Dear IWG members,
Here's our second edition of the IWG Newsletter! There are important and interesting announcements so make sure to read till the end.
From the IWG
IMPORTANT: MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL
It has been almost a year since we launched the Guild in May 2021, so some of you will be going into the second year. Please be reminded that the pricing will be $25/year from your second year, and that the membership will be renewed automatically.
Some of you have asked how the membership fee is spent, and here is a list of our regular expenses:
- Website hosting, domain, plug-ins
- Design and video editing outsourcing fee
- Honoraria for GWC judges
- Domestic and international shipping of GWC prizes
- Honoraria for the Masterclass instructors
- Zoom Pro account
- Other expenses (bank transfer fees, etc.)
Part of the above is also covered by the GWC participation fee from non-members.
We are looking for volunteers to organize more events and make interesting things happen. Let us know if you are interested in becoming part of the team!
Now without much further ado, please enjoy the exciting whistling news.
// GWC 2021 concluded //
The second GWC concluded on December 12.
Congratulations again to the winners!
1st place - Yusuke Matsumura (Japan/Germany)
2nd place - Brian "The Whistle Tone" Crawley (USA)
3rd place - Sean Devey (USA)
People's Choice - Ayna La Silbaora
You can find the top 10 and rewatch the award ceremony from here:
// WWC 2022 scheduled for October 7-9 in Kawasaki, Japan //
The in-person World Whistlers Convention organized by the JWC is back!
It is scheduled to take place in October in Kawasaki, Japan (near Tokyo).
See below for more details:
Currently the travel restrictions are still in place, but the Japanese government has announced to gradually loosen the restrictions starting March. Though IWG is not the organizer of this event, we are planning to support them in certain ways.
// March 26, "Whistling as a Professional Career" Masterclass by Akiko Shibata //
Three-time world champion, performer, recording artist and educator Akiko Shibata will share her experience as a full-time whistler. The Masterclass will be given in Japanese, with English interpretation by Yuki Takeda. If you have dreamed of pursuing the whistling career, this is a great opportunity to learn from one of the world's top professional whistlers.
IWG Masterclass #2 "Whistling as a Professional Career" by Akiko Shibata
Saturday, March 26, 2022
11PM JST / 7:30PM IST / 3PM CET / 10AM EDT / 7AM PDT
Free admission for IWG members (archive will be available on IWG Members' website)
We will send a separate email with the registration link soon.
// Online event / competition for 2022 in the planning //
We are planning to host GWC 2022 (or potentially another online event) between June and August this year. If you wish to participate, it might be good to start thinking about song selections. We will announce the dates and exact details soon.
// Playlist of the oldest whistling recordings, 1888~1947 //
We received a question through our Ask the Whistler about the oldest records of whistling music. Here is a list of known recordings from the late 19th century and early 20th century. Feel free to suggest more additions to the YouTube playlist.
YouTube playlist
US Library of Congress
Siffleuses: Professional Women Whistlers on Discs 1917-27 (+1907&1947)
Please note that there is discriminatory language against African Americans in some of the song titles and lyrics on the YouTube playlist. We have no intention to bolster the use of such language; on the contrary, we believe it is a history about musical whistling we must know. When we reached out, our fellow African American whistlers explained to us that, in the US, whistling was negatively associated with African Americans in the past, and that for African American artists to sign recording contracts they had no choice but to accept racial slurs.
The quality of the whistling is nonetheless superb and thus we believe that these recordings deserve to be shared.
(The performer "S H Dudley" on one of the YouTube videos is not the black vaudeville performer Sherman Houston Dudley but vaudeville/minstrel show performer Smart Holland Rous.)
// Celebrating Black History Month - Joel Brandon //
Joel A. Brandon (1947-2003) was a professional jazz flutist, composer/arranger, and whistler from the USA. He used his iconic inward whistle technique with which no one has reached his level of dexterity to this day.
His only video footage available online is his appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1986:
However, this performance does not do justice to his whistling abilities.
In an effort to make his achievements known, we have compiled a Spotify playlist of all his existing whistling in other artists' recordings. (It is sheer luck that all his published professional recordings are available on Spotify). You can access the list here:
We have contacted the record label of his 2001 leader album "Haven't We All...?" to request a possible digital distribution of the album. We will share any updates when available.
We hope to have done our share of awareness raising for Black History Month!
Members' news
Please share your news from below!
Share your news !
Please share your news, stories, episodes, YouTube uploads, to be included in our Newsletter. The more news we have the sooner the next Newsletter will come out 🙂
Submit your story here:
(You need to sign-in to see the page.)
Remember to keep it nice and short, and if you have images to accompany, please send a separate email to us at whistlersguild@gmail.com with the title "Newsletter Suggestion".
Kind regards,
IWG Team