Meet Dianne Betkowski | Cellist of Miguel Espinoza Fusion

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dianne Betkowski and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dianne, do you have a favorite quote or affirmation?
“Find out what you do best and do it for all you’re worth”-Leonard Bernstein.

What it means to me is that we should all value our strengths and not be afraid to work with them. We are brought up to be “well-rounded”, which is a great thing. People naturally good at science and math should study literature and the arts and philosophy, too, and vice versa. But part of our puritan ethic as a society is to practically disregard what we are naturally good at and instead focus primarily on what needs improving (unless it’s science and math!). We miss out on discovering our most natural and comfortable selves and being true to who we really are. Sometimes it is also about finding a career that our parents respect or will support or that will make us the most money, even if it’s not what we naturally gravitate towards. But if we all did that, we’d be much the poorer as a society for culture, arts, thought, and the things that make us more human and humane. For me, it meant ignoring my strengths as a musician so that I could be safer with a conventional path. Though I was pretty good with conventional music-making pursuits, I find that the areas I suppressed as a teenager and young adult (non-classical music) are what I really, really excel at, and am sad to have not pursued for most of my life. I am happy to have made that journey home recently to what I do best and can at least do it now. I am now the cellist of Miguel Espinoza Fusion in Denver and LOVING it!

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Being the cellist of World Music Jazz Fusion ensemble Miguel Espinoza Fusion is an amazing experience. I am able to use my strongest attributes, my intuitions, and my biggest talents while contributing to the music we create, perform and record. I played other kinds of music in orchestras and chamber ensembles, not really ever realizing my potential because my particular set of innate skills were not needed and therefore I had no outlet for them. It took me a very long time to find just the right musical situation in which my personal attributes were not only appreciated, but needed. I help compose our music, I play melody here, a rhythmic groove there, and a bass line occasionally somewhere else. I improvise, too. It is a match made in heaven. The lesson I’ve learned along the way is that I should have been as true to myself as possible, but what I had to offer was not valued in the classical music world, and I didn’t know how to find the right musicians to play non-classical music with. That, unfortunately, took decades to happen. So now as a teacher (which is something I do extremely well, too), I try to find the way that each student of mine wants to experience the cello, and I tailor our lessons to those ends; I don’t hold one standard and journey for all students regardless of their interests and strengths. I can be for my students what my teachers didn’t know how to be for me.

Today, I play in this group and we tour and record and perform as much as we can, and when we do, we touch people’s hearts and souls, and we try and remind everyone of our shared humanity. It’s a humbling endeavor, but because our music comes from our hearts, we hope that we are accomplishing our goals.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Great question!! When I was in the Honolulu Symphony I wrote an article for a newspaper with exactly that theme. Here in Denver I would take friends to the Botanic Gardens for a picnic either in the Oak Grove or in the lovely glass house on the south end of the Gardens. I would also take them to see the sunrise at Red Rocks, and to look at shops in Cherry Creek North, with a stop at La Merise for lunch or dinner. I would take friends to Wash park to paddle board and play frisbee, then walk to South Gaylord Street for Silk Road shopping, and either a meal at Wash Park Grill or coffee at Devil’s Food Bakery. I would take them to the Denver Art Museum, and the Kirkland Museum of Decorative Arts, as well as the Colorado History Museum and the Clyfford Still Museum, with a stop at the nearby Art Hotel for a drink or meal. We’d see the bats outside at dusk, and then go to Dazzle for live music. We also love Thai Pot Cafe and Angelo’s Pizza. If there’s a First Friday Artwork, we will be there. There’s also DCPA with symphony, theater, opera, etc…always something great going on there. And there are so many really good smaller venues too, like the Savoy, the Curious Theater, and the Olympic Auditorium Complex, to name just three! Breakfast at Snooze is always so good, and swimming at the Congress Park Pool is a great way to spend a hot summer day. In the winter I would take friends to Snow Mountain Ranch and rent a cabin there: to cross country ski and walk in the snow, ice skate, go tubing, spend creative hours at the craft shop, and end the day cooking and playing games, or making music-if our friends are musicians. I should stop here, because I have so many other places to mention, but then I will go on forever! I’m grateful to live in Denver and in Colorado. I love how much it has to offer.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I had a few fellow music students in high school who introduced me to improvisation and non-classical styles of playing (like the blues), and I am forever grateful to them, at least one of whom has passed away prematurely. I also was very lucky to meet trumpeter Glendon Gross while I was a student at the Aspen Music Festival in 1979. He taught me more about jazz as we played music together outside each evening near the fountains by Wagner Park. Being in the music festival, my days were full with 6 hours a day of private practicing, plus three hours a day of orchestra rehearsals, and several hours of chamber music ensemble rehearsals a week, plus weekly private cello lessons with Alan Harris, who taught me so much about rhythm and a healthy physical approach to playing cello. And then my other cello teachers along the way: Gabriel Magyar, George Neikrug, Yehuda Hanani…they all helped me with different perspectives of playing, both technically and musically. Eugene Lehner gave me a sense of spontaneity and freedom in string quartet coachings during graduate school in Boston. And guitarist extraordinaire Miguel Espinoza gets a huge shout out, of course, for bringing me into the fold of his intoxicating musical compositions and performances, and inviting me to join him in creating, performing, and recording some of the most exquisite music in the world.

Website: https://miguelespinozafusion.com

Instagram: miguelespinozafusion

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/miguelespinozafusion/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4_ZkRmhnZJJPvsuGzuwenw

Other: https://miguelespinozaflamencofusion1.bandcamp.com/music https://latinjazznet.com/reviews/albums/featured-albums/miguel-espinoza-flamenco-fusion-veneta/

Image Credits
Gray Thompson Lisa Sicilliano