh my gosh, I have to do this show again, eight shows a week. I got to get out of this, and where’s my next job. This is not satisfying. So you can’t be like, oh, once I attained that, then I’ll be happy.

Every single celebrity that I know is like, oh, what’s my next job going to be? You can’t have this mystical fantasy about like, oh, as long as I hit that goal, I’ll be happy.

The way to be happy as an actor, as an artist, is to be really clear about what your real career is. It’s about expression, and not about that end result.

I could never, in a million years, envision that my artwork would be in high fashion or on a piano. It’s not how I envisioned it, at all, but it turned out to be so great.

Robin: That’s often how it works, isn’t it? When we really find that inspiration and we get immersed in it, and then that pursuit of that passion, it does allow for things to unfold that you never thought or would never even considered might happen.

Tricia: Right.

Robin: Thinking along those lines and, looking at your career, moving forward and then looking back, what do you say to folks, that are challenged a little bit and say, yeah, I just don’t know if I can. It’s all coming together for Tricia, but I’m not sure what to do with this? What do you say to them?

Tricia: Well, inspiration can hit anybody at any time. And there are so many people that I know that have not had the amount of credits on their resume as somebody else. Some people have had very few job opportunities, but they come up with an idea that’s theirs and they make it happen. And so, there’s no excuse.

You could create a little vignette that’s 10 seconds long, that’s just perfection. That’s so funny. Or that’s so truthful. That’s so spot on. You can put it on TikTok. We live in a amazing time of opportunity to be someone creative.

I created a web series a couple years ago, I was so proud about. It got picked up. It was optioned. I never sold it, but I don’t regret one second of that time.

It’s about a wannabe blogger with 17 followers, who forces her husband to quit his job, to devote himself full time to the family culture and the making of her blog.

And every episode is their attempt at making a video for their followers. And the characters are real narcissists who have delusions of grandeur. It’s making fun of the mommy blogger culture, influencer culture, and social media. I had a blast doing it. It was so fulfilling. It was so creative.

I didn’t get paid a dime. I spent a lot of money on it and never got paid. But I don’t regret it. It was wonderful.

You cannot go into this business thinking the world owes you something, they owe you nothing. And if you stop, no one will remember you.

My kids don’t even know who Marilyn Monroe is. They don’t know who Cher is. They don’t know who Barbara Streisand is. I’m like, I failed you as a mother. You don’t know these icons. This doesn’t last. All you can do is be in the moment of your life.

Let these great ideas come to you. They’re available to everybody.

There’s not just some people that have access to these good ideas, and some people don’t have them. It’s really about what you do with them. And this is where I think, gosh, being a Christian Scientist is a wonderful thing. When you take it out of personality, it’s like, I don’t give credit to myself for good ideas.

I feel like Christian Science life or practices is about staying receptive and open. The ideas that are meant to hit you, in your consciousness, will hit you and you can make something with no money. My press flower art, you don’t need a dime to make something stunning.

Robin: Tell us about the workshop that you’re doing?

Tricia: I teach a two hour workshop on Zoom. I sit here and I pick a bunch of things ahead of time and I have in the basket, and I show people exactly how to do it, the principles of how to press flowers so they don’t turn brown.

And I can’t believe that when you Google this or YouTube it, people are giving a lot of false information or information that’s not helpful. I feel like after decades and decades of doing this, I really know how to teach something, that’s so specific.

Now people care. I can’t believe it.

My husband’s really cute because he used to help me with my Zoom and he would see that there were people that were in the class and then they would ask for the recording to watch it again. And he’s like, who wants to watch that again, I’m like, I don’t know. People like to learn how to do something. I don’t know.

I have people from around the world, I have 350 people signed up tomorrow to take this class. I’m so grateful. I think I’m a pretty good teacher because I embrace all the mistakes.

When a mistake happens, I always say, ooh, I’m so glad you saw that because now I can show you how I would solve this problem.

The viewer just gets to sit back and relax and just watch the show. And I’m talking, talking, talking, and then the last half an hour, I answer questions.

It’s been really rewarding. I like it because I feel a lot of the people that I teach are women who have a desire to start their own little business. I love this idea that there’s no competition in this world, right? I’m not in competition with the person in Texas who wants to press bridal bouquets for the local brides. That’s her place, and I have my place I’m doing and somebody else has their place.

I like this idea that I’m enabling these people to be better at a craft that they could make money doing. It feels good to support women businesses. I’m saying that because 99% of the people that take this class are women. There are a few men that have shown interest.

I think people are enjoying getting back in touch with making something themselves, with their own two hands, the time that that takes. My dad always said that people are depressed in modern day society because they don’t have to wash their clothes in a river. And I think there’s something to that.

To be active and focused on an activity that’s just looking and touching beautiful flowers is it’s such a pleasurable way to spend an afternoon.

Robin: So, if someone is interested in attending your workshops, will you be doing more of these in the future as well?

Tricia: I do it once a season. So this is my spring class and I won’t do it again until the summer. I don’t know that date yet. I found that it’s best to do it once a season. Once in a while I do other workshops like collage making or gluing. I have a funny idea for a book called the Zen Art of Gluing because I really think there’s something about very tedious tasks that seems like what, how can that be inspiring?

I think there’s a lot to learn about how to do that well. I’ve taught a class on how to do that specific thing. I like teaching arts and crafts, much more than acting. I have no desire to be an acting teacher at all.

I like to be an actor, but I like teaching art. I really do.

Robin: When you said earlier that the technology’s helped you and really bringing this forward in a way that you weren’t able to before, what things do you do with your art besides the piano? Can you do wallpaper? Are there other things that you do with that?

Tricia: About 15 years ago, I made a calendar. I made artwork and I made this calendar and I mass produced this calendar and I still have it. And it makes me laugh because it’s so grainy.

It is so not a high resolution scan or photograph. It just looks like a bad Xerox copy. And I’m sure that those kinds of copiers or printers were available to, high-end books or art books, but not to a normal person like me. What I discovered a few years ago was that I could take a work of art, huge work of art, this big and take it to a company and they would put it on a flatbed scanner, or they would put it on the wall and photograph it with the camera that enabled them to get a super high resolution image.

So a flower that’s like this can now be blown up in scale, like to be this big, but with all of the detail. And that makes all the difference. It doesn’t look like a cheap, bad image. It looks so lifelike. And what’s so fascinating with that piano, is people say, oh, are those real flowers?

And I’m thinking to myself, the rose is this big, like, there’s no such thing as a rose of this big, but because it’s so realistic, it’s an illusion, and people go, it’s real.

Robin: It’s hard to imagine, it’s so unbelievable. I’ve seen some of the other things under your Instagram page and it’s like, is that really a flower?

Tricia: Yes, it’s a copy. It looks so three-dimensional, the shadow and all of that. It looks like you can touch it. This one that’s next to me, doesn’t that look like you can touch that?

Robin: Yeah, it really does.

Tricia: It couldn’t do that before. That’s how technology has enabled me to can really think outside the box and what can I do with this imagery and these collages and these designs?

Robin: I’m going to go back over to the acting piece of this and this may be a little tougher question. So today there’s so many opinions and it just seems like everybody’s all over the place, and extreme this and extreme that.

How do you keep yourself grounded? How do you keep yourself in that place where you feel God’s presence. How do you keep yourself in there and not get mixed up?

Tricia: I’m not saying I don’t get down when someone criticizes my work. , I want everyone to like me, not everyone likes me. Not everyone will like my show.

Not everyone will like my art. There are people that say, gosh, that, Steinway’s ugly, it should be black. And I’m just like, it’s black underneath. This doesn’t get me down. That stuff doesn’t get me down.

Robin: Yeah, I think for some people that’s one of the things that keeps them from diving into something or trying something new.

Tricia: I grew up with a dad, who’s an inventor and his whole life is about trying, and making, and experimenting, and building, and then it doesn’t work. And he is the happiest, most optimistic person. Nothing can get my dad down. And I grew up with that. I saw that every day. And so then I just think I’m blessed with that ability to be totally optimistic.

I really believe that I’m always going to get every job I audition for. And then I do it. I do my best. And then, you know what happens? I have total amnesia about it. I can’t even remember what I auditioned for yesterday. Just decades and decades of being in that state, it’s just become really natural to me.

If I were to ever speak to young actors, I would say, oh, just get ready. Because the only way to do this without becoming someone who has to numb themselves with alcohol or drugs or food or something, is it have that state of mind, like you cannot care. You have to just be so into it. So committed and then have total amnesia. So I think that’s just practice of letting go.

My mom is on here right now. We like to tease her that she’s used to winning. So when she loses, she’s like shocked. I’m used to losing. So I’m never shocked when I lose. That’s just par for the course. It doesn’t bother me.

Robin: I got a question. My wife, Libby, says one of her favorite comments that you make about your work at the gallery, was when you mentioned the individual beauty of the wild flowers and weeds, correlating it with embracing humanity, seeing the beauty and appreciating something that is typically cast away and considered undervalued and sometimes worthless.

She says I love how Trisha shows that truth in her art and brings that joy and is inspiring so many to not discount something or someone, but in love in a bigger way.

Tricia: Oh, that’s so kind Libby, thank you for remembering that. You articulated that better than I did.

One of the murals I made, which was huge, featured a lot of weeds. And you can’t believe how gorgeous these weeds are. And these are weeds that I found literally growing out of the sidewalk. These weeds weren’t watered, they weren’t fertilized. They weren’t weren’t tended to, they just grew.

I feel that’s what we need to be as artists, keep on growing. And even if you don’t get any validation or sunlight, or water or anything, you just keep on growing, you know? I really love that you appreciated that sentiment.

Robin: Trisha, any closing comments, any thoughts that you’d like to share?

Tricia: I think it’s so nice that you’re doing this, and I hope that anybody who’s trying to embark on an artistic journey will go for it, and not to be afraid and not give up if the first thing that happens doesn’t work out.

It’s all about the journey, you have to just really love that step-by-step journey of it and not have an outline of how it’s going to go, where it’s going to go, get really good at something. And you can do that.

Robin: When you start a project like this Dolly project, how long does it take to prepare for that and then get it in motion where you’re actually on the stage?

Tricia: I had to act as if it was going to happen, just the same way I do with my flowers. I had to act as if it’s, it might happen. These, these jobs that I had. Even though I had no word of them. I had to act as if, so I’ve been singing and practicing and I’ve been trying to get back into learning my guitar because I really have a vision. I want to at least play a few songs, pretend to play, because I don’t really play, but I just booked my ticket today. I’m going back to work with the musical director on the music.

We have commercial producers. It’s a tricky time with the pandemic. Theaters are being cautious about reopening. So if it wasn’t this state of the world I would have a different answer for you. So it’s a little up in the air, but I’m sure in the next couple months we’ll have a official announcement for sure.

We just got the signature yesterday from Dolly herself. So now we can really move forward with confidence. If you guys are interested in that show, follow my regular Instagram, not Modern Press Flower, because that’s where I’ll share any acting stuff.

Robin: Tell us again where that is?

On Instagram, it’s @triciapaoluccio and then my Instagram for my art is @modernpressedflower.

Thank you. It’s probably time for us to start closing out. If you’re interested in connecting with Tricia, please reach out to me, or you can reach through the Career Alliance.

If you have never been to the Career Alliance, it’s ABFCareerAlliance.org. We’d love to have you come visit. We have some incredible resources there. We do have some new jobs on the website, student outreach, head volleyball coach.

ABFCareerAlliance.org. It’ll take you to the connections and jobs board, and you can do the searches there for the new jobs, plus the existing jobs and career connections that we have posted.

Again, one last time, we have a special workshop coming up with Dr. Don Asher, America’s job search guru. It’s a two hour, two day workshop. It’s going to be really good, really special. Don is famous for making these kinds of things fun and really resourceful. So check out ABFCareerAlliance.org, where you can register, and look forward to seeing you guys there.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. And remember, this is the Net Effect. Just as Jesus challenged his disciples to do, I challenge you to cast that net on the right side and Tricia, oh my goodness. Your net is so full, I don’t even know how you get it up. I don’t know how you do all you do.

Tricia: I don’t know. I need help, I need God’s help right now.

Robin: Well, it’s just incredible to see the success and to see the fun things that you’re doing. It is so wonderful to see that talent being manifested in such beautiful work. I wish I could have got you to do a little more Dolly, but we’ll just wait for the really polished stuff.

Tricia: Oh I could do one little song.

Let me see. I’ll do:

Here you come again,

just as I’m about to get myself together

you waltz right in the door

just like you done before

and wrap my heart around your little finger.

Here you come again,

Looking better than a body has a right to

and shaken’ me up so that all that I really know

is here you come again, and here I go, here I go.

Robin: Oh, gosh, that is so beautiful.

Tricia: I’ve been singing her since I was six years old!

Robin: Oh, fun. How fun for you! Well, thank you, Trisha. You’ve been so generous with your time. We so appreciate it. How fun.

Tricia: Well thank you very much! Thank you. I hope you all come see Dolly show when it happens!

Thanks everybody. Thanks for indulging me.

Robin: Okay, you bet, see you soon, bye-bye!

Tricia: Bye.

“If it’s not about healing, I don’t know what it is about, really.”

About Our Guest in this episode:

Says Andrew, “Becoming a writer and performer of hymns and inspirational Christian music is something that really ‘found me’, and now it’s part of who I am. The more I write, the more I discover how music can spiritually prod and poke us: stirring, awakening and ultimately healing. It brings me blessings every day, and I love few things more than being to share these melodies, harmonies and healing messages with anyone who’ll listen.” Eight of Andrew’s compositions have been published in the Christian Science hymnal.

Andrew is a Brit, and a member of the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters. He loves that he can spend every day making music for the inspiration and entertainment of others. He is planning a US tour, “The Time to Pray,” sometime in the summer of 2021.

Andrew has played cabaret in theatres in New York, London, and Cape Town, both as a solo act and with his band Red Hot and Blue. He is currently touring in a production of Choice Grenfell, playing pianist William Blezzard with his theatre company Kick In The Head.

Over the course of his 30 year career, Andrew has played piano at some of London’s most prestigious venues, such as The American Bar at The Savoy, The Ritz, The Waldorf, The Dorchester, Claridge’s and The Ivy. He was also the resident pianist and music consultant at the iconic Wentworth Club for 14 years.

Andrew especially enjoys sharing his passion for the Great American Songbook–Cole Porter, Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hart and the late Michel Legrand–but in a quintessentially British style.

Connect with Andrew:

• Andrewbrewis.com
• facebook.com/andrewd.brewis
• This Is The Time To Pray 
• thelittleboxoffice.com/riverhouse/event/view/137098

Subscribe to our YouTube channel here

Join us live for the Net Effect!

The replay of our September career conversation with Dan LaBar, innovative educator and community-builder, is now available in video, podcast, and transcript. Click “Watch Net Effect Replays” below!

Register for Upcoming Episodes Watch Net Effect Replays

Transcript of Episode:

Robin: Welcome everyone. This is the Net Effect, Career Conversations and Connections episode 42. We have our special guest, Andrew Brewis, singer, writer, jazz performer, theater, performer, Christian music composer, and performer. I’m your host, Robin Jones, Director of the Albert Baker Fund’s Career Alliance.

Andrew is here to tell us how he has been casting his net on the right side, as Jesus challenged his followers to practice.

I’m so excited for you all to get to know Andrew and his amazing career and journey and all the things that he does. He’s just an incredible, incredible talent. And I so enjoyed getting to know you. Welcome Andrew.

Andrew: Good evening. Nice to be here.

Robin: I know it’s late over there in Britain, but that’s just kind of you getting started, right. This is just kind of your warmup time.

Andrew: [laughs]

In days gone by, I used to start gigs at about midnight, midnight till three o’clock used to be one of my gig times.

So yeah. Midnight is a good starting point. I don’t do that anymore. It has to be said.

Robin: We’ve got him seated at the piano and it’s going to be a special treat for everyone. He just drove from another gig that he had earlier this evening. He’s been going from one to the next, I think all day long.

And what a, what a champion you are my friend for jumping in here.

Andrew: No worries.

Robin: You’ve been entertaining at the piano for over 30 years. Right.

Andrew: Have I merely 30 years? Can’t be surely. Yes I have. Yes, yes, yes. I’ve played for all and sundry around the world, mainly in London. Lots of hotels and parties and all that kind of stuff.

Robin: Let’s make sure that people know that the hotels like we see in the Blues Brothers, of being at the Savoy and the Ritz and the Waldorf. We’re talking about the places to play, right?

Andrew: Exactly. I played a song for Elaine Stritch once when she was staying at the Savoy, she came in.

I forgot what song it was that she sang. Remember Elaine Stritch was like this amazing character. And she came in and it was darling this and darling the other and play. I can’t remember. It was, I should remember, but yeah, I accompanied her on a song once. That was at the American Bar in the Savoy. Yeah.

Robin: How neat, what a great experience.

As we were going through things, I loved what you said, in the spirit of our biblical theme, casting your nets on the right side. I discovered from you that this hymn from the Christian Science, hymnal has been kind of a special guiding inspiration for you.

Tell us about it.

Andrew: I think he probably has for lots of people. Yeah. It hasn’t been that Mary Baker, Eddy hymn Shepherd Show Me How To Go and there’s been several times, in my career when I, I I’ve had literally no idea which way my career is going. I can remember when I was first trying to buy a house, going to the bank and the bank manager telling me I had no sufficient funds to buy a house.

I remember thinking my Father will take care of the payments that need to be made, Shepherd, Show Me How To Go. And that all fell into place without me planning anything.

More recently, I remember when the UK went into lockdown. 23rd of March it was last year. I remember it because it was my wife’s birthday. So a nice way to celebrate.

I remember lying in bed on that night, thinking how on earth? How am I going to pay for all the things I need to pay for? How is life going to be?

Because I had 250 theatre gigs booked for last summer and literally overnight, the whole thing collapsed. Looking from a human perspective, it was looking pretty dire. I have to say. I remember lying in bed thinking there must be something I can do. It can’t be disaster all around.

That hymn was going through my head, Shepard, Show Me How To Go. As it does frequently. I remember thinking I can do it. I can sing, I can play the piano and I can share my music, which is what I did.

I put my trusted iPhone on the end the piano and pressed FaceTime live, which I’ve never done before.

And at the end of the hour, I had about a hundred people listening in. And they weren’t all Christian Scientists. I know they weren’t all Christian Scientists. They were all different faiths and people with faith, people with no faith. I know that from the letters I’ve had since, and it snowballed. The following weekend, I did another one.

We had 200 following weekend. We had even more. And over the year, I think I’ve done something like 40, 45 concerts online concerts in a year. And it’s been wonderful. I haven’t thought about how to pay the mortgage because I know it’s all paid for. Don’t have to think about it.

Robin: That takes a lot of courage and bravery to just, all of a sudden, the rug is pulled out from underneath you, everything that you anticipated, everything you thought about everything you had planned, it’s just kind of gone. Be able to kind of respond to that.

Andrew: Robin, I don’t think I had much, choice yeah.

I had to jump both feet in and trust that something would happen. I was so surprised at the end of the concert, when I was getting messages saying, how can we send you something? How can we donate?

I hadn’t thought about it from that perspective. And it was afterwards, I suddenly had more in my PayPal account than I’d had in the last 10 years probably, which was amazing. It’s really lovely.

It’s been such a blessing for me, for all the new friends that I’ve made virtually across the world.

I know it’s music and words that are doing the work. I still have to pinch myself, that it’s me actually doing stuff, but it is, it is doing its work and it’s healing. So it’s, yeah, it’s wonderful.

Robin: That word healing, that is such a wonderful word and so needed. It’s so fun to hear you say it in connection with the work that you’re doing, and that has to be a connection to the abundance that showed up in your bank account, wouldn’t you think?

Andrew: Absolutely. If it’s not about healing, I don’t know what it is about, really. It is the crux of the matter, isn’t it, really.

Robin: Tell us a little bit about your cabaret world, that hat that you put on, and maybe you might be able to tickle those ivories a little bit as we talk about this.

Andrew: I’ve played in the UK, society parties. I think that’s probably what it’s about. I have in my time played for her Majesty, the Queen, and I have played for the late Diana, Princess of Wales.

I have to say, I much prefer playing in theaters where people actually decide they’re going to come and see you for a reason rather than just being, what I regard as being a wall light. Sometimes when you’re playing that kind of background music, creating atmosphere. I much prefer, people actually coming for a reason rather than otherwise.

But yeah, I could play something. What shall I play?

Missed the Saturday dance

Heard they crowded the floor

Couldn’t bear it without you

Don’t get around much anymore

Thought I’d visit the club

Got as far as the door

They’d have asked me about you

Don’t get around much anymore.

Darling, I guess my mind’s more at ease

But nevertheless why stir up memories?

Been invited on dates

Might have gone but what for?

Awf’lly diff’rent without you

Don’t get around much anymore.

Robin: Oh, that’s just awesome, man. That is so, so wonderful. It just is so natural, so beautiful and seems to come so easy to you, but there was a time when you weren’t in music. You didn’t start out that way, right?

Andrew: You are correct. I started out as a landscape architect of all things.

I was very much into my gardening as a young boy. It was gardening, or music, I think.

At the time, learning about plants and design and all that kind of stuff took precedence. I set up my own business and designed gardens and had a wonderful time doing it.

I have to say, it was quite hard work, but it was quite a long time ago.

The husband of Christian Science teacher and practitioner Fenella Bennetts who, there’s a picture of her there. Lovely lady, her husband was John Bennetts and he was the admissions tutor at the university that I went to.

And he kind of persuaded me that I should go and do this degree in landscape architecture. Which I duly did. And then Fenella was very instrumental in my musical and my spiritual upbringing.

Along the way, she sort of became my kind of pseudo mother growing up. I designed her garden.

I remember when she was a a lecturer, she used to fly off to different parts of the world lecturing in Christian Science, and then come back to the UK and find me ensconced in her garden having redesigned different parts of it. It was a very nice time I have to say, but then we used to go in and play piano duets together on her lovely piano.

Yeah. It was good times.

Robin: How fun.

Andrew: Yeah, it was.

Robin: So you discovered your love of music and decided, okay, I’m going at this thing. I’m leaving all the education and the steady check and I’m going to dive into music.

Andrew: I’m going to dive into music. Yeah, I started, there was a retirement home. Just next door, but one where I was living in an apartment.

One of the activities, organizers realized that I was a piano player, and then asked me to come and play for an afternoon tea, which I did. And then I couldn’t be more surprised when they paid me for doing it.

And they did. And they paid me quite well as well. Wow. That’s pretty good. So I thought if I could do three retirement homes a day, that would be quite good. I could learn some really good songs. I could hone my craft and earn at the same time, which I did.

I took it on board and toured retirement homes in the UK for about two years. And I built up my repertoire, and my finger skills earned money along the way. And then I was ready to go and get myself an agent to do all the London hotel work, kinda how these things work, but none of it was planned, none of it was planned.

Robin: So what kind of songs do you play in the hotel?

Andrew: In a hotel lobby? It’s soft, gentle stuff like this.

[Andrew plays music]

Yeah. For five hours for five hours at a time.

Robin: Well sounds like a pretty good gig though. Nice paying job, that’s kind of fun to have, huh?

Andrew: I did enjoy it. And I was really lucky in that I knew quite a few people in the music business.

There was a really cool club in London called Pizza on the Park in Knightsbridge in London. And they used to have this downstairs kind of a cabaret club. Quite a lot of the American artists used to come and play there late in the evening after I’d finished some of my gigs that finished at 11 o’clock at night.

I’d stop off at this club. And I knew that the man who was the host there, so I’d used to get in for, for no money, which was even better. And I saw some fantastic artists.

I remember going to see George Shearing play the piano there. And I literally, I sat right behind him and he was just awesome.

Some great American artists from yesteryear. It was a very good way of learning.

Let’s talk about another part of your world, the Christian music composer, performer. How did you start a group and why, and how did that come about and kind of that move and shift.

Fenella Bennett was instrumental in making it happen. She knew that I was into songwriting, or beginning to get into songwriting, and she had always had a deep love of Christian Science themed music and was aware that there might be space for some new music there.

There was room also for some maybe more modern, vibrant new music. And she thought I should give it a go and write some new settings, which I did. And the first one that I wrote was I love by way of freedom, Lord. Violet Hayes, beautiful poem.

And I wrote a new setting to that and we took it down to a Christian Science youth camp down on the South coast here.

The kids absolutely loved it. It was the only one we had, so we just kept repeating it. We played it for about an hour on repeat and it was great. And then I took inspiration from that, went home and started writing more got together with two old school chums, Tamsin Bland and Airlie Scott.

And we set up the group called the Newsong Group. Put a little choir together, recorded all the new songs that we’d written and sent it off to the CSPS in Boston. Lo and behold, the CSPS said, love it. We want to run with that. So they ran with it and suddenly it was in Reading Rooms all over the world.

People were singing songs that up till then had just been in my head. It was a bit of a roller coaster. It was great. Yeah. It was wonderful.

Robin: You’ve been quite proficient with that, right?

Andrew: Yes. Yeah. Songburst was number one. Then there was Gracenotes, which is the blue one at the bottom there with a beautiful piece of glass sculpture that my wife designed, which I’ve got on my piano over there. And then we did UpBeats, with a load of jazz friends.

The last one, which actually wasn’t carried by CSPS, and we could never understand why, because it’s my favorite album, called Soulscapes. It’s a really beautiful mellow quite symphonic, in its style, it’s got some beautiful cello in it and yeah, it’s lovely. I love that.

Robin: Maybe play a tune from one of those CDs that you’ve got. Yeah, that’d be great.

Andrew: This isn’t actually on one of the albums, but this is a new one, fairly new.

Robin: Ah, debuting right here. I like that, right here on the Net Effect.

Andrew: This is a piece called The Secret Place. The words are by a Christian Scientist called William Loose, a successful playwright for Broadway and for Hollywood.

And funnily enough, he used to write some music and words for Doris Day when she was around. But he’s no longer alive. He passed on about two years ago, but I wrote a new setting to this.

In the secret place,

In the heart of prayer,

there is always light shining everywhere.

You will learn to love,

with a gentle grace,

when you talk with God

in the secret place.

God is calling you to this world of light,

like a mother’s voice calling in the night,

Leave your broken dreams,

drop your load of cares,

at the door of Truth,

at the gate of prayer,

In the secret place,

in the heart of prayer,

there is always light,

shining everywhere.

You will learn to love

with a gentle grace,

when you talk with God,

In the secret place,

bring your childlike trust

to his open arms,

in that secret place,

nothing hurts or harms,

you will be at peace,

you will know his face,

you will find your home

in the secret place,

when you talk with God

in the secret place,

when you talk with God,

in the secret place.

Robin: That’s awesome. That’s very lovely.

Andrew: It’s very sweet. Isn’t it? I love it. It’s just very simple. Sometimes that’s all you need. You need a really strong lyric, and a really simple tune.

Robin: I love it. So one of the questions that came in is how has the music helped your spiritual growth?

Andrew: It’s one and the same thing one, and it’s literally one of the same thing, because whenever I sit talking about CS music, particularly, if I sit at the piano and think, Oh, tell you what I’m going to do today, I think I’m going to write a new setting of hymn number, whatever it is, 274, it’s about time somebody wrote a decent tune for it.

And I sit down at the piano and I can sit there literally for two hours and get absolutely zilch, nothing. Literally nothing. But when I open my thought and I let things happen with no preconceived idea about how it’s going to work out, whether I’m going to even write a song today, when I’m just at peace, when I’m at one, I can literally, I can open the hymn book, words, only hymn book, and it just happens.

The tune, the chords, everything comes at the same time. To me, that is divine inspiration. And I know that I’m kind of doing the right thing and it’s a massive life lesson. I wish I could do it more often with other things in my life.

Just let it happen. Don’t work out, ooh maybe if I do it like this, or if I do it like that, that might be a better way of doing it? I think my spirituality has increased tenfold since I’ve been a songwriter, absolutely.

Robin: That’s pretty remarkable. Another thing I found really cool was you singing in the Reading Room and you’ve done that a couple times, I guess. Right? Tell us about

Andrew: When Songburst first came out and the Newsong Group went to Boston, and the Reading Room manager found out that we were there, and she said, you must come and you must come and give a little concert in the Reading Room.

We couldn’t find a piano to play, so she just stuck the CD on the sound system in the Reading Room. We sang along and danced to Songburst in the Reading Room in Boston, and it was packed. It was packed. We had loads of people, after, autographs and the rest of it.

And people knew the songs and they were singing along and it was just totally mind blowing.

Even more mind blowing I have to say was I remember when the first hymnal supplement was being sorted out. Fenella was on the committee for that. And there were several of my songs that she thought I should put forward to go in there in that hymn book.

So she took them. But when they go through the list of, maybes, possibles, definites, or definitely nots, the whole thing was done anonymously. The people on the committee don’t know who’s written a particular setting or a particular hymn.

Then I got this phone call from Fenella. I remember standing on a bridge when I was on vacation. I was on holiday and the water was rushing under this bridge. And I can remember getting a phone call from, Fenella saying two of your new hymns have been chosen to go in the new supplement. And my word that was, that was quite something.

And then being asked to go to Boston to sing it as well, in the original edifice of the Mother Church was just something else. A packed church, literally a packed church full to the rafters. And then everybody’s singing me playing the new version of Satisfied that very simple tune with wonderful, wonderful poem. Really, I love that poem. By the time I got back to my seat at the end of it, I was a complete heap.

It was quite something

Robin: I can, well imagine that had to be just an amazing experience.

Andrew: Yes, it was.

Robin: You’ve got a total of eight hymns in the new supplement. Right? It didn’t stop there.

Andrew: No, no. Several fans sent CD recordings of some of the music that I’d written over the years, and said, this will be a great one to have in the hymn book. Why don’t we have this? So there was some there that I didn’t even know had been put forward.

Totally honored. Again, that’s one of those I have to pinch myself to see, my name there in the hymn book.

Robin: Are you, self-taught where you, where you trained classically? How did you learn how to tickle the ivories?

Andrew: I took the basics of piano up till I was probably bout how old was I? 12 or 13, so I didn’t get very far. I don’t know how the grade system works in America, but we have a thing called the Associated Board of the Royal School of Music, which people do here.

Robin: That sounds pretty swanky. I got to tell you right now, we don’t really have anything that’s so swanky.

Andrew: So I dunno, we have different levels.

So it goes from one to eight and when you get to eight, then you’d take a teaching diploma. And after that, then you can go off and do loads of other things. I only got to grade five. And then after that, my piano teacher got so annoyed with me. I was supposed to be learning a piece of Mozart and I kept syncopating the rhythm.

I play everything syncopated and she said to me, she said if Mozart had meant it to be syncopated, he would have written it syncopated. And at the time, I didn’t know what syncopated meant. Basically means for those who don’t know what syncopated means, it’s off the beat. So it’s like a piece of ragtime music. Yeah, so it’s like this.

Not on the beat. So I syncopate quite a lot. So I gave up piano after that for about two years.

Then I discovered Jerome Kern. And his beautiful music from the 1930s. And again, kind of taught myself to play again, really, to sight read, picked up pieces of music, and then the rest is history.

It’s all self-taught and I was never taught how to write a piece of music or anything like that. That’s all from within or from above, I should say, from within and above.

Robin: That is amazing. What a gift.

Three of these four CDs are in the Reading Room, right? So someone asks, where can they buy your CDs, they can at least get three of the four of these in a Christian Science Reading Room, right?

Andrew: I think they probably can. I’m not sure whether Gracenotes anymore. I think they might have run out of Gracenotes, because it was so popular. You can always go to my website, you can download all of them from my website. So you don’t have to physically buy the CDs. Lots of people don’t buy CDs anymore.

Robin: Let’s talk about Listen for Thy Voice. Tell us a little bit about this music and this adventure and project.

Andrew: Okay. I’ve actually recorded a CD previous to that called One. And it had the majority of tracks that Listen has got on it. Plus it had quite a few upbeat versions of things on it. This is another lesson in not pushing and shoving… that thing about love. Error pushes, love leads.

I’ve learned my lesson from that one. I remember when I sent it off to the CSPS I sent off one and I didn’t get a reply and then I just left it.

I just thought, okay, there’s obviously a reason that I’m not having a reply. And then a year and a half later, I thought, just out of the blue, I just sent an email and just said, Oh, I’m just wondering whether you actually ever received the copy that I sent through. And they said, I think we did, but could you send another one just in case we didn’t.

So I sent another one and they contacted me about two weeks later and said, yes, we love, we love quite a lot of it, but some of it is not quite right for what we want.

What they wanted was a CD that churches without church musicians could use as preludes and postludes and solos in church. So it needed to be a bit more church-like should I say?

So I wrote some new pieces, especially for it. It’s a solo album with me and a wonderful double bass player on it. It’s beautiful. It’s quite simple, piano, voice, and double bass. You can get that one at Reading Rooms definitely at the moment.

Robin: When can people hear you, when can people see you? So we’re going to talk a little bit about some of your upcoming projects. I love the ideas of these things. Tell us a little bit about some of your upcoming projects, and people you’re going to be working with and how some of those things came about.

Andrew: Musically Speaking is a show that I’m doing local to me in a little art center, but by the wonders of technology nowadays, we can stream our little concert all over the world, which is amazing. That’s the 15th of May. I’m doing this thing called Musically Speaking with a wonderful Maria Kesselman who is there and Maria Kesselman starred in Phantom of the Opera with Michael Crawford.

Maria has an amazingly wonderful soaring voice and I’m going to do some duets and songs from the shows and stuff with her on the 15th of May.

I am really looking forward to that. And then it’s going to tour the UK hopefully, very soon after that.

I am doing a spiritual summit for Lake Tahoe, at the end of May. I don’t have a web address for that, but I’m sure people could find it out. I’m sandwiched in between Melanie Wahlberg, who’s giving a talk, and Fujiko Signs who’s also giving a talk and I’ve got some music before, in between, and after. So I’m that kind of icing bit in the cake.

Robin: You stay in some pretty good company, my friend, I gotta tell ya.

Andrew: I’m honored and I’ve been in touch with Fujiko and we’ve been talking about a few things and it’s wonderful to be part of that group of people. It’s lovely.

Robin: Tell us about the Time to Pray tour that has been unfolding for you.

Andrew: Yes, The Time to Pray initially was a song. I wrote a song which I put out last year for Christian Aid for charity in the UK. It’s a worldwide charity called Christian Aid. Which really lovely some which I had orchestrated and stuff during lockdown.

If people go to thetimetopray.com, take you to the link to watch the video of the music of the song, which I really like, it’s quite big and lovely. And then accompanying that I was going to come to your lovely country and share live music of all the CS and Christian music that I’ve been writing.

Somebody told me that since lock down, I’ve written one song every eight days. New song out, every eight days.

Robin: That’s just remarkable.

Andrew: Yeah.

I’m so looking forward to coming and playing live again. And hopefully I’ll be with some other musicians as well. So it won’t just be me on my own. I shall probably come with a bass player as well.

There’s so much music that I want to share. It doesn’t need to be in a church or a concert hall. It can be in somebody’s kitchen as far as I’m concerned.

Robin: Or possibly a church, right? Or, even a Reading Room,

Andrew: Reading Room, church, kitchen, garden, wherever is anything is possible.

Robin: How do you come up with these ideas?

Andrew: It’s not me that it’s not me that comes up with them. Really, I think the ideas come to me.

It’s a whole sort of stream of thoughts. That whole idea of all things working together for good. And I really do believe that it’s not just something that I just sort of toss off. It really is about all things coming together for good.

I had an idea about a week and a half ago. About how I should present my next CS music concert, which I’ve been doing with the UK Christian Science Reading Room online. And I had it all lined up and I thought this person could talk about certain things. And I contacted them and they very politely said no.

And I was like, Oh, I had it all sort of sorted. So I just threw it up there. I thought, okay, I’m not going to worry about this, but something else will appear when it needs to appear. And I I’ve always had a deep love of all the Violet Hay poems. And I started playing those and they were kind of very much in my thoughts.

And then I thought, Oh, I know some more British lyric writers, not just Violet Hay. I know Fenella Bennetts she wrote some beautiful lyrics. I also know Jill Gooding who used to be one of the directors of the Mother Church. She’s a CS practitioner and a teacher, and she’s written some beautiful lyrics as well.

Three L’s for Life, which is in the book. That’s one of the hymns in the handbook Lean on This, This Sustaining Infinite. And I just thought three fabulous ladies, English, ladies, let’s do a show concert about these three English ladies who wrote beautiful lyrics and I’ve written music for them.

We just did it tonight, called The Brits, which is I think you can still probably view it via my Andrew D. Brewis Facebook page.

It was really lovely. It came together really well.

Robin: Do you play other instruments?

Andrew: I used to play the trombone, but it’s quite a loud instrument and it’s quite loud, isn’t it? I’ve got quite rubbery lips as well.

So it’s quite good for playing cause you have to down that down the, down the mouthpiece. So I tried to play the guitar. Can’t play the guitar for, for love nor money. Love the guitar, but I cannot play it. Piano is my main thing. Me and the piano just seem to work well together.

Robin: Is there a song that you’d like to leave us with to think about as we wrap up our session? Andrew, my friend, when you were ready to roll fire away.

Andrew: I’m just going to do a couple of verses of the Satisfied that I talked about.

It’s done a lot for me, I have to say.

[music playing]

It matters not, what be thy lot,

So Love doth guide;

For storm or shine, pure peace is thine,

What e’re betide.

And of these stones, or tyrants’ thrones,

God able is

To raise up seed–in thought and deed–

To faithful His.

Aye darkling sense, arise, go hence!

Our God is good.

False fears are foes–truth tatters those,

When understood.

Love looseth thee, and lifteth me,

Ayont hate’s thrall:

There Life is light, and wisdom might,

And God is All.

The centuries break,

the earth-bound wake,

God’s glorified!

Who doth His will– His likeness still–

Is satisfied.

Who doth His will–His likeness still–

Is satisfied.

Robin: Oh, that’s so wonderful, thank you so very much. Terrific stuff. All of it. Wow. Thank you again.

If you would like to connect with Andrew, obviously we’ve given you a ton of links, but you can connect directly with Andrew through the Career Alliance. We’ll help you connect with our friend here.

We’re always looking for ways to help support our community through helping job seekers or career allies find potential job prospects or helping us with our students.

I love how you have given us so many examples, Andrew, of casting your net on the right side and showing us that no matter what, even if the rug is pulled out from underneath you and you’re falling, that you can always turn to the scriptures, to our heavenly Father, Mother, what a remarkable and wonderful example of living that you are.

Andrew: Oh, thank you. That’s so nice.

Robin: Thank you. And thank you all.

Appreciate the Albert Baker Fund and this wonderful, inspiring team and the work that they do, there’s so much work that goes into this and, and putting on these Net Effects and helping college students, vocational students, and helping our community on a daily daily basis. It’s a remarkable team at the Albert Baker Fund and I feel so blessed to be a part of it.

Andrew, best of luck, my friend. Can’t wait to see you soon. Goodnight!

Andrew: Bye.

“Being less concerned about myself and being obedient to inspiration…”

About Our Speaker:
Since 1997 Alex Cook has created over 200 murals in 20 states and 4 countries (USA, Kenya, Nigeria, Guatemala). Alex’s work focuses on community and spiritual themes expressed through nature imagery and storytelling. In 2004 Cook founded Art Builds Community, a mural painting program for teenagers in his hometown of Boston, MA. ABC hired teens during summers, teaching them the skills of mural painting and creating many murals in the neighborhoods. See more at www.stonebalancer.com and www.youarelovedmurals.com

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The replay of our September career conversation with Dan LaBar, innovative educator and community-builder, is now available in video, podcast, and transcript. Click “Watch Net Effect Replays” below!

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Transcript of episode
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Transcript prepared by ____, a NLC Internship Project for ABF
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Topic: “Learn from Everything and Everyone – from Sesame Street to Teatro ZinZanni!”

About Our Speaker:
Alina manages all daily operations of Teatro ZinZanni, working closely with owners and performers to produce a magical and engaging production 5 to 7 shows per week. Alina also oversees the box office team, including acting as the show manager, interacting with customers, and ensuring all last minute requests are addressed. As the company manager, she assisted the traveling cast with all needs, from housing, to medical, to sourcing new costume pieces.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel here

Join us live for the Net Effect!

The replay of our September career conversation with Dan LaBar, innovative educator and community-builder, is now available in video, podcast, and transcript. Click “Watch Net Effect Replays” below!

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Topic: “Working Remotely from Boulder to Boston–How Limitations Turned into Amazing Career Opportunities”

About Our Speaker:
Emma Schaefer, Summer Intern at The Mother Church, Multi-Media Storyteller, and Singer-Songwriter

This summer, Emma was a collaborator and singer-songwriter on a new Daily Lift video for Christian Science Sunday School students, “A Psalm for You.” She is a Multimedia Storytelling major at Grinnell College in Iowa, where she is taking a gap year to work as a Junior Media Producer in the Board Office at The Mother Church, and work on music and story-related projects. Emma’s long-term goal is to build a career that weaves together music, film, and other forms of storytelling for social good. During our Friday conversation Emma will share how she and her fellow interns overcame the limitations of working remotely, and finished the summer with new career opportunities, new colleagues, and new appreciation for our worldwide church. Friday’s Net Effect conversation will also include a special live performance of the music she wrote for “A Psalm for You”!

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The replay of our September career conversation with Dan LaBar, innovative educator and community-builder, is now available in video, podcast, and transcript. Click “Watch Net Effect Replays” below!

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Topic: “Embracing Uncertainty–You Cannot Progress Until You Say, Yes!

About Our Speaker:
Travis Thomas is the Creator of “Live Yes, And” (www.liveyesand.com) and a performance coach currently serving as the Leadership and Team Dynamics Coach for the US Men’s National Soccer Team. He served as a Leadership Coach at Florida’s IMG Academy, a prestigious boarding school and sports training destination, where he worked with thousands of youth athletes including the U17 US National Team, NFL and NBA combine players, as well youth, college, and professional athletes in all sports.

For the last 5 years Travis has worked with numerous athletic programs, including the University of Georgia football, MSU Women’s Soccer, the Cincinnati Reds, Miami Marlins, NY Yankees, Chicago Cubs, and Tampa Bay Rays. He has also spent the last 5 years as the leadership and mental skills coach for a youth soccer club in Florida.

Additionally, Travis has been performing for over 20 years as an improvisational comedian. He uses the principles and activities of improvisation to teach leadership, mental skills, teamwork, and the tools for high-performing cultures. In 2016, he wrote his first book, “3 Words for Getting Unstuck: Live Yes, And.” He has served as a Christian Science practitioner at CedarS Camps for many years, and worked at The Mother Church in Boston for over 5 years.

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The replay of our September career conversation with Dan LaBar, innovative educator and community-builder, is now available in video, podcast, and transcript. Click “Watch Net Effect Replays” below!

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Topic: “Curiosity and ‘Questionsanswers’–How to have a memorable conversation that leads to unforeseen career opportunities!”

About Our Speaker:
What is a “questionanswer”? Is curiosity leading you to have memorable conversations? Would you like to listen, listen, listen, when you need to listen the most?

Jennifer Ann Gordon has devoted her life to understanding the power of words to uplift and benefit humanity. She now pours her “heartmindsoul” into helping people as a Christian Science practitioner and enjoys contributing to the Christian Science Journal and the Christian Science Sentinel. In August of 2018, Gordon conducted a workshop on writing for the periodicals with Associate Editor Tony Lobl in Northern California.

From 1997-2019, Jennifer helped small businesses with marketing communications. She also provided ghostwriting, writing coaching, manuscript review, and editing services for leaders with heart. She has given many talks on her writerly adventures, and created and conducted a writing workshop for women. Jennifer is the author of Writing With Your Ears: 50 Soulful Secrets to Writing (and Living) with Freedom and A Woman’s Mind Half Naked.

Jennifer has guest-taught at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona; Sacramento State University; University of California, Davis; and the Sacramento Entrepreneurship Academy, where she served as a director from 2007-2013. She is also an artist, a muralist, and a poet.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel here

Join us live for the Net Effect!

The replay of our September career conversation with Dan LaBar, innovative educator and community-builder, is now available in video, podcast, and transcript. Click “Watch Net Effect Replays” below!

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About Our Speaker:
Judith Patterson, Co-Founder and President of US Performing Arts

Judith is the co-founder and president of US Performing Arts (USPA), a summer program for students ages 11-18 that gives passionate and talented students the opportunity to hone their craft with the best professionals in the country, while seeing and being seen at their potential future college. USPA affiliates with top-tier universities throughout the world and is acknowledged as one of the premier programs of its kind and innovator in educating students in the arts.

Judith has been a professional actor and dancer since the age of 8 working in both theater and television. She later produced and directed some of the largest multi-media permanent attractions in the world. She has taught theater, film, television and dance at the college level, and has administered and developed performing arts curriculum for several college departments.

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Join us live for the Net Effect!

The replay of our September career conversation with Dan LaBar, innovative educator and community-builder, is now available in video, podcast, and transcript. Click “Watch Net Effect Replays” below!

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Bruce E. G. Smith has been in Information Technology related businesses in sales, sales management, and executive sales positions for 50 years for major companies including IBM, Westinghouse and British Telecom as well as numerous software and business process outsourcing companies. He has had a successful sales consulting and sales coaching practice for almost 20 years acting as VP of Sales for software start-up and later stage companies doing business as Achieving Sales Results, LLC. The website is: www.achievingsalesresults.com.

In 2006, Mr. Smith also started a musical theater production company in Pittsburgh named Front Porch Theatricals that produces two professional productions each year using union actors, choreographers, musicians and local actors, directors and crew known as “Pittsburgh’s Boutique Professional Musical Theater Company”. The website is www.frontporchpgh.org. Mr. Smith has been a Regional Ambassador for the Albert Baker Foundation since 2006 having interviewed dozens of potential ABF grantees and is also an ABF Career Ally.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel here

Join us live for the Net Effect!

The replay of our September career conversation with Dan LaBar, innovative educator and community-builder, is now available in video, podcast, and transcript. Click “Watch Net Effect Replays” below!

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Episode Transcript

Special thanks to DiscoveryBound NLC intern Brenna Erickson who volunteered to transcribe this episode.