Chuck Copenace is a Winnipeg-based Ojibway musician from Animakee Wazhing 37. This is the transcript of my interview with him, and the podcast and video links are linked with the shownotes as well. In this episode, we talk about Chuck’s excellent album Oshki Manitou, which expands his work as a trumpet player, arranger, and composer. He’s woven together ceremonial sweat-lodge melodies with jazz, funk, dance and electronica and this episode features tracks from that album. He’s such a powerfully lyrical trumpet player, and you’ll be deeply touched to hear his inspiring story of moving through trauma and addiction to helping others through counseling and music.

The full transcript of my interview with J. Walter Hawkes. The podcast, video and show notes are linked here. J. Walter Hawkes is a 4-time Emmy-winning composer for the PBS series Peg + Cat and Wonder Pets, is a renowned jazz trombone player, and also performs as a jazz vocalist, ukulele player, and pianist. As a young man, he survived a horrible accident which changed the course of his life. We talk about this and his mentors including the legendary Slide Hampton, how he got into composing for Blues Clues, and many hilarious and heart-warming personal stories. Those of you who listened to my episode with Pat Irwin will remember his album Wide Open Sky with Walter, and we’re featuring two pieces from that album in this episode along with an impromptu performance of Cole Porter’s Get Out of Town. Walter’s love of adventure really comes through in this conversation, and it’s really inspiring to hear how he’s built such an interesting career in music.

Immanuel Abraham is a very special musican, who is an inspiring violinist, educator and composer. His phenomenal talent, discipline and creativity is even more inspiring since he didn’t have an opportunity to learn a musical instrument until the age of 14 and 4 years later, he was auditioning for the renowned University of Michigan in violin performance, playing the same Paganini caprice he’d heard Ithak Perlman play on Shalom Sesame as a child. He speaks candidly in this interview about his perseverence in the face of very difficult challenges. He’s well-known on social media as The Violin Doctor, which is a Dr. Who reference, but Immanuel actually is Doctor of Musical Arts, awarded from the University of Arizona. When he was a student, in an effort to learn as much as he could that was violin-related, he started The Violin Guild which is an amazingly supportive Facebook group of over 60,000 string players worldwide. Our conversation focused on different aspects of music education, personal development, and you’ll get to hear some clips of Immanuel performing some of his 24 Caprices for solo violin.

Full transcript of my conversation with the amazing award-winning singer, songwriter and motivational speaker Kellylee Evans. “But it's been a blessing to be able to talk to people because you get to share your story. That's really special. But then in the question and answer part, people start to share their story and you get to see how alike so many of us are and that that thread of humanity just keeps passing through. And when you hear people just respond like, "Wow, that's exactly what I've been feeling or that's what happened. And I haven't been able to talk about it." It's a beautiful job in that way. The songwriting aspect it's like I get to say things maybe that some other people may not want to say, but they're feeling. I get to make music that can touch somebody on a specific day, music that can grow with a person.” Links are included for both podcast and video.

Photo credit: Phantom Productions