We had the good fortune of connecting with Ruth Weber and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ruth, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
When I decided to make music my career I knew that I would eventually need to include starting my own business. A large portion of musicians make some part of their living teaching privately, or performing as freelance musicians. I am fortunate in that I enjoy working at so many different music jobs; music education, choral directing, performing as a classical musician, and performing as a children’s music artist. The same is true for my daughter Emilia. We enjoy the variety this brings to our lives. There is always something new happening and this keeps life interesting. We began performing children’s music together when Emilia was only 3 years old. Over 20 years later we started up our kids performances again and we have found it so rewarding. When parents write to us and tell us their child asks to hear our albums over and over again there is nothing better than that!

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My daughter, Emilia, and I are both classically trained musicians, and work as performers and music educators at several different institutions. Appearing as our kids characters Ruth (URR the alien) and Emilia, (a little girl) is the icing on the cake of our musical activities. Our performances are different from other children’s musician’s shows because they are actually interactive mini-musicals for kids, with storylines that include positive messages about acceptance of others and taking care of the environment. We offer free, fun, educational activities and lessons on our website so that kids can continue to enjoy us after our show is over. We are really excited about the Parent’s Choice Award and Mom’s Choice Gold Award we recently received for our newly released album. Getting to this place in our journey has not been easy and has involved a lot of beating the bushes for work and opportunities to get to where we are today. We had not foreseen this unusual Covid-19 time coming, and we were forced to cancel the CD release party for our new “Kokowanda Bay” album, and all the performances on our West Coast Summer 2020 tour. Emilia and I live in separate cities, but because everyone is working from home now, Emilia was able to come stay in San Diego with me for the summer. In this wonderful window together we have produced 3 new videos and seen a chance to give back to the community by setting up a free weekly Sunday-Funday concert series. The series takes place at 12:00pm Sunday (PT) live on Instagram and Facebook where kids can learn our songs and dance routines and learn to make a short, eco-friendly craft each week. This has proven to be very rewarding for us and has expanded our outreach to many online audiences we had never reached before! We are going to be doing some pre-recorded concerts for libraries and schools and are trying to make lemonade out of lemons while we can, and enjoy this opportunity to be together!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If friends of our were coming to town here are some not to be missed places we would take them to! Day 1- Old Town- to see where San Diego made its start and for lunch at Mi Guadalajara for awesome Mexican food! Day 2- Balboa Park and the San Diego Zoo Day 3- Coronado Island with a stop at the Hotel Del Coronado to see the lobby and shops. Day 4- Escondido-Crusin Grand on Friday nights in the summer, to see classic cars, shops and taste good food from a variety of restaurants Day 5- La Jolla to walk the beaches and shops with special stops at the children’s pool to see the seals and The Cove Day 6- The Gaslamp District and Seaport Village, with a stop at Ghiradelli’s for wonderful ice cream sundaes! Day 7- Include some of our favorite restaurants The Godfather Restaurant- Italian, The Butcher Shop- outstanding steaks, Buds- for authentic Louisiana Cajun cuisine

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
We know that the success of Ruth and Emilia comes from the support of our family. My husband, John Weber, runs the sound and set-up for our live shows and creates all our amazing props. My sister, Suzanne Parlett, of Parlett Design, creates all the cover art and booklet artwork for our albums, in addition to creating most of our promotional materials. My son, and Emilia’s brother, Enrico Lopez-Yañez is a co-writer on many of our songs and is the primary arranger on our albums.

Website: https://www.ruthandemilia.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ruthandemilia/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RuthandEmilia/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKLjftKG_9HZax525npOLVw

Other: Spotify (Ruth and Emilia)-https://open.spotify.com/artist/6YdZN8VEkerAGuOtQkuFGR Pandora Radio (Ruth and Emilia)-https://www.pandora.com/artist/ruth-and-emilia-childrens/ARjx6wfbKc2Zk9K https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/ruth-and-emilia/1339016191 https://www.amazon.com/Kokowanda-Bay-Ruth-Emilia/dp/B083XX3QRR/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?keywords=Kokowanda+Bay+by+Ruth+and+Emilia&qid=