Bio
Roberta Schultz is a singer, songwriter, performer and teacher from Wilder, KY. Her song, “Broken Radio,” won a Judge’s Choice Award at the 2005 MOVA Songwriting Competition, while another Schultz composition, “Be True,” was chosen for the first-ever SouthernArtistry.org Sampler CD, 2006 and for an Honor Award in the Great American Song Contest. More recently, Schultz’s song “This Kind of Rain,” won 3rd Place in the Folk/Bluegrass category at MOVA, 2007. She performs and tours regionally with the vocal trio, Raison D’Etre, who have five recordings and a DVD to their credit. In her school residencies, Schultz specializes in connecting music to other disciplines like literature, visual art and social studies. Her Gregorian Chant lesson is included in KET’s Arts Toolkit for Music.
Schultz's songs come from the everyday, but might also include allusions to Shakespeare. She describes her inspiration in the following:
"My songs come from my struggle to find meaning in life and from an enduring love for language. When my husband and I were lost on a highway in Pennsylvania looking for a campground called Hearts Content, I couldn't help but see that as a metaphor for my life's journey. And so, the song, 'Hearts Content' was born to describe that larger feeling of being lost that we all sometimes experience."
One of her greatest passions is involving others in the making of music. From making drums in a workshop led by Dennis Banks in 1995 to her present work with senior centers and schools, Schultz finds her greatest joy in creating music with others.
Potential Residency Project
A Sample 5-day Residency in “Song Writing as Response to Literature”
April 24 — Medieval Folk Ballads. Visiting song writer and former Advanced Placement teacher, Mrs. Schultz, introduced this literary and musical genre from the Middle Ages by performing examples and discussing characteristics of the form. Students practiced the form by writing some group stanzas "ripped from the headlines."
April 25 — Students did pre-writing to review favorite literary characters, important themes, and pivotal scenes in this year's reading. They reviewed ballad characteristics and then wrote a five stanza ballad.
April 26 — We shared several ballads via overhead and gave them the Gilligan's Island test. Students listened to some downloaded SIBLs from the Artists for Literacy site to identify literary devices that are particularly effective when used in songs.
Students wrote a verse to Roberta Schultz's "Braver Self" verse pattern.
April 27 — Students worked on discovering poetry and song in their own prose with the "Christmas Memory" writing exercise.
April 28 — Open mic! Student and teacher performances, coffee house style. Igor even brought in a lovely "mix tape" he created especially for the occasion.