Full transcript of my conversation with the engaging Veronica Thomas, a violinist, educator and General Director of the Preville Fine Arts Centre in Montreal. We talked about her unique and interesting childhood, and the wonderful and special work that the Preville Centre is doing, including their unique online offerings, the outreach they’ve been doing with remote Indigenous communities, and Veronica’s personal perspectives on her life in music. Included are links to the video, and podcast, with bonus episodes.

Complete transcript for wide-ranging interview with Josh “Socalled” Dolgin. We start with his remix of Curried Soul for CBC radio's daily show As It Happens, and circle around to topics including: sampling, Yiddish culture, changes in the industry from when he got his start selling CDs mail-order to touring internationally and collaborating with many musicians, including the funk legend Fred Wesley, David Krakauer, Kiran Ahulwalia, Itzhak Perlman, Theodore Bikel, writing musical theatre, puppets, art...here's a chance for all of us to get to know the creative force known as Josh "Socalled" Dolgin.

Full transcript of interview with traditional Québecois fiddler Alexis Chartrand, with links to video, podcast, and bonus episodes. In Episode 5, Season 1 of Conversations with Musicians with Leah Roseman, we get to hear some beautifully realized traditional tunes from Québec from traditional fiddler Alexis Chartrand. He talks about both groove and ornamentation in different traditional styles of fiddling. He talks very thoughtfully and about his background as a son of dancers, his explorations of tone colour with baroque violin, his upcoming performances at a number of festivals, and some of his musical influences and inspiration.

Alexis Chartrand: “I learned a lot from step dancers, listening to the sound of their feet, to the inherent groove that they've developed. To me that's really the basis of my practice of the bow, all of the rhythms that we have to summon with the traditional style of bowing. Personally is deeply, deeply related to the practice of step dancing in Quebec.”

Full transcript with podcast and video links for interview with renowned bassoonist Christopher Millard. We covered many fascinating topics, including: Advice for music students, the art of reed-making, the physics of sound production on bassoon and violin, the advantages of studying jazz, musicians' difficulty with retiring,Marcel Moyse, the legendary Flute teacher and mentor, World Orchestra for Peace with Gergiev, the neuroscience of practicing music better, and conductors.

Christopher Millard: “So, when does the sum exceed the parts and all that? And it's very hard to know, even from physical presence. You actually need to be having the site line. You need to see the eyes. You need to feel the flow of energy back and forth on stage to really know what's working or doesn't, which is why I'm always amused when I see critics writing about concerts. Or people writing about this conductor is great, and this conductor is mediocre, or this concert ... Bless their hearts. I wouldn't be able to rate any better than they are. And I'm experienced doing it. It's really an elusive craft. And if I have a different perspective on conductors, I have a sympathy for them generally, because I think it's very difficult to do.”

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

Patty Chan is an erhu player, educator and author of “Bridging the Gap”, the first English instructional book for erhu players. She talked to me about Chinese traditional music, demonstrated different types of instruments in the erhu family with some beautiful music, including “River of Sorrow” and spoke about her work expanding the repertoire of the Toronto Chinese orchestra by collaborating with Canadian composers. The complete transcript is here, along with links to the video, bonus episodes and podcast.

Patty Chan: ““Initially, it was bringing music back from Asia and trying to play the music here, but then gradually I thought we're in Canada. Why not try to encourage Canadian composers to write for these instruments and for the orchestra and see how we can develop our own identity? And I think that has possibly captured the attention of some people in China and Asia where they think you have your own music. Well, that's interesting. Let's hear what the music is like. And so I think that's really important for us to continue developing in North America, not just always rely on Asia.”

In my interview with the kora player, singer and songwriter Sophie Lukacs we hear her very unique and personal story and also learn about this beautiful instrument. This is the full transcript of the interview, and includes links to the video and podcast. She gives us an introduction to the challenges of playing and mastering the kora, and how different it was from her violin studies. She talks about the challenges of immigrating to Canada from Hungary as a child, and then of her discovery of the kora.

Yosuke Kawasaki is a wonderful violinist and the Concertmaster of the National Arts Centre Orchestra Canada. He spoke about his experiences studying with the legendary Dorothy Delay, the inspiration he found in many of his peers growing up, and we talked about his role as a Concertmaster and his advice for young colleagues entering the profession (and that advice I feel applies to anyone in their life!). photo credit: Rémi Thériault

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

Interview with violinist Lynn Kuo E2 S2 Conversations with Musicians with Leah Roseman: In this wide-ranging discussion we covered a lot of topics, some of which include: Lynn’s online courses, injury prevention, performance anxiety, Lorand Fenyves, lessons learned and advice for musicians in a post-pandemic world.

Full transcript of E1 S2 Eva Slongo Conversations with Musicians with Leah Roseman, available both podcast and video: her journey from the Classical violin world to jazz, how she got started with her online courses, studying with Pierre Blanchard, Joan Renard, Didier Lockwood, her new album, balancing family life, challenges for women in jazz, her creative process.

Kirsty Money“And also the technique is different and it's something that I have to work on all the time. Because with a nyckelharpa, you don't want to crush the sound. Whereas when you're bowing on a violin, you want to put your arm weight from your back into the string so that you can get the string spinning.

Well, because you have all of these resonators on the nyckelharpa, you just want to start it resonating and then let it go. So it's like shooting arrows or something. So when you start, once I'm gliding on the string, you got to take the weight out. That was the hardest thing and still is the hardest thing for me in terms of it being just automatic, because especially if I'm playing going from violin to nyckelharpa, the bowing technique is quite different. The left hand I can figure out. Like when you're shifting up high on a violin, you got to have your fingering in a little plan to how you're going to get down, and it's the same thing. It's exactly same thing on the nyckelharpa, except you have keys and you got to get used to where your keys are on your instrument and muscle memory and all that. But the bowing is very different.”