I was honoured to speak at length with James Ehnes about his career, collaborations, current projects, and his approach with practice and preparation for concerts. He spoke about his teachers Francis Chaplin and Sally Thomas and other mentors including Bramwell Tovey. He talked about the joys and scheduling challenges of the Ehnes quartet, of his long-time collaborator and friend the pianist Andrew Armstrong. He’s also Artistic Director of the Seattle Chamber Music Society and he talked about his ideas for good programming. He described some unique recording challenges during the pandemic and how he manages his many projects. Ehnes has an extensive discography of over 40 CDs and has won many awards for his recordings, including a Gramophone Award, two GRAMMY Awards and 11 JUNO awards. He began violin studies at the age of four, made his orchestral debut with l’Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal at age 13 and graduated from The Juilliard School in 1997, winning the Peter Mennin Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Music. James Ehnes plays the “Marsick” Stradivarius of 1715.

All links to his performances and recordings are linked on his website: https://www.jamesehnes.com/

Aaron Schwebel currently holds the positions of Concertmaster with the National Ballet of Canada Orchestra and Associate Concertmaster with the Canadian Opera Company. Schwebel is a member of the LARK ensemble and Rosebud String Quartet, and is founder/artistic director of Echo Chamber Toronto, a series that merges chamber music and contemporary dance. We talk about his many and varied experiences, in terms of his development and his career. In separate bonus episodes you can hear him play some solo Bach, and we also do a little improv back and forth.

Karen Donnelly is the Principal Trumpet player of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada, and a well-known educator. In this episode, we get to hear Karen's beautiful playing, and I talk to her about her background, her work with the Canadian Women's Brass Collective , some of her unique outreach work and her resilient practice routine!

It's really interesting to hear about Theo Marks' unique upbringing in a family of musicians, and his personal journey to become a violin-family maker. This was recorded when luthier Theo Marks was still living outside of Amsterdam. He now lives in Wakefield Quebec

I was thrilled to have this fascinating conversation with virtuoso violinist Kerson Leong @Kerson Leong , who is as eloquent in his musicality as in the way he talks about music and violin playing. I trust that a broad audience will take inspiration from this wide-ranging discussion. At the beginning, we are treated to an impromptu performance of Ysayë's Allemande from Violin Sonata no. 4.

Episode 6 Season 1 of Conversations with Musicians with Leah Roseman features violinist Veronica Thomas. She speaks about some of the incredible outreach the unique Préville Fine Arts Centre is doing, of which she is General Director, her experience being on the jury of the Canadian Music Competition, playing in different styles, her unique childhood and more.

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, and some of his musical influences and inspiration.

Patty Chan, erhu player, educator, author and Music Director of the Toronto Chinese Orchestra demonstrates different types of erhus, and talks about different aspects of Chinese traditional music and Chinese orchestras. She performs The River of Sorrow and other well-known tunes.

I speak with Yosuke Kawasaki, the wonderful Concertmaster of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada . He talks about the challenges of staying grounded during this pandemic, his experiences studying with Dorothy Delay at both Julliard and Aspen festival, the inspiration he found in many of his peers growing up, and the conversation circles around to his role as concertmaster, and advice for young colleagues playing auditions.

In my very first interview, E1 S1 Kirsty Money introduces us to the nyckelharpa and we learn how she started playing this beautiful and unique instrument. The full transcript is published here, and there are links to both video and podcast, along with bonus episodes. Kirsty performs solo Bach, a traditional Swedish tune and one of her original tunes The Grind Polska during our conversation.

Carissa Kloupoushak is a violinist, singer, Artistic Director of Chamberfest, member of the Ironwood quartet and the National Arts Centre Orchestra. She’s a dynamic, multi-faceted musician who performs a couple of traditional Ukrainian tunes during the interview.