2024 Interiew with the brilliant Cheng2 Duo with cellist Bryan Cheng and pianist Silvie Cheng. The podcast, video, and transcript are all linked here. They have performed to great acclaim worldwide and have released to date four fantastic albums, the most recent Portrait which was nominated for a JUNO award. Portrait features music by composers from diverse Asian heritages, and in this podcast, Bryan and Silvie reflect on some important personal experiences related to this. We are featuring some of the music from Portrait and some of their other projects in this episode, with their insights on championing living composers such as Paul Wiancko and Dinuk Wijeratne and reaching new audiences. I asked them about their Carnegie Hall debut when Bryan had just started high school, and some of their individual experiences with concert preparation, touring, and finding a life-balance. Some of what you’ll hear about are Bryan’s reflections on his memorable childhood lessons with Yuli Turovsky, the incredible opportunity he’s had to play the Bonjour Strad, and his experiences with international competitions. Silvie shared her reflections on her mentors and her life as a performer and educator in New York.

Gerry Bryant is a brilliant classically-trained pianist, composer, and arranger. He came from a poor inner-city Cleveland neighbourhood, and was givin an opportunity to attend the prestigious Phillips Academy, then Harvard university. He went on to get an MBA and a law degree, all the while continuing the expansion of his knowledge of different styles of music, and forming his jazz group Pocketwatch. This episode partly focuses on his Composers album, with music of Florence Price and Thomas Wiggins who was known as Blind Tom to his slave masters. Gerry reflects on how access to a musical education changed his life, and how wonderful it has been to discover and champion Black composers. One of the musicians that Gerry has collaborated with many times is the wonderful and versatile violinist Mark Cargill, whose playing is also featured in this episode. Like all my episodes, you can watch this on my YouTube channel or listen to the podcast, and I’ve also linked the transcript.

Thomas Cabaniss is a wonderful American composer of works for opera, theater, dance, film and the concert stage, and also a visionary Teaching Artist. He’s been a member of the faculty of the Julliard School since 1998, and leads the Lullaby Project at Carnegie Hall, serving young parents in shelters, hospitals and prisons with collaboratively created songs for their children. We talk about all this and much more, inluding his work creating Carnegie Hall’s Link Up. I was curious about these many facets to Thomas’ life as both a composer and educator, and you’ll find this episode has gorgeous, inspiring music , as well as great stories from his diverse career as a Teaching Artist, working with music educators, students of all ages, and meaningful outreach in the community. You’ll hear performances from pianists Michael Shinn and Jessica Chow Shinn, singer Joyce DiDonato, and towards the beginning of the episode you’ll hear some of Thomas’ great music for string quartet, performed by the Charleston Symphony String Quartet.

Pierre Chrétien is a Canadian bandleader, multi-instrumentalist and composer who has had international success with his bands The Souljazz Orchestra, Atlantis Jazz Ensemble and his project Cinephonic, and in this episode you’ll learn about all of these and hear highlights from some of these albums on the Marlow Records label. Pierre shares how left his career as an Engineer to devote himself to a full-time career as a performer. He also demonstrates some rare vintage instruments at the beginning of this episode, which he’s also an expert at repairing.

In this episode, we talk about Chuck’s excellent album Oshki Manitou, which expands his work as a trumpet player, arranger, and composer. He’s woven together ceremonial sweat-lodge melodies with jazz, funk, dance and electronica and this episode features tracks from that album. He’s such a powerfully lyrical trumpet player, and you’ll be deeply touched to hear his inspiring story of moving through trauma and addiction to helping others through counseling and music.

Guy Donis grew up in Belgium, where he had fallen in love with the banjo and proceeded to dedicate his life to it. In this episode, he describes how he taught himself 5 string banjo, learned about Bluegrass, and expanded his musical horizons by collaborating with jazz and classical musicians. He immigrated to Canada many years ago, and is well-known in the Montreal music scene. He has toured Canada extensively with Notre Dame de Grass and other bands, and in this episode he talks about his newest project, the Montreal Bluegrass League, and a track from their latest album is included in this podcast. Some tracks from his two trio albums are also included earlier in this episode, in which you can hear Guy’s progressive jazz-influenced original music. Like all my episodes, this is available as a podcast, video, and transcript, all linked here.

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.

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 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

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/

In my very first interview, E1 S1 Kirsty Money introduces us to the nyckelharpa and we learn how she started playing this beautiful and unique instrument. The full transcript is published here, and there are links to both video and podcast, along with bonus episodes. Kirsty performs solo Bach, a traditional Swedish tune and one of her original tunes The Grind Polska during our conversation.