Aaron Schwebel is a wonderful violinist, and has a lot of insight into the life of a musician. This is the full transcript of our conversation, which is available in both video and podcast formats, and there are bonus episodes that are linked as well.

Transcript of interview with cellist Rachel Mercer, with links to both podcast and video. In this conversation, we discuss the arc of her career so far as a chamber musician, soloist, principal cellist, the late Yehonatan Berick, an amazing violinist and pedagogue, who was her life partner, "Our Strength, Our Song" with her sister, the wonderful violinist Akemi Mercer-Niewöhner and many other chamber music collaborations and unique projects, as well as her way of approaching music. Rachel very generously made a special recording of the Prelude from J.S. Bach's fifth solo suite in C minor BWV 1011 and her heartfelt introduction to the power of this music is right after our conversation.

Carissa Klopoushak: ” And we'd just play tunes by ear. And my dad would do that with some friends. And then once his kids were old enough, we'd join him and play, saw along. And so it was, I think what I'm really trying to get at, is that musical expression is just part of the way that we all get along. It's something that we do together. And so it was just ever present, I think. And having that be, not something that you do, but something that you are makes it easier to just do it all the time and in different ways. It's an extension, I think. That's how I see it.”

This is Blog post is the full transcript of E2 S1 of Conversations with Musicians with Leah Roseman, with guest Carissa Klopoushak. We spoke of her strong roots, her Ukrainian band Tyt i Tam, the Ironwood String Quartet, being a member of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, and her role as Artistic Director of Chamberfest.

photo credit: Bo Huang