I was honoured to have this opportunity to talk to the pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico about her extraordinary life in music and the arts. She shared wonderful and moving stories about Ann Southam, Louis Quilico,  Pierre Boulez, Jacques Isrealievitch, and her legendary teacher Rosina Lhévinne. 

I was really struck by Christina’s open-minded attitude throughout her long career to learning new music, culminating in almost 70 brilliant and powerful albums so far; it’s  amazing to learn that most of her recordings are recorded live, in one take.  Christina also shared how meaningful it is to her to be a mother and grandmother, as well as respected academic; she’s Professor Emerita and Senior Scholar at York University in Toronto. Among many honours, she has been appointed to the Order of Canada, and the Royal Society of Canada.  

  Her curiosity and creative energy seem limitless; she’s a poet and visual artist,  she’s studied Ancient Egyptian culture, and she lives her life spiked with humour and a down-to-earth attitude.  We are also including excerpts from several of Christina’s albums and performances including music by Mozart, Art Tatum, Ann Southam, Meredith Monk and David Jaeger. The podcast, video and transcript all linked.

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.

The Canadian performer and composer Jack Hui Litster has developed a satisfying creative career after some interesting twists and turns. In this episode, you’ll learn about his experiences as a jazz drummer, his pivot into international development, and his path back to composing, producing and recording music in different styles. There is a lot of music featured in the episode as well; the podcast, video and transcript are all linked here.