Julie's Recordings
of Original Music 

In this recording, violinist, singer, and composer Julie Lyonn Lieberman leads a haunting foray into the deeply spiritual challenge we face as a nation comprised of dozens of diverse cultures, languages, and beliefs.

Mixing America views the state of our nation from the perspective of Eagle Bones, a Native American shaman murdered while defending his people, his spirit long incarcerated by the glass case that displays his skeleton in a national museum. We see through his eyes the America we’ve created: the self-righteousness that we call racism (The Tree of Thorns); drug addiction, as The Sandman lures us to sleep-walk through our lives; families that fail their children (Orphan Boy) as poverty, hopelessness, and the complexities of immigration overcome them.

Yet incredible richness and vitality are inherent in our diversity (Mixing America), and there is the power of art (Fiddle Sing For Me) to inspire and guide us, to keep the creative heartbeat pulsing in us all (Lady Bop, dedicated to Betty Carter)

Personnel: Julie Lyonn Lieberman, violin and voice; Armen Donelian, piano; Dan Kleiman, synthesizer; Jeff Eckels, bass; Steve Johns, drums; Tigger Benford, percussion. Vocalists: Toby Twining, Joan Henry, Shi-Zheng Chen, Tiye Giraud, Mark Johnson, Gregory Purnhagen, and Rebecca Weintraub.

This music is a spray of sea water on a brilliant sunny day.

It’s a new kind of music, something like High Drone.
— Stephen Davis, New Age Journal

Julie is not afraid to incorporate dissonance into the evolving soundscape, which is perhaps why the work is able to penetrate so deeply into one’s inner space. Empathic Connections is highly focused for an improvised work – simple, clear and very effective.

— Ramana Das, Yoga Journal

Julie Lyonn Lieberman (electric violin) and Laraaji Venus (electronic zither) travel through new musical geography: neither earthbound nor sky-bound… someplace in between.

Julie was inspired by reading about the Orange-red star, Arcturus. Across time this star has been referred to as “Smat,” meaning One Who Rules, and also “Bau” meaning The Coming One. It is considered one of the brightest stars in the northern hemisphere.

In 1936, when the earth and Arcturus rotated into a new relationship, it was thought that this produced “akasha,” a high-energy transfer of cosmic influences. Edgar Cayce, the sleeping prophet, often referred to Arcturus as “HIS star.” Cayce maintained that when Jesus left earth, his spirit traveled to Arcturus.

Julie Lyonn Lieberman stumbled across this information while conducting research for her book, "You Are Your Instrument." She imagined that Arcturus’ energy and intense orange light could affect the evolution of any human receptive to its powers. Artists often serve as visionaries and guides. It was her hope that the music inspired by this star might radiate listeners to ecstatic states of being.

Personnel:  Julie Lyonn Lieberman, voice and violin; Marty Quinn, percussion; Omar Mesa, guitar; Nancy Chusid, oboe; Steve Browman, piano; Joe Solomon, bass.

This album is an ode to mother earth. It is a musical story that focuses on a girl who lives in the inevitable future. Oxygen is precious, animals are extinct, and the planet is dying. She journeys into a failing forest and one of the last of the ancient trees conveys the music of the birds. The tree becomes a violin and she transforms into the Roaring Brook Fiddler. Through music, she is able to bring the dying planet back to life. It is a project that became a mission—wound its way into my heart quite unintentionally toward the end of 1983.

After a torrent of horrifying news about the environment in the early 1980s, I searched for something I could do while driving back from a week of performances in Washington D.C.’s Discovery Theatre. How can one person help rescue our ailing planet? I stared at the black highway as I drove through northern Pennsylvania. Trees had been clear-cut for miles and replaced with grass. My violin only speaks to a room full of people. As I entered New Jersey, I could smell pollution from the factories and see garbage floating in the wetlands. How can I convey the preciousness of our planet? I began to drive past a stretch of ugly factories spewing foul-smelling chemicals. Why do we find it acceptable to replace natural beauty with an ugliness that assaults all of our senses and makes us sick?

As I continued driving, I found myself musing over a book I’d read earlier that year, The Finding of the Third Eye, by Vera Stanley Alder, in which she put forth a theory I’d not heard before: according to her, in spring, the birds sing throughout the day and the vibrations of their calls assist the growth of the leaves. Once the leaves are full-grown, the birds reserve their songs for morning and dusk to help the trees with oxygen production. I was moved by this cooperative relationship since the trees, in return for the birds’ aid in their growth, provide their flying friends shelter all year round.

A musical story began to form in my mind called The Roaring Brook Fiddler, the story of a young girl from the “inevitable future” … the future, as it would be if the human race continued behaving as it has. She lives in a glass city with pumped-in oxygen because all the natural oxygen has been depleted. The local zoo runs movies of animals because there are very few left on the planet.

Personnel:  Julie Lyonn Lieberman, voice and violin;  Dave Samuels, vibraphone; Rufus Reid, bass; Stephen Browman, piano; Geoffrey Gordon, percussion; Martin Quinn, drums; Erik Friendlander, cello.

NOTE: After its debut concert and the making of this album, I worked on a national music education project called The Green Anthem. Its lesson plans and theme song eventually reached six million children through The World’s Largest Concert, an event staged by National Association for Music Education (NAfME).