Interview with the pioneering percussion soloist Lisa Pegher. The podcast, video and transcript are all linked here. Lisa Pegher is a brilliant American percussion soloist and drummer, and also a composer, improvisor and software engineer. She is known for pioneering percussion as a solo instrument within the orchestral realm and beyond, making it her life’s work to present percussion to larger audiences by commissioning, collaborating, and creating new works and performances that bring percussion to the front of the stage.cently, she premiered a We talked about her new concerto/show, "Circuits and Skins," written for her by Paul Dooley, which explores ways to meld orchestra with Electronic Dance Music, and also her project A.I.RE (ARtificial Iintelligence Rhythm Evolution. You’ll hear about her perspectives on self-care, social media, the value of mentors, and a fascinating variety of her performances during this episode.

Jessica Cottis is an acclaimed orchestral conductor, and in this wide-ranging interview you’ll gain insights into the special world of orchestral conductors and also some of Jessica’s interests in the natural world and the arts. She spoke to me about her musical path, from how she made her first trumpet, to life on a sheep farm, to her transition from a career as a concert organist, to lessons learned from conducting mentors including Colin Davis and Colin Metters. Jessica is such an articulate champion of the value of music and the arts, and I’ve also been privileged to have worked with her in my role as a violinist in Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra. I have a special interest in synesthesia, so I was interested in hearing her experience of sound through colour, and if you look at the description of this episode, you’ll find detailed timestamps for the many topics covered, inluding some beautiful music from Julie Cooper’s new album Oculus with Jessica Cottis conducting. Jessica also shared her difficult recovery from a concussion and how her senses were further mixed for a period of time. Like all my episodes, you can watch this on my YouTube channel or listen to the podcast, and I’ve also linked the transcript.

Vahn Black is a vocalist based in Atlanta, and in this episode we focused on her project celebrating Gladys Bentley, including Vahn’s fantastic album Petrichor. Born and raised in Detroit, Vahn grew up in a melting pot of music and this aided her in cultivating her soul-charged, jazz infused sound, marrying her reverence for vocalists like Sarah Vaughn with her love of producers like J Dilla. We talked about her musical education, her career path, her research into Black history and culture, her joy of collecting vinyl and some of her other creative outlets. It was interesting to hear about her contrasting experiences with work, life and music in Detroit, New York and Atlanta. As a composer Black has lent her artistry to various art mediums from short films to interactive performance art. In 2023 she was selected to perform at NPR's Tiny Desk on the Road Tour stop in Atlanta, and for those listeners who are fans of Vahn Black and those who are discovering her, I hope you’ll enjoy this conversation which is punctuated with her music.

2024 Interiew with the brilliant Cheng2 Duo with cellist Bryan Cheng and pianist Silvie Cheng. The podcast, video, and transcript are all linked here. They have performed to great acclaim worldwide and have released to date four fantastic albums, the most recent Portrait which was nominated for a JUNO award. Portrait features music by composers from diverse Asian heritages, and in this podcast, Bryan and Silvie reflect on some important personal experiences related to this. We are featuring some of the music from Portrait and some of their other projects in this episode, with their insights on championing living composers such as Paul Wiancko and Dinuk Wijeratne and reaching new audiences. I asked them about their Carnegie Hall debut when Bryan had just started high school, and some of their individual experiences with concert preparation, touring, and finding a life-balance. Some of what you’ll hear about are Bryan’s reflections on his memorable childhood lessons with Yuli Turovsky, the incredible opportunity he’s had to play the Bonjour Strad, and his experiences with international competitions. Silvie shared her reflections on her mentors and her life as a performer and educator in New York.

Thomas Cabaniss is a wonderful American composer of works for opera, theater, dance, film and the concert stage, and also a visionary Teaching Artist. He’s been a member of the faculty of the Julliard School since 1998, and leads the Lullaby Project at Carnegie Hall, serving young parents in shelters, hospitals and prisons with collaboratively created songs for their children. We talk about all this and much more, inluding his work creating Carnegie Hall’s Link Up. I was curious about these many facets to Thomas’ life as both a composer and educator, and you’ll find this episode has gorgeous, inspiring music , as well as great stories from his diverse career as a Teaching Artist, working with music educators, students of all ages, and meaningful outreach in the community. You’ll hear performances from pianists Michael Shinn and Jessica Chow Shinn, singer Joyce DiDonato, and towards the beginning of the episode you’ll hear some of Thomas’ great music for string quartet, performed by the Charleston Symphony String Quartet.

Avi Kishna is a Dutch sarod player based in Amsterdam, of Indo-Surinamese heritage. You’ll get to know the sarod as an instrument and hear Avi’s perspectives on Dutch society and his interesting collaborations. Among his mentors is his inspiring father, Ramdew Kishna, a multi-talented musician, director, and painter, who played a pivotal role in shaping Avi's musical journey along with his guru, Koustuv Ray. As a young man, Avi embarked on a successful career as in sales and marketing, but during this time he pushed music aside, and I found it deeply touching to hear how he was able to come back to music with the wisdom of having left such an important part of himself behind. You’ll hear about Avi’s project working with schools in Amsterdam to help provide music programs in underserved communities and this episode features some of his sarod music.

Pierre Chrétien is a Canadian bandleader, multi-instrumentalist and composer who has had international success with his bands The Souljazz Orchestra, Atlantis Jazz Ensemble and his project Cinephonic, and in this episode you’ll learn about all of these and hear highlights from some of these albums on the Marlow Records label. Pierre shares how left his career as an Engineer to devote himself to a full-time career as a performer. He also demonstrates some rare vintage instruments at the beginning of this episode, which he’s also an expert at repairing.

Edison Herbert: “The three of them, George Benson, Wes Montgomery, Grant Green were my favorite options mainly because they really, in my opinion, they really knew how to connect with an audience and they choice of repertoire was always, it was accessible. And I think it's quite easy to forget that you can increase your audience if you think about what you put in front of them, because everyone, it's like food. Everyone doesn't eat the same thing. So if you mix it up and put different ingredients in, then you are more likely to increase your audience.”

This episode is a special Catch-Up episode with the Dutch guitarist and composer Marc van Vugt, who was previously featured in Season 2 with his album The Lonely Coyote. Today you’ll hear a selection of highlights from his new solo guitar album, The Curious Badger. We caught up on some of his recent projects, and he also shared some wonderful insights into his creative process, and different ways for independent musicians to find audiences for their music.

This episode is unusual because 4 musicians are featured, the members of the Euclid Quartet. They are a world-class string quartet celebrating their 25th anniversary with a fantastic album of short pieces, entitled Breve, and we are featuring several pieces from that album as part of this episode. I was curious to learn more about the many roles the quartet plays in their capacities as performers, educators and collaborators, and to hear them speak about the special joys and challenges of being members of a full-time quartet.

The innovative sitarist and composer Mohamed Assani is featured in this episode, linked here is the podcast, video and transcript. Mohamed demonstrates on both sitar and tabla, speaks to me both about his own journey as a musician and about the history of the sitar and South Asian music. In this conversation a couple of compositions from his album Wayfinder are featured. Wayfinder inco rporates a range of stylistic influences, including South Asian Classical, Middle Eastern, jazz, funk, Western Classical, ambient & electronic music. Mohamed shares his perspectives as an educator and creator: “So sitar to me will always be a challenge, right? Music is bigger than us, I believe. So if I can do something like that, what do I learn from it? It just gives me a lot of things to reflect about me as a person. So you start having these kinds of conversation with yourself, and once you accept that whoever you are is going to show on the stage, and that happens, right? So then maybe you start fine tuning some aspects of yourself.”

This week’s episode is a special double episode with the jazz piano duo of Peter Hum and Steve Boudreau, who have recently released their album Nonlinear Blues. Peter and Steve performed three of their original tunes for this podcast and we’ve also included some of their other compositions from their respective discographies, and in terms of the conversation, it was a wide-ranging dialogue with interesting insights from their contrasting careers, Peter primarily as a music and food journalist, and Steve as an educator and performer across many different styles. We got into restaurant culture, how to memorize music, and the importance of encouraging creativity and individuality. At it's core, this is an episode very much about the importance of supporting and encouraging each other.

Although Madeline’s teaching is aimed primarily at classical pianists and other musicians, I find that much of what she talks about will resonate for everybody trying to get in touch with their emotions, their connection to beauty and meaning, and their experience of being in their bodies.

This episode features the wonderful Bulgarian gadulka player Hristina Beleva. This episode would not have been possible without the generous translation and voice-overs from fellow musician Milena Krassi. Milena was with us during the interview and it’s mostly her voice that you’ll be hearing. Hristina is a virtuoso of the traditional bowed instrument of Bulgaria, the gadulka, which looks a bit like an upside-down violin, with usually 3 main strings and several resonating strings, up to 16. Hristina performs as a soloist with the Ensemble Philip Koutev Folk Orchestra of the Bulgarian National Radio, the Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices, Bulgara, the Milanov-Beleva duo, and is featured on the 2019 Grammy nominated album with David Kuckhermann and Lisa Gerrard, “Hiraeth”. Hristina recently released a wonderful duo album with bass player Vasil Hajigrudev, “Trikop”. This episode features lots of music, and we talk about both traditional music and her fusion collaborations.

Megan Jerome is a really special musician with a wonderful creative voice. In this episode you’ll hear her perform some of the songs from her new up-coming album, which will be the seventh album of her original compositions. We also talk about her unique and inspiring teaching style, her experiences through some very difficult personal losses, some ways she has found healing and connection, and her song-writing process.

I was thrilled to have a fascinating chat with the inspiring and innovative multi-style violinist/vocalist, author, composer, producer and educator Julie Lyonn-Lieberman. I first learned about her when I bought her book "You Are Your Instrument", which was the first book written about how to overcome and prevent musicians’ overuse injuries. In this conversation we discuss her unique path through world music, some of the research she’s done for her book and radio programs, illuminating the history of slave fiddlers and the evolution of improvised string playing in the United States. She gives some wonderful advice about following your own path: Julie Lyonn Lieberman: "When people tell you that your ideas are not valid and that you should go the pathway that's already carved out, but you're hearing a different drum beat, follow your heart and soul because this is your life. And I've always said that when I reach the final moments of my life, I don't want to look back with any regrets about anything. I want to be able to look back and say that I created everything that was important to me. And this idea of you're supposed to do something that's distasteful for you so that later on, when you retire or later on in your life, you can get to the things that you really want to do, I don't abide by that. Yes, the going is harder when you are making your own pathway through the woods that never had a path. But, it's so deeply satisfying. Then you feel whole about what you came here in this lifetime to do."

I speak with Arna Einarsdóttir who was at the time the Managing Director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra Canada. Previously she was the Managing Director of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Earlier in her career she worked as a flutist, playing with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra from 2000-2004. In this wide-ranging conversation, Arna's warmth and engagement really come through. It is really interesting to hear her perspectives due to her involvement with the orchestral world in very different roles.

In Episode 19 Season 1 of my interview series, I was delighted to welcome the inspiring musician Hooshyar Khayam to my home, to improvise and speak about his perspectives on improvisation, the music of Central Asia, the Middle East and Western Classical music. We speak about some of his beautiful recordings in his large discography, and his creative process. He also speaks about his role as founder and producer of Tehran Records. In a separate bonus episode you can hear an improvisation we played together. http://hooshyar-khayam.com/site/

I really enjoyed my conversation with the inspiring multi-style violinist Gina Burgess. During the episode she plays a couple of her original tunes, and at the end we did an improv back-and-forth across our Zoom call. It was really inspiring hearing about her journey through a severe overuse injury as a Classical violinist through to re-learning the violin in different styles, learning to improvise and compose, and also how she teaches improvisation to children.

Gina is a founding member of the Iqaluit-based Arctic rock band The Jerry Cans, is a four-time ECMA award winner with the band Gypsophilia, she fronts her own klezmer band Der Heisser, and is a regular collaborator in flamenco and Arabic music ensembles. Gina has toured Europe twice over with Tim Crabtree’s atmospheric ensemble; Paper Beat Scissors, and with folk-pop artist Gabrielle Papillon. Along with The Jerry Cans, Gina has performed and conducted youth workshops in Canada, Australia, Greenland, New Zealand, and Europe. https://www.ginaburgessmusic.com/ Instagram @ginaburgess.violin Facebook Gina Burgess Music

Jack Everly is well-known to audiences throughout the United States and Canada for his Symphonic Pops programs, conducting and charismatic storytelling during which he imparts his wealth of knowledge. In this lively conversation we discuss his distinguished career and perspectives.