Katherine Needleman is a wonderful oboe player,  who has been the principal oboist of the Baltimore Symphony  since 2003. She’s also active as a solist and chamber musician, and is on faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music.  She is a champion of music of our time and you’ll find her recordings and many projects on her website. To many listeners in the Classical Music world, she’s probably better known for her Substack articles and posts on social media that address misogyny, sexual misconduct and assault, and the lack of diversity and equity in the Classical music world. In this conversation you’ll hear about some of her activism and advocacy work , and different aspects of Katherine’s life as a musician, including her work as a composer and educator, and mentors including Jennifer Higdon. Please note the timestamps to navigate the episode.  I regret that I didn’t get into improvisation with her, because she’s also an excellent improvisor and has put out an album of improvised chamber music “The Marmalade Balloon”. Perhaps we can get into this next time she comes on the podcast! Linked here: podcast, video and transcript.

Shakura S'Aida, acclaimed Americana roots soul singer and songwriter  has thrilled global audiences in 31 countries over many years. 

Donna Grantis who performed with Prince for several years, is Shakura’s longtime co-producer and co-writer. Donna praises the three-time Juno Award nominee  as a "powerhouse vocalist whose artistic vision continually inspires me.”

I trust you’ll find this week’s episode an inspiring and uplifting conversation, in which we’re highlighting Shakura’s new album Hold on to Love. We also talked about her career in acting, and she shared some of her experiences on the set of Schitt’s Creek. Shakura shared many valuable insights in this wide-ranging interview, and  you can watch this on my YouTube channel or listen to the podcast  and I’ve also linked the transcript.

Yann Passabet-Labiste is a French violinist with a beautiful warm intensity to his playing, and in this episode we’re focussing on his album “Robert Schumann et son univers” with pianist Bertrand Giraud. Yann talks about some of his mentors in France and Switzerland, many interesting and inspiring musical highlights and his perspectives on how music has helped him through some difficult challenges.   The podcast, video and transcript are all linked here.

Ida Gillner is very special musician based in Sweden, and in this episode you’ll hear the powerful story of her personal journey, embracing different cultures, and also the comforting power of music.  Ida is a multi-instrumentalist and composer; her main instruments are soprano saxophone, piano and voice.  In the first part of this episode we focus on her project Shtolstse lider, her songs set to the poetry of some of Yiddish’s greatest women writers. You’ll hear about Ida’s childhood on the island of Asperö, forging her own path in different world music traditions, and  the Finnish tango group Anna Heikkinen and Längtans Kapell. We also talked about her solo album “Anna” dedicated to her sister, and how the process of writing and recording this healing music comforted her through the shock of her family’s loss. Ida’s path in music reveals a powerful story of embracing different cultures through music, and the comforting power of music. 

DeWitt Fleming Jr. is a multi-talented and brilliant performer, renowned for his tap dancing, choreography and acting, and is also a singer and drummer. As he said to me in this interview “when I’m tap dancing I’m drumming”. You’ll hear about his experience growing up in the Projects, the importance of attending an Arts high school, the usefulness of theatre training for musicians, and insights into memorization, mindset and performing. He shared his experiences working with Wynton Marsalis, meeting his wife the actor and singer Jennie Harney-Fleming, with whom he’s presently performing A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical,  his experiences with Cirque du Soleil and touring internationally with Riverdance, and most recently playing both drums and performing tap with the Hot Sardines in Tokyo. 

Like all my episodes, you can watch this on my YouTube channel or listen to the podcast on all the podcast platforms, and I’ve also linked the transcript 

I was honored to be able to record this wide-ranging interview with violinist Yale Strom, who is the leading ethnographer-artist of Klezmer music and history, and also has done many years of research among the Roma communities. He speaks to us about some of his many inspiring experiences during over 75 research expeditions to Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans. To prepare for this episode, I read several of his books, including his 400 page The Book of Klezmer: The History, The Music, The Folklore, some of which we touched on during this conversation, and he also spoke about two of his upcoming books and other projects. Yale is an energetic and prolific creator; he’s also a filmmaker, photographer, educator, playwright and composer, and we spoke about many of his projects during this wide-ranging interview.  

Nimrod Borenstein is a brilliant composer, who was a child prodigy as both a composer and performer. His often complex music is beloved by performers and audiences alike, and has been widely recorded and performed internationally. He is also a renowned conductor, and he spoke to me about his difficult decision to cut short his career as a violin soloist in order to find alternate career options as he developed his career as a composer. Vladimir Ashkenazy has been an active champion of Nimrod’s music, and you’ll hear the charming story of their first meeting.  Ashkenazy first conducted Borenstein’s orchestral work The Big Bang and Creation of the Universe op. 52 to great acclaim, and the Chandos label released a very successful album devoted to Borenstein’s music conducted by Ashkenazy featuring his Violin Concerto and orchestral works.  Nimrod shares his insights about interpreting music for performers and conductors, the development of his compositional style and his views on creativity in general. Nimrod has an infectious energy in his enthusiasm for the pursuit of beauty.  Nimrod has exceptional parents, and you’ll hear how they met, and we start with Nimrod’s close relationship to his father the renowned painter Alec Borenstein. 

Mark Growden is a brilliant, curious, and expressive American multi-faceted musician.  He’s a multi-instrumentalist, composer, singer, music educator, conductor, and visual artist. In this episode we focus on his large and varied instrument collection and he demonstrates several unusual instruments, including different jaw harps, biclycle handebars, and overtone flutes. He shares his unique journey, and how he developed new skills in response to different challenges and opportunities. I was fascinated to hear about his inspiring recent trip to Kyrgyzstan, about many of his mentors and collaborators, and his expressive approach to musicianship training.   Mark has devoted his life to making music for other people and to helping other people make music for themselves, and he is an advocate for openess about respect and understanding for people with neurodivergence and mood disorders. Mark  is the founder and Artistic Director of The Calling All Choir, The Chromatic Community Music Center, SF SingFest, and The SF Jaw Harp Choir. He has released several critically acclaimed albums and has toured the US extensively. He has composed original musical scores for dozens of dance and theater companies and scored several films.

Omo Bello is a French-Nigerian operatic soprano , and in this episode we are focussing on her newly-released album “African Art Song” on Somm recordings with pianist Rebeca Omordia. Many of you heard my episode this past summer with pianist and curator of the African Concert Series, Rebeca Omordia, and I’ll be linking that episode in the show notes  for you.  

Omo talked to me about overcoming shyness and stage fright,  her childhood and university years in Lagos, Nigeria, and some of her mentors including Grace Bumbry and Thomas Quasthoff.  I was fascinated to gain insights from her life as an opera singer, and to learn about many of the composers from Africa and the African diaspora featured on this wonderful album, including Ayo Bankole, Fred Onovwerosuoke,  Ishaya Yaron, Chirstian Onyeji and Shirley Thompson . 

Gilad Weiss takes us on a visit to his music studio and improvises on several of his instruments, including the fretless guitar, and some of the instruements from Turkey and Central Asia, such as the kopuz, the baglama and the Turkmenistani dutar. He also spoke to me about his duo project with the Anatolian kamanche player Melisa Yildirim and we’re including a track from their beautiful album, which is linked in the show notes for this episode along with Gilad’s album Improvisations on Fretless Guitar Volume 1, and the ways to connect with Gilad. He shared his valuable insights about teaching music, and teaching the guitar, improvisation and interesting details about the modes and tuning systems for the various instruments he demonstrates. This episode has a lot of improvised music; Gilad spent much of the interview with an instrument in his hand; please use the detailed timestamps to navigate the episode, which like all my episodes you can either watch on my YouTube or listen to on all the podcast platforms. 

I was honoured to have this opportunity to record this conversation with the phenomenal violinist Sara Caswell, who is a GRAMMY Nominee for the Best Improvised Jazz Solo. We focused on the recent 9 Horses album, Strum with mandolinist and composer Joseph Brent, and she also spoke to me about some of her other collaborators including esperanza spalding, Chuck Owen, Nadje Noordhuis, and mentors including David Baker, Mimi Zweig and Josef Gingold. She shared how she started playing the 10 stringed Hardanger d’amore, her rich early musical life in Bloomington, and how she is grounded and inspired from her family and friends. 

Mark Deutsch is a brilliant and unique musician who has devoted the last 3 decades of his life to his instrument the Bazantar, which is unique to him. There is only one Bazantar, which is a double bass hybrid with elements of the sitar:  it has 6 main strings, 4 drone strings, and 29 sympathetic strings. Mark grew up as a multi-instrumentalist, but primarily a classical, jazz and rock bass player, and gave up a successful career as a performer to devote himself to the Bazantar. While studying sitar with Ustad Imrat Khan, Mark begin delving into the universal fundamentals of music and its underlying frequency structures. The nonlinear mathematical patterns that exist in sound are found universally in the natural world, includeng seashells, and Mark goes into some of the math of the overtone series in some detail, as well as fascinating specifics of how the Bazantar and his playing of it have evolved.  You’ll hear Mark talk about how he developed his patented engineering solution to construct a separate housing for the sympathetic strings. In this episode, Mark demonstrated live, and also is sharing not only excerpts from previously released recordings, but a preview from an upcoming album. 

Trumpeter, composer and conductor Stephen Burns is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Fulcrum Point New Music Project in Chicago. He has been acclaimed on four continents for his virtuosity and interpretative depth in recitals, orchestral appearances, chamber music, and multi-media performances. He has worked closely with many composers such as John Corigliano and  Gunther Schuller. In this interview you’ll hear him talk about some of his mentors including Arnold Jacobs, and Pierre Thibaud. Stephen Burns won several important competitions and awards which helped launch his solo career at a young age,  the Maurice André Concours International de Paris, but touring internationally brings challenges which he discussed candidly with me. Stephen has worked closely with Madeline Bruser and is a certified teacher in the Art of Practicing. 

We talked about mindfulness, the importance of a  student-centered approach to teaching, the deep connection to your audience,programming innovative programs, and specific advice for not only brass players and musicians, but for all of us. 

This episode is a special short Catch-Up episode with the Klezmer violinist and composer Alicia Svigals. I first spoke with her in 2021 in Season 1 of this podcast, and that wide-ranging in-depth conversation is linked in the show notes. Today we are focusing on Alicia’s new album Fidl Afire, with several excerpts from the album with her insights. 

Meg Okura is an award-winning Jazz composer and brilliant Grammy-nominated violinist, and the leader and founder of the  Pan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble. This episode features several excerpts from Meg’s wonderful recent duo album “Lingering” with the Grammy Award-winning jazz pianist and composer  Kevin Hays. This  was a wide-ranging conversation, including Meg’s musical tribute to Ryuichi Sakamoto, her experiences playing for Cirque du Soleil,  some of the challenges she’s faced, and about her search for a new spiritual community.  She shared with me her thoughts on mentorship and the power of music to create real understanding and connection. This 2024 interview is linked here to all the podcast platforms, YouTube, and the transcript.

I have known the Canadian cellist Julia MacLaine for many years in her role asAssistant Principal Cello of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, of which I am also a member. In this episode we’re highlighting her gorgeous album Preludes which pairs the Preludes of J.S. Bach for Cello solo and with newly commissioned works for solo cello by Canadian composers.  Julia and I talked about many things, including how best to address  the challenges of maintaining high levels of playing and inspiration, studying the craft of songwriting with the legendary Ian Tamblyn , the intricacies of putting together ambitious projects,  her childhood in Prince Edward Island,  and strategies to cope with performance anxiety. It was really inspiring to hear some of the wisdom Julia gained from her mentors including Timothy Eddy and the late Antonio Lysy. This episode features excerpts of music from Preludes including that of J.S. Bach, Airat Ichmouratov, Carmen Braden, Roy Johnstone and Nicole Lizée. 

 Like all my episodes, you can watch this on my YouTube channel or listen to the podcast, and I’ve also linked the transcript here.

This special interview with the Dutch singer Ineke Vandoorn focuses on her album with Jasper van ’t Hof, “Dancing on Water”, with lots of music from the album. You’ll also get to hear of her inspirational experience learning from Betty Carter. 

Joe K. Walsh is an acclaimed master of bluegrass mandolin and a professor at Berklee College, and in this episode you’ll hear about many of his inspiring collaborations including with Darol Anger, Mike Block, Grant Gordy, Alex Hargreaves and Mike Marshall. We are also featuring some music from some of his albums inluding “If Not Now, Who?” We talked about Joe’s approach as an educator, the challenges and joys of the touring life, the importance of innovation and taking chances musically. Joe’s love of music and the mandolin shines brightly in this candid conversation. The podcast, video and transcript versions of this interview are all linked here.

This episode features Bad Snacks, a producer and multi-instrumentalist known for the use of violin, with lofi and dance influences. We talked about her experience when she went viral on Andrew Huang’s “4 Producers Flip the Same Sample” challenge with over 4.5M views, dealing with online boundaries, with sexism, finding inspiration, and  enjoying the learning process. Bad Snacks is also an educator; she coaches fellow producers privately, runs a successful YouTube channel where she posts content related to music technology and beat breakdowns. Due to her love for cutting-edge music tech, she has worked as a key demonstrator with several of the industry’s largest names like Ableton, Roland,  and Moog. She has also taught as an Assistant Professor at Berklee College of Music for Electronic Production & Design. We talked about her unique educational path and choices she’s made along the way to carve out a successful career, and in fact what success really means. She spoke thoughtfully about important topics such as music education, developing creativity, imposter syndrome and keeping a healthy perspective. 

This is a special episode of my podcast, celebrating Volume 1 with my improvising ensemble Collected Strands. The other musicians in the group have all been featured previously on this series, and you’ll find the links to those episodes in the show notes with cellist Raphael Weinroth-Browne, pianist James McGowan and drummer Mike Essoudry. I’m also delighted that you will get to know the inspiring Australian artist, educator and author Maryanne Moodie who’s woven art graces the cover of this album. You’ll find the links to her work in the show notes as well. I am also releasing the interview with Maryanne as a separate stand-alone bonus episode connected to this episode. I feel that all my listeners who love music and creativity will find that Maryanne’s personal journey and perspectives will resonate strongly with them, and I hope some listeners in the weaving and art world will also be inspired by the musicians!

We are including excerpts from the album during this episode, and you’ll find all the links to buy and stream this music