This episode is unusual because 4 musicians are featured, the members of the Euclid Quartet. They are a world-class string quartet celebrating their 25th anniversary with a fantastic album of short pieces, entitled Breve, and we are featuring several pieces from that album as part of this episode. I was curious to learn more about the many roles the quartet plays in their capacities as performers, educators and collaborators, and to hear them speak about the special joys and challenges of being members of a full-time quartet.

I was really honoured to have this opportunity to sit down and talk with the dynamic conductor, composer, multi-instrumentalist and radio host of CBC's CentreStage, Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser. We explored many interesting and important ideas around creating spaces for diverse audiences, amateur versus professional musicians, LGBTQ rights, his project with the drag queen Thorgy Thor, the lost music of Florence Price, and wonderful advice not only for conductors, but for everyone seeking more balance and meaning in their lives. Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser: "Your specific nerdy interests, I believe will be of use and value to the orchestras of the communities that you serve. That would be one thing. For conductors, I would say study languages. If I were to give practical advice, I'm just going to scatter shot a bunch of practical advice. Learning languages is important, not just because of the ability to read scores or read books of languages, but just be able to think in a different way and to have a breadth of knowledge that's like not a triangle, but a pyramid. I think that's really important for a conductor. I think as a conductor, it's really important to listen and I mean, listen, capital L, not just listen to music, but listen to people, because ultimately what a conductor needs to be able to do the best is listen.” photo credit: Benjamin Delarivière