Elizabeth Pallett is a wonderful British lute player. Her love of Renaissance music and history is infectious and she has generously provided this episode with several of her beautifully produced YouTube videos; her channel Luteweb is linked in the description, as well as her duo Amarylli with soprano Hannah Grove. We talk about the history of the evolution of plucked instruments in Europe, and many fascinating historical figures including Dowland and Shakespeare.

Adam Blau is a composer and songwriter based in Los Angeles who has written the music for Netflix’s hit series Dead to Me (which I love), the Academy Award nominated short My Year of Dicks, and many other projects including You’re the Worst and Brockmire.He has wonderful advice for composers interested into breaking into the film industry and shared some of his creative process with us. Adam is a warm and engaging musician with a real love for music across many genres; he shares how he pivoted from working as a performer to composing full-time, and we explored many of his diverse projects. Like all my episodes, this is available as a podcast on your favourite podcast player, a video on YouTube, and the transcript.

Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto is a California-based Koto performer and teacher, and she also created “Hidden Legacy”, the story of the Japanese Traditional Performing Arts in the American WWII Internment Camps. In this episode she performs some incredibly beautiful koto music, and there are wonderful stories with each piece.

Martin Hayes is an internationally renowned Irish fiddler beloved for his expressive playing and his collaborations with many great musicians in different genres. Martin speaks eloquently about life, culture, friendship, identity, and staying true to what you value, and I hope this episode will thrill lovers of Irish music and bring new listeners to many of Martin’s projects including The Common Ground Ensemble, The Gloaming, and many more. We talked about the loss and legacy of Dennis Cahill, how he met Thomas Bartlett, the rich depths of traditional music that Martin learned from the older generation, and the rhythm of life growing up on the farm in County Clare. Like all my episodes, this is available as both a video and a podcast on your favourite podcast platform, and the transcript is also linked here as well.

Immanuel Abraham is a very special musican, who is an inspiring violinist, educator and composer. His phenomenal talent, discipline and creativity is even more inspiring since he didn’t have an opportunity to learn a musical instrument until the age of 14 and 4 years later, he was auditioning for the renowned University of Michigan in violin performance, playing the same Paganini caprice he’d heard Ithak Perlman play on Shalom Sesame as a child. He speaks candidly in this interview about his perseverence in the face of very difficult challenges. He’s well-known on social media as The Violin Doctor, which is a Dr. Who reference, but Immanuel actually is Doctor of Musical Arts, awarded from the University of Arizona. When he was a student, in an effort to learn as much as he could that was violin-related, he started The Violin Guild which is an amazingly supportive Facebook group of over 60,000 string players worldwide. Our conversation focused on different aspects of music education, personal development, and you’ll get to hear some clips of Immanuel performing some of his 24 Caprices for solo violin. I

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.

Pat Irwin is a renowned film and television composer; some of his scores include Dexter: New Blood, Rocko’s Modern Life, Pepper Ann, and Nurse Jackie. He’s also a multi-instrumentalist who was a member of the B52s for 18 years; he founded The Raybeats and 8 Eyed Spy, and more recently the band SUSS of which I’m a fan. Pat also teaches film composition at NYU, and this conversation wove it’s way into important topics for all of us: a life well-lived, grief, the importance of creativity and of having a good hang.

Colin Aguiar is an award-winning Indian-Candian composer based in Los Angeles who specializes in film scoring. In this conversation we talked about his youth, growing up across parts of India, the Middle East, Europe and Canada and studying the music of various cultures, learning different instruments with a start on drums as a toddler, as well as his love for the music of Arvo Pärt and other great composers. Colins spoke about some of his mentors including Mychael Danna. This episode with Colin is the first release of several film composers I have interviewed recently, and I find it fascinating how diverse their musical backgrounds are and what a challenging and little-understood part of the music world this is. During the episode you’ll hear some clips from Colin’s compositions, used with permission. Like all my episodes, this is available on your favourite podcast player as well as a video, and the transcript is linked as well.

Philip Griffin is an amazingly versatile, creative, and generous musician. He plays, improvises, and composes in many styles on many different instruments. During this episode you’ll hear him play the rebab, the ukulele, and guitar in his duo with violinist Jude Iddison. He reflects on his work teaching children and people with disabilities, and reflects on some of his important mentors including Richard Gill, Linsey Pollak and Ross Daly. In the video version, I’ve included a slide show of some of his amazing nature photography, which is also on my website linked to this episode, and the link for Philip’s website and Facebook page are also included below. In this conversation with Philip, I was really happy to be able to talk about some of the themes I find most interesting as a musician: education, creativity, and mentorship.

I’m delighted to feature the master bansuri player Milind Date, who joined me from his home in Pune, India, and played his flutes as well as shared his perspectives from his life in music.

I was so honoured to have this opportunity to talk with the inspiring Destiny Muhammad, who is a California-based jazz harpist and composer. You’ll get to hear inspiring stories from her life as well as her music. She had a dream to play the harp but didn’t have the opportunity until she was 30 years old. This episode features some beautiful music and inspiring stories, and like all my episodes is available as both podcast and video, with transcript linked as well.

Matt Zimbel percussionist with the band Manteca, and also an award-winning writer, producer, documentary filmmaker, artistic director, broadcast executive and radio and tv host.

Interview with the jazz violinist, mandolinist, arranger and writer Aaron Weinstein.

Gertrude Létourneau, known to some as Trudy, is a flutist, pianist, singer and a therapeutic musician. During this episode, she tells many moving stories of the residents she has worked with in her many years working at Pearly Health. During the episode she frequently breaks into song and plays a variety of flutes as well as paints a vivid picture of the fulfilling role she plays working with veterans. We also spoke about her mentors Peter Wiegold, Jeffrey Gilbert, and Marie-Claire Séguin. This was an episode very much about going out your comfort zone, connecting with your audience, and learning to slow down and enjoy every day.

Adam Hurt is an acclaimed clawhammer banjo player and one of my favourite performers in any style and I was absolutely delighted that he agreed not only to speak to me at length about his life and teaching of traditional music, but also perform for this episode some of my favourite music.

Ineke Vandoorn is a wonderfully expressive prizewinning jazz vocalist, author, composer and educator. During the recording of this episode Ineke performed 3 times, and also check out the timestamps for the many topics we covered.

Multi-instrumentalist, Colleen Allen is a versatile and expressive performer based in Toronto, Canada. In this conversation we talked about her perspectives on evaluating priorities, rising to new challenges, collaboration, teaching improvisation, and the physical challenges of playing so many different instruments. Colleen's candid warmth and love of music really shine through in this wide ranging conversation.

Ali Omar El-Farouk is an Egyptian and Canadian oud guitar player, composer and teacher. Ali plays his oud and three other instruments during this fascinating conversation in which we talked about learning from a place of joy, connecting across cultures through music, languages, architecture, Istanbul, Spain, Umm Kulthum, Nubian music, jazz, and lots more.

I was honoured to speak with the inspiring singer, composer, choir leader, pianist and cultural activist Polina Shepherd. In this episode you’ll hear Polina’s stories from growing up in Tartarstan, finding a bridge to her identity, as well as her perspectives on education, mentorship, creativity and health.

This episode was unique in that Mike was sitting at his drumset during the entire episode and we talked in detail about the history of the drumset and evolution of different styles of drumming. Mike demonstrated lots of intricate grooves and finished the episode with a cool little solo. He also shared stories from his childhood and talked about how in his youth he built his drums and an intricate treehouse in a park.