Martha Redbone Interview: A Creative Life Rooted in Afro-Indigenous Identity and Appalachian Traditions

Martha Redbone is acclaimed for her powerful performances as a singer, as well as her prize-winning song-writing, composition and arranging. For over 30 years she’s been in a successful collaboration with her partner Aaron Whitby and we talked about some of their new theatrical projects including Black Mountain Women, The Sex Variants of 1941, and Guardian Spirit: The Words of bell hooks.  Throughout this episode you’ll be hearing clips from Martha’s powerful album The Garden of Love  which sets the poetry of William Blake to the diverse music of Appalachia, written with Aaron and John McEuen of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Many people think of the music, culture and history of Appalachia in terms of the blend of white settlers in the area, but Martha’s family heritage from Harlan county Tennessee include African-American, Cherokee, and Choctaw. She shared her experiences growing up with her grandparents as part of a coal-mining family, as well as the dramatic changes she has witnessed in Brooklyn over several decades. 

In this wide-ranging episode, you’ll also hear Martha’s great advice for self-care, maintaining boundaries and working collaboratively.  

 We started this conversation with Martha’s collaborations with clarinettist Tasha Warren and cellist Dave Eggar and if you missed my interview with Tasha last year it’s linked to this one in the show notes. 

Linked are the podcast, video and transcript.

Tammy Takaishi is a Board Certified Music Therapist, Podcaster and writer based in New York. 

We talked about her podcast Creative Peacemeal, her meaningful and multi-faceted career as a Music Therapist, and her full creative life including her writing. If music therapy is a career you’re curious about, you’ll be inspired by her stories and insights.  As a fellow podcasters, we definitely bonded over our enthusiasm for the medium and the wide range of fascinating, creative people we’ve been able to connect with. I know that fans of Tammy’s podcast will be interested to learn more about her path, personal perspectives and great advice including avoiding burnout.  

Welcome to Conversations with Musicians with Leah Roseman with powerful, in-depth conversations with a fascinating diversity of musical guests wordwide. In this moving episode, I sit down with GRAMMY-winning composer Carla Patullo. Carla shares her deeply personal journey as well as audio clips from Nomadica,  her gorgeous new album born from grief, healing, and resilience following the traumatic loss of her mother and her own battle with cancer.

We dive into Carla’s creative process, her emotional transformation, and the collaborative magic behind the album — including features with Martha Wainwright, the Scorchio Quartet, and Tonality. You'll also hear about her powerful projects with partner Elizabeth Beech honoring animation pioneer Lotte Reiniger, her longtime work with Sandra Bernhard, and the meaningful mentorship she’s received within the LGBTQ+ music community, including from Laura Karpman.

From her tight-knit Italian family roots to her evolution as a touring artist and composer, this episode is a must-listen for fans of ambient music, film composition, and stories of personal and artistic growth. 

Like all my episodes, you can watch the video  or listen to the podcast; the transcript is linked  in the show notes along with several other episodes I think you’ll love as well. 

Darol Anger is an acoustic music legend known as much for his innovative fiddle style beyond  Bluegrass and Jazz traditions, and his teaching. Darol has helped drive the evolution of the contemporary string band through his involvement with numerous pathbreaking ensembles such as the Turtle Island String Quartet, the David Grisman Quintet, and his current touring group Mr Sun. This podcast episode is being released a few days before his new 2-album set Diary of a Fiddler #2: The Empty Nest, and you’ll be hearing many clips from this brilliant collaborative project that features dozens of phenomenal string players and improvisers. You’ll find the titles and performers from these clips in the timestamps, and please go over to Bandcamp and buy this album, which you’ll also find linked in the show notes. 

You’ll find some related episodes of this podcast linked for you, with some of the many wonderful musicians we talked about in this wide-ranging episode.

Anyone interested in the history of American acoustic music will be curious to hear Darol’s stories from his long career, and his advice to students from his many years teaching at Berklee and online at Artistworks. Most importantly I’m sure you’ll be inspired by Darol’s openness and generosity to musical connection. This interview is linked here in podcast and video formats as well as the transcript.

I’m delighted to welcome Maya Youssef, the world-renowned kanun master and innovative British-Syrian educator. Maya shares with us how her frustrations with the traditional teaching of Arabic music led her to develop her unique system for teaching musicians and dancers in a completely different way. She also shared her past personal crisis as a victim of domestic abuse and how she found the strength to get out of that danger, which is shockingly pervasive. In fact, she said that she chooses to be vulnerable in sharing this because we never know who is listening. 

You will be uplifted with clips from Maya’s beautiful second album Finding Home, which I encourage you to buy, and you’ll find all Maya’s projects linked in her website in the show notes of this podcast. She also talked to me about her exciting upcoming projects in 2026, including her book about learning and teaching Arabic music, her upcoming album and tours, and her wonderful collaborators. Maya spent the interview with her kanun and you’ll hear her demonstrate several times, including a beautiful improvisation on maqam rast. 

Like all the episodes of Conversations with Musicians with Leah Roseman, you can either watch the video version on my YouTube or listen to the podcast on your preferred platform; the transcript is linked here along with several other episodes I think you’ll love as well. 

The wonderful singer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and scholar Lily Henley breathes new life into the endangered language Ladino (a fusion of Spanish, Hebrew, Arabic, and Turkish). During this podcast you’ll hear clips from her album Oras Dezaoradas. Blending her roots in American and Celtic music, Lily creates powerful original music that honours centuries of Sephardic women’s voices. These songs tell timeless stories of love, loss, exile, and resilience, sharing her personal connection to this important tradition. 

You’ll also learn about: 

• Sephardic history and contemporary communities

• Lily’s unusual childhood

• how she’s learned to trust her voice

 Like all my episodes, you can watch this on my YouTube channel or listen to the podcast on many podcast platforms, and I’ve also linked the transcript.

Karen Power is an Irish composer who uses environmental sounds and acoustic instruments in her intriguing work. She is a master field recordist who has recorded sounds in some of the worlds most isolated and challenging locations including The Arctic, Amazon, Namib Desert, Outback Australia, and Antarctica. She has shared clips of her work including The Bats of Namibia, Frogs of Angor Wat, fascinating bog sounds and arctic ice sounds in collaborations with the Quiet Music Ensemble and many brilliant collaboraters on her project human nature.  She’s also shared with us a raw field recording from her recent trip to record a double cicada brood emergence. She certainly helped deepen my awareness to soundscapes that brought me back to my first encounter with this idea when I took a course on Soundscapes from R. Murray Shafer. Karen and I also talked about her projects working to explore listeneing, composing and improvising with young children and other related projects to provide inclusive music making with people living with disabiliities. 

 Like all my episodes, you can watch this on my YouTube channel or listen to the podcast on your favourite platform, and I’ve also linked the transcript.

Teagan Faran is a remarkable violinist known for her versatility as a performer, composer, and improviser. In this episode, you’ll hear selections from her album Middle Child—a compelling and genre-spanning musical journey featuring works by acclaimed contemporary composers, as well as Tegan’s own reimagining of Brahms’ beloved Intermezzo.

A Fulbright grant recipient, Tegan spent nine months in Argentina delving into the rich traditions of tango and regional folk music. She shared insights about her time there, along with stories of collaboration and mentorship, including her work with the Grammy-nominated ensemble Palaver Strings and the electroacoustic duo Persephone & the Phoenix.

Tegan has also built a dynamic career as an educator and has studied under renowned teachers like Danielle Belen. In our conversation, we touched on her diverse teaching experiences, the importance of injury prevention, and her parallel path as a certified personal trainer. 

Linked here are the podcast and video versions as well as the transcript.

I’m joined by the extraordinary Olcay Bayir, a British singer-songwriter of Kurdish Alevi origin, originally from Turkey. Olcay opens up about the challenges of immigrating as a teenager, her classical training in opera, and how she has forged her own unique musical path.

You’ll hear clips from her 2024 album Tu Gulî, along with selections from her earlier projects, featuring songs in several languages. Her rich voice and evocative arrangements breathe new life into Anatolian folk traditions, offering a vibrant and powerful reimagining of this timeless music.

In our conversation, Olcay shares:

• Insights into Alevi culture and spirituality

• How she honours the strength and stories of Anatolian women

• her creative process and inspiration from masterful collaborators 

  Linked here: podcast, video and transcript

Joel Styzens is a composer and  multi-instrumentalist whose career as a drummer was transformed due to sudden hearing damage. He talked to me about dealing with the physical and psychological effets of hyper acusis and tinnitus, the beauty of hammered dulcimer, and you’ll hear clips from his first 2 albums Relax Your Ears and Resonance. He’s a music educator who loves to help students to make discoveries on their own and we spoke about Joel’s passion for all kinds of artistic expression, and his positive recent experience at the Ragdale Artist residency. Joel’s personal story is so inspiring, and his music is so beautiful; please check out his albums which are linked in the show notes

Amanda writes and records mostly in Spanish, the language of her Mexican dad who biked all the way from Mexico to Canada, and you’ll learn how Amanda’s recent album Recuerdo helped her process her grief going through the illness and death of her father. Amanda is also an actor, and you’ll hear about some of her experiences acting, including My Little Pony, Kim’s Convenience and Rosie’s Rules for which she has composed songs. Amanda came to her acting and music career after pursuing science and business, and you’ll be inspired to hear how she navigated serious personal challenges to following her true path. She shares great wisdom about the importance of talking about  mental health and also some of her personal tips for living a full and fullfilled life. Linked here: podcast, video and transcript.

Heather Taves  is an acclaimed Canadian pianist, also a composer, improviser, educator and writer.

She spoke to me about her unique and inspiring Beethoven Journey, her popular weekly blog which she started in 2023 , paired with performances of all of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas. We talked about getting to know Beethoven as a person and her fascinating research about many women that are part of this history. We also talked about Heather’s work as an educator, developing creativity and approaching teaching music from different angles. She spoke about her mentors including pianist Gil Kalish and writer Diane Shoemperlen, and her experiences travelling around the world by herself. 

 Like all my episodes, you can watch this on my YouTube channel or listen to the podcast on many podcast platforms, and I’ve also linked the transcript. 

 Bente Illevold: 

*interview with the internationally renowned Norwegian Euphonium Soloist, podcast, video and transcript

*how she has created a unique career path

*euphonium music including Katherine Needleman’s  commission from Kyrese Washington

*how to address the problems around  inclusivity in the low brass world

*music pedagogy, choosing repertoire and practice skills 

* mind-set, perfectionism and self-reflection

* Rendalen Low Brass Seminar 

Martha Anne Toll is a novelist and literary and cultural critic, also a violist whose classical music training informs her artistic practice. She comes to writing professionally after a career dedicated to social justice.  She recently published her second novel about musicians,  Duet for One, a beautiful love story based on the lives of musicians. We focused on both this book and her novel Three Muses. You’ll hear about her high and low points as a violist, different ways she has helped with programs related to social justice, and her involvement in the literary world including supporting less-represented authors. We also talked about processing grief, the classical music world including patterns of different types of abuse, and living true to your values. Linked here are the podcast, video and transcript.

Alisa Rose is a multi-style violinist and fiddler, composer and educator, and in this episode we’re shining a light on her wonderful new album with mandolinist Tristan Scroggins, Speranza. You’ll hear about how she found her way to such an interesting and diverse career from learning Old-Time music from retired farmers in Wisconsin as a child to classical training with the legendary Camilla Wicks at the San Francisco Conservatory, where she’s come full circle as a teacher. Alisa shared wonderful insights into teaching music, including body awareness and using creativity prompts in her improvisation classes. She shared powerful experiences from her tour in Eastern Europe as an Ambassador of the State Department, and advice about the benefits of organizing house concerts. Linked are the video, podcast and transcript. 

Christoph Zirngibl is an award-winning German film composer who has composed music for over 120 films as well as many TV series including the Apple TV+ series Where’s Wanda.  It often strikes me that  even with something as specific as some of Christoph’s advice about work flow for fellow film composers, that it can apply more broadly to all of us, whatever our pursuits.. You’ll be  hearing a few clips from some of his projects in different musical styles,  as well as his reflecctions on his formative student years, the strengths of the apprentice system and his interest in many aspects of filmmaking. I have previously featured a few film composers on this series, and some of these episodes are linked directly in the show notes for you. It’s such an interesting career path, and I find that each of these composers have unique musical backgrounds. Linked here are the podcast and video versions as well as the transcript.

Lawrence English is a brilliant artist, composer and curator based in Australia. In this wide-ranging interview, Lawrence spoke to me about many topics, touching architecture, philosophy, field recordings, running a record label, and emerging biotech. One of his many projects is the record label Room40, which is celebrating 25 years, and punctuating this podcast are some clips from some of Lawrence’s albums, including Even the Horizon Knows it’s Bounds, Shell Type, and Observation of Breath. You’ll fine several links in the show notes so you can explore each project more fully. Linked here are the podcast and videos versions and the transcript.

How did Noam Lemish’s experience living in Bhutan influence his outlook? A lot of Noam’s creative life is inspired by bridging cultures and being open to possibility, and you’ll be hearing some music from some of his many projects as well as hear his reflections on teaching and learning. It was fascinating to learn about his mentors including George Marsh and W.A. Mathieu, and how he started collaborating with so many incredible artists including the oud player and guitarist Amos Hoffman. I really wanted to shine a light as well on his fantastic Juno-nominated album Twelve, which is comprised of six original compositions for chamber jazz orchestra,  and all the music you’ll be hearing is linked in the show notes. Podcast, Video and Transcript all linked here.

Juliana Soltis is an innovative cellist who has done extensive research to connect listeners with some forgotten stories of classical music. In this episode we talked about her recent album American Woman which features cello and piano music of women composers; you’ll hear Juliana’s insights into the lives of Mary Howe, Amy Beach, Margaret Bonds, Helen Crane, Dorothy Rudd Moore and Florence Price and hear excerpts from this album which Juliana recorded with the wonderful pianist Ruoting Li. Many listeners will be familiar with Juliana’s playing as a Baroque cellist, and it was fascinating to hear about how the French relinquished their beloved viol relunctuantly to the Italian cello. I really love Juliana’s recording of the complete Suites for solo cello of J.S. Bach and you’ll hear some music from her album Going off Script: the Ornamented Suites for cello. 

Juliana shared great advice about performing  from an athlete’s perspective and also the joy of connecting with  audiences. This interview begins with one of her beautiful greyhounds, and for those of you watching this on YouTube, hopefully you’ll enjoy this comforting canine presence throughout this inspirational conversation. Like all my episodes , you can watch the video or listen to the podcast on all the podcast platforms, and I’ve also linked the transcript 

Katherine Dowling is a brilliant Canadian pianist and in this conversation we talked about her album of solo music by Alice Ping Yee Ho, mentors including Gil Kalish and Henk Guittart, and how and why she’s developed her exceptional musical memory. Katherine shared fantastic insights into teaching and learning, the importance of inclusivity and access to arts education, and how she uses the Pomodoro technique in the practice room. She explained how sound production on the piano is about the speed of attack and we discussed  different skill sets and career paths for pianists.  Dr. Dowling shared many inspiring musical memories, and how she developed her ambitious Elegy project to follow her personal path through grief. You’ll be hearing some clips from the album Awake and Dreaming, which you’ll find linked in the show notes, and you can use the timestamps to navigate the eipsode. 

 Like all my episodes, you can watch this on my YouTube channel or listen to the podcast on all the podcast platforms, and I’ve also linked the transcript