Naomi Moon Siegel is an award-winning trombonist, improvisor, composer and educator. In this episode we’re highlighting her beautiful sextet album Shatter the Glass Sanctuary, and you’ll hear her reflections on the valuable mentorship process with Allison Miller and brilliant collaborators including Marina Albero and Ray Larsen. Naomi reflected on her journey finding a supportive musical community, overcoming injury, and how she’s advocated for intersectional gender justice for many years through her workshops for fellow educators and music students.  We talked about some of her mentors including Kristen Strom, Wayne Horwitz, and her duo project the Syrinx Effect with Kate Olson. Naomi shared how her career path has been shaped by personal decisions and outlook,  some of her experiences on several inspiring trips, as well as how she’s able to find grounding and inspiration in both her new physical landscape in Montana and her new emotional landscape as a parent. 

 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.

Hillary Simms is a virtuosic Canadian trombone player with the esteemed American Brass Quintet, and is on faculty at the Julliard School. She performed as a soloist a couple of times with my orchestra, Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, and you’ll hear us talk about the arc of her career so far as a chamber musician, soloist, educator and busy freelancer.

We decided to delay the release of this episode slightly in order to include a wonderful recent recording of the Amercian Brass Quintet, a movement from David Biedenbender’s wonderful work Sacred Geometry. This is the first recording of the group with Hillary performing, and you’ll find more information and links in the show notes of this podcast.

Hillary’s warmth and love of music comes through in this candid interview, from her childhood in Newfoundland to playing on the world’s biggest stages, and also the unusual situation she found herself in when her engagement to her husband became a viral sensation in China.

As the first woman to join the Amercian Brass Quintet since 1960, Hillary spoke to me about gender disparity in the brass world and some of her strong female role models.

Hillary shares wonderful insights for all of us, whether you pursue music as a career or follow a different path, of the need to have self-compassion and have an awareness of the big picture of your life.