She’s Bowing to Tradition of Gypsies
Kim Angelis bills herself as the “Violin Voyager.” Others have billed her the “American Gypsy,” but that is something Angelis will never call herself. Not that she wouldn’t like to.
“I’m not a Gypsy, and people of Gypsy blood are rather offended if I claim to be playing Gypsy music,” said Angelis, who performs a pair of shows today at San Juan Capistrano Regional Library. “So I always call it ‘Gypsy-inspired.’ It has a Gypsy spirit and flair and flavor that everybody picks up.
“I was with a record company called Really Outstanding Music, or ROM, and ‘rom’ is the word for Gypsy in [the Gypsy language]. It was only a coincidence, but the anti-defamation league for Gypsies out in Austin, Texas, wrote a stinging letter saying, ‘Kim Angelis is not a Gypsy, and don’t dare say she is playing Gypsy music.’
“The last thing I ever want to do,” she said, “is make people angry.”
Angelis, who had just returned from a 10-concert tour of southern Chile, spoke by phone from her home in the Sierra. Angelis was born in San Francisco and raised in Newport Beach; she studied violin with Ivan Galamian student Lori Ulanova at UC Irvine.
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Angelis is in fact a direct descendant of Gold Rush-era Californians, so relocating to Railroad Flats a decade ago was a return to her roots. Her third album, “Esperanza” (Dargason Music, due in May), focuses on that Gold Rush heritage; it’s also a tribute to Angelis’ mother, who still lives in Newport Beach and still plays castanets, which figure prominently on the album.
Angelis has two dogs, a springer spaniel and a collie puppy; until recently, she had two older collies, Christian and Gypsy, whose names were a fair indication of her priorities.
“I can’t explain this Gypsy inclination at all,” Angelis said. “I’ve had it all of my life. But I feel very strongly that without God in my life, I wouldn’t be playing music or doing any of this. I thank him by playing very spirited music. Perhaps that explains the Gypsy flair--I have a very happy heart.
“It’s been going on since I was 10 years old, when I first took violin lessons,” she continued. “When I played ‘Dark Eyes,’ the Russian Gypsy folk song, my teacher at that time started crying and said I played like a Gypsy.
“I was drawn to Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies and Brahms’ Hungarian Dances--it’s the Gypsy-inspired classical pieces that influenced me most,” she said. “It’s this freedom where you can be wild.”
Angelis also vents her wild side in a rock ‘n’ roll band. Locally, she’ll be accompanied by her husband, classical guitarist Josef--who goes by a single name and is of Hungarian descent--and Shadowfax percussionist Stu Nevitt. She met the Detroit-raised Josef in a class at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa.
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Angelis recently performed her “Suite: Souvenirs of the Season” with the Symphony of the Sierra and is now orchestrating her “Concerto California.” Her music was featured in the recent film documentary “Saviors of the Forest.”
“All around our house in 1994 there was a great deal of logging, and, because it was on private property, there were very few rules and regulations,” Angelis said. “They just took out the trees and left a fire hazard and a terrible mess. We got very involved in protesting and writing letters, and I wrote a song about it.
“Meanwhile, two gentleman in Los Angeles did a documentary film about saving the rain forest and wanted to use my music in the film. They’d heard some of my music on the radio and just had a feeling and called me--they felt I would be a kindred spirit. It was remarkable--what they’d heard was instrumental music.”
* Kim Angelis, classical guitarist Josef and Shadowfax percussionist Stu Nevitt perform tonight at the San Juan Capistrano Regional Library, 31495 El Camino Real, San Juan Capistrano. 7 and 9 p.m. $3 to $5. (714) 248-7469.