Renée Yoxon is a trans non-binary singer, songwriter, jazz musician, and trans voice teacher.

In this episode, Renee shares some beautiful and inspiring performances from their albums, as well as stories from life as a disabled person and how their disability and chronic pain has guided the direction of their career. We talk about their musical development, and their experiences both bad and good as they navigated their musical education (after finishing a degree in physics!). Renée explains the kind of work they do with trans vocal exploration and we dive into all kinds of topics in the usual tangential style of this series.

Leslie DeShazor is a multi-style violist, violinist and composer based in Detroit. This conversation was full of stories and insights from Leslie’s life. She shared valuable perspectives that educators, parents and anyone who mentors children and young adults will find inspiring and thought-provoking. We talked a lot about why kids quit playing music, why so many young adults today have trouble figuring out the direction of their life, and how the educational system can take away people’s innate creativity and confidence. Leslie is such an articulate and engaging speaker; I’m sure listeners everywhere will enjoy this episode!

The internationally renowned guitarist Derek Gripper is famous for his groundbreaking technique for evoking the West African kora on the guitar. During this episode you’ll get to hear Derek play quite a bit and you will hear his wonderful insights on how we listen to and learn music, the influence of Montessori and Alexander Technique in his life, his reflections on important collaborations in his career and his perspectives on changes that have been imposed on creators and performers.

Marc van Vugt is a wonderful award-winning composer and jazz guitarist from the Netherlands. In this episode you’ll be introduced to several beautiful guitars in his collection that are featured in his new solo album, “The Lonely Coyote” and you’ll also get to hear stories from his travels and his perspectives about different musical scenes, composing, and some of the biggest challenges now for musicians worldwide.

Gary Muzsynski, a versatile percussionist and entrepreneur and this conversation delves into his experiences playing samba in Brazil, his discovery and exploration of the handpan, and some of his work as an educator in both community music projects and as an innovator using music in the corporate world.

Linsey Pollak is an Australian musician who is known worldwide as a passionate and creative advocate for community music. His life has been full of unusual opportunities to explore different styles of music, and his inventiveness has spurred him to create countless instruments from found objects. In this episode you’ll get to hear him play 4 different instruments in different improvisatory styles, and I’m sure that everyone will be inspired by stories from his life, describing some of his incredibly unusual, fun and beautiful collaborations and creations.

I was honored to have this conversation with Marilyn Lerner, who is a unique pianist and composer who is a powerfully expressive musician across a range of styles. She’s a wonderful improvisor and has performed worldwide, as well as recorded extensively as both a soloist and as an ensemble player. She’s also a therapist and psychoanalyst, and our conversation moved through many fascinating and important topics including ideas around identity and creativity.

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.

Peter Purich is an innovative violin maker known for his unique personalized chinrest design. He’s also a multi-instrumentalist who plays in many different styles, and a dedicated violin and viola pedagogue. Because this conversation was extra-long it has been divided into two episodes. Part 1 delves into his development as an instrument maker and innovator, and as a creative musician. He shows and describes some of his innovations with chinrest design. The episode ends with some improvisation and some great parenting advice! Part 2 will continue with a lot of specifics about playing and teaching the violin, and he shows some of his innovative instrment designs, his unique shoulder support, and some great wisdom.

I have added timestamps in the description, and like all these episodes this is available both as a podcast and a video.

Raphael Weinroth-Browne is an internationally renowned Canadian cellist, multi-instrumentalist, and composer. He merges his classical cello training with a love of progressive metal and Middle Eastern music, and has formed several acclaimed ensembles including The Visit, Musk Ox, and Kamancello (this duo is with a previous guest of this podcast, kamanche player Shahriyar Jamshidi). Raphael has been touring with the Norwegian progressive band Leprous since 2017, and has appeared on over 150 studio albums. In 2020 he released his first solo album, Worlds Within. Raph is a very thoughtful and articulate person, and this conversation touched on many interesting topics. In Part 1 you will get to hear him demonstrate and talk about the first part of Worlds Within, and hear about his career as a studio musician and his experiences touring with Leprous. He shares his thoughts about knowing yourself, being creative, connecting with your audience, and balancing your life and expectations of yourself.

 The incredibly charming American musician Janie Rothfield, is a great traditional fiddler, banjo player, educator, composer, and so much fun to talk to! This episode features quite a bit of music on both fiddle and banjo. The conversation delved into the best ways to teach music, learn tunes, play with ease, accompany dancers and most importantly find connection with others through music! We talked about her childhood, learning violin in one of the first Suzuki classes in the United States with Louise Behrend, figure skating, learning the banjo, moving to Scotland, playing at music festivals, and why she started her unique “Janie’s Jumpstart Weekend Camps”. Janie records and tours with many bands and teaches both fiddle and clawhammer banjo.

Mark Ferguson is a jazz pianist, trombonist, composer, arranger, producer and music educator. In this episode you get to hear him perform 3 of his original compositions on piano. We talk about his mentors, perspectives on music education and the interesting twists and turns in his varied career. He’s performed with many of the world’s great artists including Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Gil Evans, Aretha Franklin, Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass, Holly Cole and Manteca.

In this episode I speak with a wonderful colleague, the Bass Trombonist Douglas Burden, who has recently retired from Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra after 50 years. He shares his perspectives on his career, including wisdom passed down from some of his mentors including Emory Remington and Arnold Jacobs, and the lessons he learned about staying healthy and keeping his playing at the highest level. Doug is also well-known as an educator and will continue to teach at the University of Ottawa; he also shares his thoughts on what an orchestral career means, his memories of different conductors, his practice tips, and the importance of balancing different aspects of a life well-lived.

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.