Tracy Silverman is truly an inspiring musician in every respect and it was such an honour to meet him and be able to record this memorable episode. We talked about his classical roots, studying with legendary teachers Lewis Kaplan and Ivan Galamian, his rejection of the classical world and his fascinating career, through his years in rock bands, we even talked about some of his early gigs, including learning the ropes as a strolling violinist, getting the job as first violinist of the innovative Turtle Island string quartet, and the development of his Strum Bowing method. We talked about many musicians, including some of his collaborators and mentors including Terry Riley, Darol Anger, Roy “Futureman” Wooten, Mark Wood, and composers Roberto Sierra and John Adams. Finally, we dived into his creative process, how music affects our emotions, and how to stay open by listening to others, and learning to show up as ourselves.

I find my colleague Anna Petersen is such an inspiring person both as an incredible musician in her role as an oboe and English horn player and teacher, and as founder of Passionflower Yoga. In this conversation, we talk about life’s challenges as a performer and the dangers of perfectionism and the importance of self-compassion, and how her experience as a yoga practitioner and teacher have supported her both physically, psychologically and spiritually. Anna’s positivity really comes through in her beautiful playing, which you’ll get a taste of at the beginning of the episode, and in the way she has navigated some difficult life circumstances.

Conversation with Stephen Nachmanovitch, author of Free Play and The Art of Is. Topics include mindfulness and creativity.

Brendan Power is famous internationally as a phenomenal harmonica player in many genres and also as an instrument innovator. He’s invented many unique harmonicas to increase the expressiveness and range possibilities of the instrument family, and is constantly experimenting. In this interview we hear about his personal journey and hear him demonstrate several different harmonicas and play in different styles of music.

Shahriyar Jamshidi is a Kurdish-Canadian kamancheh player, composer and improvisor who grew up in Iran, and lived through some very difficult times. He has collaborated with many musicians including heavy-metal cellist Raphael Weinroth-Browne in their duo Kamancello, and has released numerous albums which feature his unique improvisational style. I find his playing to be extremely expressive and his personal story compelling. In this conversation he introduces us to this spiked-fiddle, which is the ancestor of the violin, and is used across many cultures, and also speaks about the need for humanity to stay in touch with our traditional music.

Jesse Stewart is an award-winning percussionist, scholar, composer, artist, writer, instrument-maker and community activist. In 2012 he founded “We Are All Musicians” founded on his belief that music is a fundamental human right, through which he helps create opportunities for people to make music regardless of age, musical training, socio-economic circumstance and ability. During the conversation he demonstrates how any object can be used to create interesting music, and we also get to hear him improvise on a waterphone, as well as with me on my violin, with a unique instrument which he explains. I do hope you’ll find Jesse to be as inspiring and interesting as I do!

Diane Nalini is an incredibly nuanced jazz singer, and composer. She performs in 4 languages and teaches jazz ukulele as well. I hope you’ll join me in my fascination with the incredible range of Diane’s interests and expertise. Besides being a phenomenal musician she also is a Rhodes scholar with Phd in Applied Physics from Oxford university and presently works in environmental science policy for the Canadian government. Not only is she a great lyricist, but she has also written songs inspired by great literature including Shakespeare, in jazz, blues, gospel, folk and bossa nova styles. During this conversation, she performs some of her original songs for us, and I’ve added timestamps in the description of the episode for the many interesting topics we touched on as well as her incredible performances.

Elaine Klimasko: “But I do say to all of my students though, if you think that playing in a symphony orchestra is secondary, that's the worst thing you could be thinking because the joy of orchestral playing, and I'm sure you feel the same way, Leah, is, there's nothing in life to me that compares with that. When you're playing one of those grand symphonies and that buildup a crescendo and you hear the horns and the French horns... I mean, I'm just covered in goosebumps. In my seventies still, and I don't know of any other profession that makes you feel that way. Maybe a doctor delivering a baby. I don't know. But it's pretty special.”

In this episode speak with the violinist Elaine Klimasko, who is a Canadian violinist who joined the newly-formed National Arts Centre Orchestra in 1969 as the youngest member, and is well-known as a teacher. Her students are very frequently winners of competitions and hold important positions as chamber and orchestral musicians all over North America. In 2003 NACO Music Director Pinchas Zukerman asked her to launch the first Junior Young Artists Programme for the NAC Summer Music Institute. In this episode she tells many stories from her life, and about some legendary teachers she studied with including Josef Gingold and Lorand Fenyves. She reflects on her long career, from the perspectives of a teacher and as a player.

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.

Rachel Mercer: “…I really want to have every possibility of expression available to me and that does not come from physically playing my instrument. That comes from my imagination and then I hear or feel a sound in my head.” In this conversation with the really inspiring cellist, Rachel Mercer, we discuss the arc of her career so far as a chamber musician, soloist, principal cellist, the late Yehonatan Berick, an amazing violinist and pedagogue, who was her life partner, "Our Strength, Our Song" with her sister, the wonderful violinist Akemi Mercer-Niewöhner and many other chamber music collaborations and unique projects, as well as her way of approaching music. Rachel very generously made a special recording of the Prelude from JS Bach's fifth solo suite in C minor BWV 1011, and her heartfelt introduction to the power of this music is right after our conversation, so please keep listening till the end! There's also a timestamp for the Bach and in the podcast version, the Bach with her introduction is also a separate bonus episode.

I was really honoured to have this opportunity to sit down and talk with the dynamic conductor, composer, multi-instrumentalist and radio host of CBC's CentreStage, Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser. We explored many interesting and important ideas around creating spaces for diverse audiences, amateur versus professional musicians, LGBTQ rights, his project with the drag queen Thorgy Thor, the lost music of Florence Price, and wonderful advice not only for conductors, but for everyone seeking more balance and meaning in their lives. Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser: "Your specific nerdy interests, I believe will be of use and value to the orchestras of the communities that you serve. That would be one thing. For conductors, I would say study languages. If I were to give practical advice, I'm just going to scatter shot a bunch of practical advice. Learning languages is important, not just because of the ability to read scores or read books of languages, but just be able to think in a different way and to have a breadth of knowledge that's like not a triangle, but a pyramid. I think that's really important for a conductor. I think as a conductor, it's really important to listen and I mean, listen, capital L, not just listen to music, but listen to people, because ultimately what a conductor needs to be able to do the best is listen.” photo credit: Benjamin Delarivière

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."

Josh “Socalled” Dolgin is an amazing force and I was thrilled to get this opportunity to ask him about some of his creative output, collaborations and perspectives. Josh: “When I started off in the music thing, I played piano and sure I was in some musicals a bit in Ottawa growing up as a teenager, and I guess I have a good ear and I don't know how I learned to sing, but when I started to hear those old records of Yiddish songs, for some reason that's what made me want to sing. I wanted to sing those songs. And at first I was sampling these old records, using it to make hip hop and make new, funky, crazy Jewish music. Okay, that's cool.

But then now here I am just singing songs with a string quartet. So I never saw that one coming. That's so amazing about life sometimes is that you don't really know why or what you're doing, or you think you're on a track for some reason, but then things dribble into the track and then they take you on another track and then that can become your most favorite project.”

We start with his remix of Moe Koffman’s 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

I spoke to the renowned bassoon player Christopher Millard about many topics, including many fascinating insights into the orchestra profession, the physics of sound production on both the bassoon and violin, great advice on how best to practice music, the legendary flutist Marcel Moyse and much more. Podcast Video

I was honoured to speak with Kellylee Evans, who is an amazing award-winning singer, songwriter and motivational speaker. Kellylee Evans: “And then I was interested at that time in minority rights and representation and in legal philosophy. And so I was doing my masters of arts in law. My parents, their hope I think would've been just like most immigrant parents a lawyer, doctor, engineer. And I tried to... I wasn't trying that hard though to really be a lawyer. I really was hiding in school. My goal was to just keep my head down and stay here as long as possible. Because school is awesome, and if you figured out the path, if you know what to do, you attend, you finish the assignments, you hand them in. You do the reading, you get a mark, everybody's happy. That's something that's very doable, I think if you can just follow the script. But real life outside of school is scary. And the music industry, what's the path?”

Towards the end of the conversation, she gives us the gift of an incredible a capella performance of one of the most-requested songs in her repertoire, "Feelin’ Good" by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse. We speak about the many challenges she's faced, including two near-death experiences. To learn more about Kellylee Evans, her recordings and current performances: http://www.kellyleeevans.com/

Sophie Lukacs

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. She plays a traditional tune for us and also a couple of her original songs from her new album.

Interview with Lynn Kuo, Violinist and Educator: @violynnkuo In E2 S2 with violinist Lynn Kuo, we delved into many topics, including shifting the classical music paradigm and she gave lots of great advice for other musicians. Lynn:"So, I think it is absolutely possible for every musician to do a little bit of self awareness exercise and discover where exactly do my strengths lie? Where am I unique?"

Interview with the wonderful Swiss-French Jazz violinist, singer, and pedagogue Eva Slongo. She kindly shared some of her playing with us during the Zoom call. During the conversation we talk about her background as a classical violinist, her journey into jazz and we touch on many topics including playing injuries, her studies at Le Centre des Musique Didier Lockwood, and some of the challenges faced by women in jazz

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/