ABOUT FULBRIGHT

My Fulbright Life

Transcript For: Current Fulbrighter Elizabeth Setzer in Bulgaria.

Current Fulbrighter Elizabeth Setzer discusses her Fulbright Experience in Bulgaria.

Elizabeth Setzer

Schuyler:          Hi and welcome to My Fulbright Life. My name is Schuyler Allen and today we are with Liz Setzer who is a Fulbrighter in Bulgaria. Liz, thank you for joining us.

Liz:                   My pleasure.

Schuyler:          Liz, so, where in Bulgaria are you and what have you been doing in Bulgaria on your Fulbright grant?

Liz:                   Well, I live in Plovdiv which is the second largest city in Bulgaria, and I’m studying Bulgarian folk singing at the Academy of Music here.

Schuyler:          Bulgarian folk singing… and how did you get interested in Bulgarian folk singing?

Liz:                   That’s a question I get asked a lot when I tell people back home what I am doing. My father is a musician, and he’s got a CD collection that when I was younger I was always browsing through, and I was browsing through his CD collection when I was about 13 years old and came across The Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices, which was an album that was pretty popular in the US in the late 80s. It’s a…

Schuyler:          I don’t want to date myself, but I remember this record.

Liz:                   Yeah, well it’s a women’s choir singing a fancy arrangement of folk songs from Bulgaria. And when I heard this CD I just, I was immediately captivated and I fell in love with the music. And then when I went to college, Mills College in Oakland, California, they have a pretty active Balkan music scene up there and I had a chance to take some singing workshops, and learn about the vocal technique which is really unique. That’s what usually catches people when they first hear Bulgarian folk music; the vocal technique is very different from what we’re used to hearing where I grew up, so…

Schuyler:          Well, now you’ve piqued my interest. Are you a vocalist and singer yourself, and is that your background in preparation for your Fulbright grant?

Liz:                   I am a vocalist. Basically, growing up, I’ve always been a musician and piano was my primary instrument growing up. I studied classical piano and jazz, but I’ve always loved to sing. I had a band when I was in high-school, and when I was in college we had a group that did 60s girl group music. So I’ve always loved vocal harmonization and singing a lot. So when I finished college, even though piano was my primary instrument, I went ahead and applied for this grant as a singer and I’m really glad I did. It’s been an amazing experience.

Schuyler:          Pretty eclectic. So, studying Bulgarian folk music- how is a typical day in your life spent? Are you singing along with other musicians? Are you recording? What are you doing?

Liz:                   OK, so basically, a typical day for me in Plovdiv would be to walk to school in the morning, to the Academy, which is a beautiful walk through the center city. You have to go up a hill through the old town section of the city, and it’s right by this big Roman Amphitheatre, which is a place where they have concerts a lot in the summertime. At any rate, I walk up there, and the Academy is situated up there. And what’s nice about teachers at the Academy is that even when they’re giving private lessons to a student, it’s very common for other students to sit in and listen. So my day would begin, I would just go to the room where I knew that my vocal teacher was teaching, and I would sit and I would listen to lessons that were going on, and then it would be my turn. And I’d get up, sing some of the tunes my teacher was working with me on… So after having a private lesson, later in the day there’d be choir rehearsal. The Academy has several different chamber choirs that sing folk songs in choir arrangement. And then after that… what else?

Schuyler:          What do you do in your downtime?

Liz:                   In my downtime? Well, it may seem kind of boring to other people but I mostly just work on music all the time. When I’m not in school doing music, I’m at home working on songs or going to concerts. There are plenty of concerts in the area.

Schuyler:          Oh, I was just going to ask you how your Bulgarian was?

Liz:                   Yeah, I have to say that the first couple of months were pretty rough for lots of reasons. It takes a while to get situated in a new place. This is my first experience living abroad, so to go to a place where I’d studied the language a little bit, in private tutoring, but I was definitely no where near being able to communicate freely. I’ve had language tutoring during my Fulbright tenure as well, and that’s definitely helped. So bit by bit, it’s come along.

Schuyler:          So, how did you go about… I mean Bulgarian is not a language that’s commonly taught in the United States I’d say. So how did you go about learning that language?

Liz:                   Well, when I was in California and I was preparing for this Fulbright opportunity I met with a linguistics student at UC Berkeley who had already studied in Bulgaria and she- that was only for about 6 months before my departure and it was definitely a steep learning curve. I would learn words and forget them, and learn words again and having to get used to the Cyrillic alphabet was also pretty difficult but…

Schuyler:          So you basically had a crash course in Bulgarian for about 6 months before you undertook your grant.

Liz:                   That’s right. And I think living in California, you really… well for example in California, I hear the Spanish language being spoken everyday, and I think I took for granted before how much, how used to a language you can get just hearing people speak it around you even if you don’t speak it every day yourself. And when I came to Bulgaria, it was like, whoa! This is completely unlike anything, anything I’d experience on an everyday basis in California. So, definitely a crash course.

Schuyler:          And you’re definitely singing in Bulgarian then too.

Liz:                   Yes, yes. I’m singing in Bulgarian and that has been… studying the songs has been... when I’m learning the text to songs I definitely take it in terms of syllables of words and work on getting the correct vowel and consonant pronunciation for all the words. And approaching it that way I’ve been pretty successful singing the songs. Many Bulgarian people have told me, “I didn’t realize you were a foreigner when I heard you sing, and now that I’m speaking to you, of course I understand you’re a foreigner.” That’s of course a huge compliment.

Schuyler:          That is a huge compliment, and now I’m really curious, would you mind singing for us a little bit, some of what you’ve been working on?

Liz:                   Now on the phone?

Schuyler:          Yea!

Liz:                   OK. Alright. Let me think here a little bit what song would be appropriate. Ok, I’ll sing a song from the Sofia region of Bulgaria which is in the western part, near Sofia, the capital.

Schuyler:          OK, you don’t have to sing the whole thing, but just a sample would be fantastic.

Liz:                   OK, I’ll give you a sample.

                        [singing]

Schuyler:          That’s incredible. That’s amazing. Thank you so much for sharing. Wow. So what was a challenge, besides learning the language that you didn’t anticipate that you’d experience on your grant and how did you overcome it?

Liz:                   Well, I think when I came to Bulgaria and began my Fulbright tenure, I sort of assumed that it was going to be a challenge to fit in; I assumed that the first couple of months would be rough, but I think one challenge I didn’t anticipate was how difficult it was going to be to find a place to live where I felt comfortable. The first apartment I lived in my landlady just had completely different ideas about what sort of level of privacy was appropriate, and what sort of boundaries I would want her to respect. I found myself getting completely indignant, and thinking, “well this is just completely unacceptable and in America this would never happen.” And of course, it’s just this sort of cultural misunderstanding that the Fulbright program helps you overcome because obviously she didn’t have the same expectations, and most people here don’t. So that was very difficult. I ended up leaving the apartment because I just couldn’t take it. But that was an unexpected challenge.

Schuyler:          And how’s your living situation now?

Liz:                   Much better. I definitely feel comfortable now, but it took a while to find a situation where I felt comfortable. And I think also, another challenge that I… I think generally when you come to a country where you don’t speak the language, and you’re unfamiliar with the culture, I think one has to be very patient, consistently, everyday and expect that things are going to go more slowly than you’re used to. The first couple of months, everyday I would be in a classroom situation where I didn’t really understand everything that was going on but I had to just be really patient, and trust that being here, and participating in the ways that I could was going to bring me closer to my goal. And it has! I’ve connected with my voice mentor. I really couldn’t have dreamed up a better mentor for my Fulbright project. My voice teacher… we just have such a great working relationship and she’s taught me a lot and she’s been very patient with me as well.

Schuyler:          You know, it’s interesting in these podcasts quite a few Fulbrighters in the field say the same thing, that patience is really a requisite in terms of getting immersed in a new culture and getting comfortable and acclimating to a whole new environment.

Liz:                   Yea, it’s definitely… you have to always keep your expectations and your judgments… you have to kind of keep them at bay a little bit. I mean on the one hand, you always want to listen to your intuition because, well an extreme example is you’ve got to listen to your intuition if you don’t feel safe in a certain situation or if you feel that, you know, if you think there’s a danger you want to just say well I need to get myself to a situation where I feel safe but aside from that I think it’s definitely been an ongoing challenge to constantly keep judgment at bay and go with the flow.

Schuyler:          So that said, what advice would you offer to candidates applying to Fulbright in general?

Liz:                   Well, I would say… my first piece of advice would be apply. Because there are so many people, so many friends of mine who said, “oh yeah, I really think I’ll apply for Fulbright” and they just never do it because they always think that there’s someone who’s more qualified than them or who’s better cut out for it. So first I would encourage people to apply. Go for it, you know? Dream up a project that’s going to work for you, that’s going to work for your qualifications, and it’s something that you love, something you want to pursue, and definitely apply. I would also say when crafting your project idea, talk to people that have done it before. Talk to people who have gone to the country you’re going to, who have studied what you want to study and listen to their recommendations because that’s what I did and I think it definitely paid off.

Schuyler:          That’s great advice. And what would you offer in terms of advice once you’re in the field, besides being patient?

Liz:                   Besides what, I’m sorry?

Schuyler:          Besides your great advice about being patient.

Liz:                   Let’s see. I would say that another thing I would advise is… well in my experience, I was so busy doing things and experiencing everything and studying music that I didn’t really write as much about my experience as I wish I had and now I’m just starting to do that, starting to write more about what’s been happening and my reflections on it. I know another grantee who writes consistently and that’s awesome and I would encourage everyone to do that because for me, sometimes I didn’t even realize I had an insight about something until I actually sat down and wrote about what’s been happening and then I realized, wow, I really have learned a lot. Or, I really do have all these experiences to draw on, all these things to share, so I would encourage people to do that. And, just another piece of practical advice to grantees, if you can somehow get connections to some one who can help you find a place to live, that’s going to be really valuable because I didn’t expect finding a place to live to be such a difficult thing here.

Schuyler:          So, it’s probably distant in your mind right now, but turning your sights towards home, what are your plans based on some of the skills you’ve acquired while you’ve been in Bulgaria for when you come home?

Liz:                   Well, first of all, I feel that studying this vocal technique, studying this folk singing has definitely changed my approach to singing and that’s going to continue to affect my music pretty much for the rest of my life. I’m planning to continue to study this folk music with teachers in California, and I’m also hoping to get involved with some, with a non-profit organization for cultural exchange basically about getting more groups from Bulgaria to come to the States to give workshops and perform their folk music. Cause I know there’s a lot of interest on both sides, but … yeah, that’s something I’d like to get involved with.

Schuyler:          Well, that sounds like a fantastic seg. And, Liz, thank you so much for sharing your experiences today and look for your interview on iTunes.

Liz:                   Wait, can I just tell you one more thing I’d like to share?

Schuyler:          Sure, absolutely.

Liz:                   Which is just that… One of the biggest experiences, one of the things that I’m… the highlights of my Fulbright experience is that I’ve worked very hard with one of the choirs, it’s called the Phillipopoly Folk Ensemble, which is where I found my voice teacher and I had the opportunity to tour with that choir, singing Bulgarian folk music in Austria and Germany which is really wonderful and is a great culmination of all the studying that I’ve done on the Fulbright this year.

Schuyler:          Liz, we’d love to hear more from you, perhaps in an article too. Maybe you’ll write us an article about your touring with this group.

Liz:                   Absolutely.

Schuyler:          Liz, once again, thanks so much for sharing your experiences and we look forward to hearing from you soon, and I mean that on all levels.

Liz:                   Great, thank you.

Schuyler:          Thank you.