San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
Meet the voice behind 400 audiobooks
Author and narrator Julia Whelan talks awards, Hollywood and her book ‘Thank You for Listening’
Julia Whelan is a bestselling author, a screenwriter, an actor, a Grammy Award-nominated audiobook director and an award-winning audiobook narrator. How does she select the book to bring to life through her voice?
“Usually, it just comes down to scheduling,” Whelan said. “There are authors I’ve been working with for a decade whose books I prioritize, and there are audiobook producers who know my tastes so well that if they send something my way, I do everything I can to make it happen.
“A lot of it comes down to a gut feeling,” she said. “There isn’t time to read the book before deciding, so I have to base my decision on the synopsis. If my instinctive response is, ‘I’d buy this from a bookstore,’ then I say yes.”
Whelan has narrated more than 400 audiobooks in different genres. She has won many awards, including the Audie Award for best female narrator of 2019 and won Audiofile Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Golden Voice Award in 2020.
She’s considered one of the top narrators in the industry today.
Her own books include “My Oxford Year” and “Thank You for Listening.”
Whelan will be co-hosting, with Allison Winn Scotch, the halftime portion of Adventures by the Book’s “Super Book IV: A San Diego Adventure” featuring 22 New York Times bestselling authors on Feb. 16 at Admiral Baker Golf Course Clubhouse.
Q:
How did it feel when you won the 2019 Audie Award for best female narrator and autobiography/memoir
“Thank You for Listening”
by Julia Whelan (2022, Avon; 432 pages)
for your narration of “Educated: A Memoir” by Tara Westover?
A:
It was obviously an incredible honor. I have to give most of the credit to Tara and her amazing book. I never thought I’d win best female narrator for a memoir because I wasn’t “acting,” per se. I purposefully restrained my performance, not wanting to impose any interpretive choices on Tara’s very real story. There’s probably a lesson to be learned here about not chewing the scenery, but I’ve stubbornly refused to learn it. You can take the girl out of Hollywood, etc.
Q:
Do you think artificial intelligence will replace live narrated books?
A:
I choose to believe AI won’t replace human narration completely. It’ll absolutely change the market — it already has — but we can coexist. There’ll be certain books, whether because of complexity or emotional content or structure, it can’t adequately do. The latest Cormac Mccarthy novel, “Stella Maris,” that I co-narrated with Edoardo Ballerini, is a perfect example. Besides, some listeners will prefer the nuance and surprise that we bring to the narration. Some people still buy handcrafted artisanal products even though mass-produced ones are cheaper. There are people who resist this societal need we seem to have to dehumanize every interaction and transaction. Really, it’s up to the humans in the decisionmaking chain — authors, editors, audio producers — to decide we’re worth it.
Q:
Can you describe Sarah Westholme and Brock Mcnight,the characters in your latest book?
A:
They are the fictional audiobook narrators in “Thank You for Listening,” and those are the pseudonyms they use when recording romance, which they happen to be doing together for the first
time, co-narrating
Finnish conductor Tarmo Peltokoski has garnered praise, become friends with famed pianist Yuja Wang and earned invitations to lead prestigious European orchestras. The 22-year-old is making his U.S. debut with a pair of San Diego Symphony concerts this week.
“He’s an up-and-coming star,” said the symphony’s concertmaster, Jeff Thayer, who will do his violin showcase at the performances.
“It’s hard as a young conductor to have the confidence and experience that go hand in hand, but he’s getting it. When you’re an assistant or associate conductor, it’s difficult to get the experience. He’s clearly doing great things.”
Peltokoski hails from the same country as acclaimed composer Esa-pekka Salonen, the music director of the San Francisco Symphony.
“Here’s a fun fact which might be interesting for your readers,” Peltokoski said from a recent tour stop in Milan. “Esa is the only conductor I’ve ever assisted. Many, many people who end up as conductors spend a lot of time as assistants before that. I’ve only worked for one conductor for one week!
“One can’t become a conductor unless it’s by conducting orchestras. One needs teachers and mentors, but it really needs to be self-taught at the end of the day.”
If 2022 was any indication, Peltokoski’s self-teaching method was extremely effective.
Last January, he was named the principal guest conductor for Germany’s Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. In the spring, he became the music and artistic director for the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra. In September, Peltokoski became principal guest conductor for the Rotterdam Philharmonisch Orkest in the Netherlands. And last month, Peltokoski was tapped for a five-year stint as the music director of France’s Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, beginning September 2024.
Peltokoski’s San Diego concerts with violinist Thayer as the soloist will take place Thursday at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, and Friday at Southwestern College Performing Arts Center in Chula Vista.
Expanding repertoire
Originally trained as a pianist, Peltokoski’s 2022 debut with the Rotterdam orchestra was especially noteworthy. After conducting a concert featuring Chinese piano phenom Wang, he and Wang duetted for several audience-pleasing encores. Now close friends, they hope to do more collaborations.
For this week’s concerts, Peltokoski has chosen music written by two of his fellow Finns, the awardwinning Kaija Saariaho and the country’s best-known composer, Jean Sibelius.
“Peltokoski will undoubtedly bring his personal and national perspective to the second symphony,” Thayer said. “It’s Sibelius’ most famous and unique in terms of the musical language.”
“It’s almost cliché for a Finnish conductor to bring that piece,” Peltokoski said. “But it has one of the most triumphant endings in all of music. People love to hear it.”
Thayer will play Mozart’s third violin concerto, also known as the “Strassburg Concerto,” at this week’s concerts. He chose it because he had previously performed Mozart’s first two violin concertos.
In his 18 years of being the San Diego Symphony’s concertmaster — who is featured annually as a soloist with the orchestra —– Thayer has repeated a piece only twice.
“The biggest advantage of performing each year is that I keep expanding my repertoire of concerti,” he said. “It gives me an opportunity to be in front of the orchestra, which is a real privilege. I certainly grow each time I do this.
“Most violinists have played Mozart’s third violin concerto. It’s brand new for me. It’s a major part of the
repertoire, so it’s a wonderful chance for me to do it.”
Peltokoski also will be expanding his repertoire in coming years. Born in Finland to a Filipino mother and Finnish father — neither of whom was musically inclined — he began studying piano at 8 and conducting at 14.
As a child, Peltokoski visited the Philippines occasionally and led the Manila Symphony Orchestra in 2019.
“My mom never spoke Filipino to me,” he said. “I spent my childhood eating rice. That’s the most important connection! She adapted to Finnish culture. I’m quite fully Finnish.”
Before his San Diego debut, Peltokoski has two dates with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
“I have visited the U.S. but that was years ago,” he said. “I will be excited to see it for the first time from a professional perspective. I’m looking forward to many decades of North American visits.”
Music and politics
Conductor positions usually open up due to illness or retirement. But Peltokoski can credit international politics for his job with the Rotterdam Philharmonic.
Last September, the Dutch orchestra appointed him guest conductor after renowned Russian conductor Valery Gergiev — who had held that position since 1988 —– refused to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“When it became clear than Gergiev would not condemn and make judgment against his best pal, Putin, the orchestra simply couldn’t have him anymore,” Peltokoski said. “Rotterdam had a relationship with him lasting 35 years, so it is a sad turn of events.
“No matter how great a musician he is — and Gergiev is a great musician — Western orchestras simply cannot work with a man (who is) openly a close friend of a war criminal.
“As a Finnish person, having our entire eastern border with Russia, the problem is more present for me than for people not so near.”