Carissa Klopoushak: ” And we'd just play tunes by ear. And my dad would do that with some friends. And then once his kids were old enough, we'd join him and play, saw along. And so it was, I think what I'm really trying to get at, is that musical expression is just part of the way that we all get along. It's something that we do together. And so it was just ever present, I think. And having that be, not something that you do, but something that you are makes it easier to just do it all the time and in different ways. It's an extension, I think. That's how I see it.”

This is Blog post is the full transcript of E2 S1 of Conversations with Musicians with Leah Roseman, with guest Carissa Klopoushak. We spoke of her strong roots, her Ukrainian band Tyt i Tam, the Ironwood String Quartet, being a member of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, and her role as Artistic Director of Chamberfest.

photo credit: Bo Huang

Interview with violinist Lynn Kuo E2 S2 Conversations with Musicians with Leah Roseman: In this wide-ranging discussion we covered a lot of topics, some of which include: Lynn’s online courses, injury prevention, performance anxiety, Lorand Fenyves, lessons learned and advice for musicians in a post-pandemic world.

Full transcript of E1 S2 Eva Slongo Conversations with Musicians with Leah Roseman, available both podcast and video: her journey from the Classical violin world to jazz, how she got started with her online courses, studying with Pierre Blanchard, Joan Renard, Didier Lockwood, her new album, balancing family life, challenges for women in jazz, her creative process.

Kirsty Money“And also the technique is different and it's something that I have to work on all the time. Because with a nyckelharpa, you don't want to crush the sound. Whereas when you're bowing on a violin, you want to put your arm weight from your back into the string so that you can get the string spinning.

Well, because you have all of these resonators on the nyckelharpa, you just want to start it resonating and then let it go. So it's like shooting arrows or something. So when you start, once I'm gliding on the string, you got to take the weight out. That was the hardest thing and still is the hardest thing for me in terms of it being just automatic, because especially if I'm playing going from violin to nyckelharpa, the bowing technique is quite different. The left hand I can figure out. Like when you're shifting up high on a violin, you got to have your fingering in a little plan to how you're going to get down, and it's the same thing. It's exactly same thing on the nyckelharpa, except you have keys and you got to get used to where your keys are on your instrument and muscle memory and all that. But the bowing is very different.”