Podcast Interview with Elizabeth LaPrelle

Elizabeth LaPrelle explores timeless truths about people and community through music. On this episode of Trustees Without Borders, LaPrelle discusses her creative practice of animating archival materials and the legacy of old-time music.

Elizabeth LaPrelle has been performing Appalachian ballads and old-time songs since she was eleven. Raised in Rural Retreat, VA, Elizabeth attended old-time fiddlers’ conventions and sang harmonies with her family, who taught her traditional singing styles and encouraged her to sing their favorite American folk music. She has developed her repertoire from neighbors like Jim Lloyd, under the tutelage of powerful female ballad singers like Ginny Hawker and Sheila Kay Adams, and from a wealth of field recordings of legendary singers from the mountains. Elizabeth received her undergraduate degree from the College of William and Mary with a major in Southern Appalachian Traditional Performance, and now tours the U.S. regularly, both performing and teaching.

Interviewers: C. Meranda Flachs-Surmanek, an artist, cultural organizer, and master’s degree candidate in Virginia Tech’s Urban & Regional Planning and Theatre’s: Directing & Public Dialogue programs, and Garland Mason, a PhD student in Agricultural Leadership, Community, and Education