Maria Gillard is the REAL DEAL. A natural and talented singer, songwriter, and educator from the Finger Lakes Region of New York State, she is best known as a folk musician. Of late, she has grown to embrace a wider style range including jazz, swing, and blues. Maria’s songs offer wise, humorous, and sometimes painful observations on life and relationships. Her compelling voice draws you into her lyrics which, when combined with memorable melodies, head straight for the heart. Her performances are soul stirring, evocative, contagious, lively and energizing. She has a warm, inviting, natural flair, which leaves audiences wanting more and coming back!
Currently, she leads the Maria Gillard Trio, accompanied by Perry Cleaveland on mandolin and vocals, and Doug Henrie on Upright Bass. The bass and mandolin add both an intimate and driving musical background to her heartfelt original songs. Perry and Doug bring their experiences performing together in bluegrass outfits like the Finger Lakes All Stars and Rebecca and the Chore Lads which help fuse a magical energy in the Maria Gillard Trio. Their new recording ALWAYS LOVE, is getting rave reviews.
As an educator, Maria received a bachelor’s degree in Music Education from SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music. She is a voice instructor and directs a vocal jazz ensemble at Finger Lakes Community College in Canandaigua, New York. She is the recipient of the 2020 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Adjunct Teaching. She has worked for the Aesthetic Education Institute as a teaching artist, given concerts and held songwriting workshops in schools and nursing homes for many years. She teaches private voice, piano and guitar lessons in her home and has toured as a folk musician throughout the Northeast.
Folksinger, songwriter, musician, educator!
https://www.facebook.com/MariaGillardMusic
PRESS:
“Maria Gillard comes in peace. The songs she carefully writes reach across boundaries and realms, holding the light up to dark truths and finding beauty in the stories we tell. How Gillard manages to capture life’s pain and sorrow, yet stay so delightfully high-spirited is something to behold.”
-Katie Preston, Rochester CITY NEWS
“Maria Gillard has graced our stage on many occasions, never failing to please audiences with her combination of fine-tailored original songs, impeccable musicianship, and relaxed, welcoming stage presence. In recent years. She has put together a crackerjack trio, featuring Mandolin God Perry Cleaveland on mando, fiddle and harmony vocals, and Doug Henrie, heir to family musical tradition, on bass fiddle.”
-Allen Hopkins, Tunes by the Tracks, Clifton Springs, NY
“Maria is tuned to introspective vibes. If a group of women, say a bridal party getting together before a wedding, relaxed in a Finger Lakes location and played Gillard’s music for hours, they’d find that she hits every note on love, separation, loss of parents, struggling to be the woman they want to be, family relationships, parenting, personal tragedy, hope and fulfillment. There is such gentle urge and understanding in her voice, such joy and empathy in the lyrics, it’s not hard for someone to think, ‘This is my sister singing about something we both feel.’”
-John Addyman, “Folk Music with a Flair”, 55 PLUS Magazine, Rochester, NY
There is a timeless quality to the way Maria Gillard expresses the passage of time on her new release, Always Love. From the opening song’s invitation, Call On Me, through to the enduring, unshakeable foundation of We Are the Peacekeepers, there is a trust in hope for the future. Using elements of swing, bluegrass and folk, her truthful songwriting shines in the gently elegant musicianship of her bandmates. Living in Upstate New York one gets used to cloudy days. Maria brings the sunshine on her new recording, and love, Always Love, no matter where you may be living. I also like she mentions baseball.
~Scott Regan, Open Tunings, WRUR 88.5 Rochester
With “Always Love,” local acoustic musician Maria Gillard winds up and lets fly with a new, 10-track CD full of wry wit and easy-going Americana that swings a bit. The music variously comes off as melancholic and clever.
~Frank DeBlase, City News, Rochester, NY
I am very much enjoying getting to know Maria’s music and her terrific trio. It’s like she is in the room talking to me over a cup of tea and a nice slab of pound cake! A song that just made me say WOW repeatedly: “When Will the Clock Stop Ticking”
~ Marilyn Rey Beyer, Midnight Special, WFMT
Maria reminds me of [the 1960’s] era of folk music because she sings genuinely, is unselfconsciously a folk musician and writes her own stuff.
—Ken Hardley, Rolling Hill Radio Hour Host, WRFA, 107.9 Jamestown, NY
