The award-winning pianist Donna Weng Friedman enjoys a distinguished career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, curator, producer, and filmmaker.  She spoke to me about many of her inspiring projects, including the Joy Luck Trio, Microvids with composer Stefania de Kenessey and collaborators including violinist Curtis Stewart. You’ll hear how she got into film making and her award-winning personal film Never Fade Away about her parents, featuring  Chun Wai Chan, the New York City Ballet's first Chinese principal dancer. Donna shared great advice for fellow music educators and students, how she came to be mentored by Radu Lupu, and perspectives on her career choices as a parent and many initiatives to amplify women composers and conductors.

The Swedish fiddler Lena Jonsson has created a unique style inspired by traditional Swedish music as well as many other influences. Today we’re focusing on the wonderful 3rd album by her trio, “Folk Covers” which celebrates many great folk music composers of today. I think you’ll really enjoy this uplifting conversation which features a lot of music, including Lena giving us some spontaneous house concert experiences, and clips from the new album, with insights into process of curating and interpreting these folk covers; please note the timestamps have the tune names. You’ll also learn about the Swedish folk scene and regional differences, her experiences studying both in Sweden and Boston at Berklee, her love of creative design and how to dance a Polska.

Join me in getting to know the fascinating world of Leif Karlstrom, a musician and scientist who combines data sonification in his outstanding collaborative exploration, The Volcano Listening Project. Leif  is an Earth scientist at the university of Oregon who studies fluid motions in and on volcanoes and glaciers, landscape evolution, and geodynamics. He’s also a fantastic violinist and mandolin player, composer and improvisor. 

The Volcano Listening Project features many great musicians including Billy Contreras, Todd Sickafoose and Laurel Premo. You’ll also hear music from Leif’s fantastic duo Small Town Therapy with Adam Roszkiewicz, from their album Dreams and Circumstances. 

Learn how sonification can transform data into a powerful tool for scientific discovery and education  and hear about Leif’s adventurous life as both a musician and scientist.