YIP o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-08-12 published
Lise Aerinne
WAXER
By Diane YIP,
Barbara
YIP, Jonathan
RUDIN, Tuesday,
August 12,
2003 - Page A18
Teacher, musician, writer, traveller, scholar, activist, mentor,
daughter, granddaughter, sister, niece, cousin, wife. Born May
30, 1965, in Toronto. Died August 13, 2002, of complications
from ulcerative colitis in Hartford, Connecticut., aged 37.
Inspired by her piano teacher, Lise was in Grade 10 when she
first announced that she wanted to be an ethnomusicologist and
study the people and the music of different cultures. At that
time we didn't even know what ethnomusicology was. She pursued
that goal with a single-minded dedication.
Her formal university education included degrees at the University
of Toronto, York University and the University of Illinois. While
in Toronto, Lise produced and hosted one of the city's first
world-music programs, on
CIUT
Radio, was on planning committees
for a range of cultural and musical events, and provided translation
for visiting Spanish-speaking musicians.
In 1987, after graduating with her bachelor's degree in music
from the University of Toronto, Lise travelled to Nepal for two
months and ended up staying a year.
After Lise finished her master's degree at York University in
1991, she pursued her doctoral studies at the University of Illinois
in Champaign-Urbana. Her mandatory course-work completed, she
embarked on field-work research on salsa music in Cali, Colombia.
But she did not spend all her time doing fieldwork: Lise formed
the first all-woman Latin jazz ensemble in Colombia: Magenta
Latin Jazz. She also met the man who would be her husband: journalist,
author and poet, Medardo Arias
SATIZABAL.
Lise's time in Cali is summed up in her second book -- The City
of Musical Memory: Salsa, Record Grooves, and Popular Culture
in Cali, Colombia -- published posthumously by Wesleyan University
Press.
After completing her PhD, Lise accepted a teaching position in
the music department at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut.
Teaching allowed her to continue her travels. In addition to
returning to Colombia, she also went to Ecuador, Venezuela, Cuba,
Puerto Rico, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, and Trinidad.
In Hartford, her adopted city, Lise was very committed to making
a difference. In particular, she wanted to ensure that the university
understood the vibrant life in the city's Hispanic community.
She made those connections in a number of ways.
Every year, Lise put together a student ensemble called Salsafication.
Students learned the joys and intricacies of salsa music and
the band was always in demand to play at numerous functions.
Her energy and leadership not only changed the way the students
looked at music, but also the way they looked at themselves.
Lise was the driving force behind Ritmo de Pueblo -- a cultural
event that brought Hartford's Hispanic community and the university
together in a way that had not occurred before. Lise felt that
the resources of the university needed to be shared and her goal
was to bring down the fences, figuratively, starting with the
Puerto Rican community. She saw the arts as a non-threatening
way for people to see that they are not that different from each
other. As someone
with parents from different backgrounds --
Chinese and Jewish -- Lise knew how important it was to celebrate
our differences rather than allowing them to marginalize us.
Lise taught us all the power that music and dance can have in
breaking down walls.
Lise dreamed big dreams and lived fully; she packed a lifetime
of experience into her 37 years. Her life touched so many of
us.
Diane is Lise's mother, Barbara is her aunt, Jonathan is her
uncle.
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