Beyond the Notes with Vonn Vanier

3x Grammy-nominated composer Miguel del Aguila joins Vonn Vanier for a conversation about how classical music can grow beyond the classics without losing what makes it powerful.  Miguel reflects on finding his own voice as a composer, resisting pressure from teachers and critics, the role of rhythm in making music feel alive, and why classical music needs new works that actually sound like the wor...

Peter Askim is a composer, conductor, educator, former orchestral bassist, Music Director of the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra, Director of Orchestral Activities at North Carolina State University, and Founder and Artistic Director of The Next Festival of Emerging Artists.  In this episode of Beyond the Notes, Vonn Vanier talks with Peter about conducting, composing, working with orchestras, and w...

David Fogel has spent decades working in artificial intelligence. He is also a composer, musician, and founder of the Symphonina Foundation. In this episode of Beyond the Notes with Vonn Vanier , David joins Vonn to talk about music, creativity, artificial intelligence, and the future of human expression in a world where technology can increasingly imitate what artists do.  The conversation also e...

Most people hear music on earbuds, in cars, or through speakers that sound nothing like the room where the record was made. So what happens between the studio and the real world?  In this episode of Beyond the Notes, Vonn Vanier talks with 6x GRAMMY Award-winning mastering engineer Michael Romanowski about what mastering actually is, why it still matters, and how records either survive or fall apa...

Jeffrey Silverman snuck into Hollywood film scoring sessions as a teenager.  Years later, he would go on to orchestrate some of the most iconic concert productions of the 1990s, including Yanni’s Live at the Acropolis and John Tesh’s Live at Red Rocks.  In this conversation, we talk about what orchestration actually means, how he built a career across Broadway, film, and television, and the unexpe...

There are some stories that time itself cannot bury. Composer Danaë Xanthe Vlasse transforms ancient Greek myths into music that feels both classical and cinematic, intimate and epic. Her Grammy-winning Mythologies and Grammy-nominated Mythologies II explore beauty, tension, and transcendence through voices that sound as if they’ve crossed centuries to reach us.  In this conversation with Vonn Van...

The internet rewards speed, volume, and constant stimulation. Claire Ritter makes music that does the opposite. Her album "Songs of Lumiere" feels like light painted with sound. Calm, spacious, and deeply intentional, it sits far outside the noise-driven logic of modern culture. In this episode of Beyond the Notes, Vonn Vanier talks with jazz and classical pianist and composer Claire Rit...

Mike Post has spent decades writing music to serve story. Scenes. Characters. Picture lock. Timing. Emotion under constraint.  In this episode of Beyond the Notes with Vonn Vanier, the legendary Law & Order composer talks about what happened when, during COVID, that structure suddenly fell away — and an entirely different idea took shape.  While driving late at night and listening to bluegrass...

Oh, you definitely know the tunes. You can hum them right now:  Law & Order The Rockford Files Magnum P.I. Hill Street Blues The A-Team.  And that's not even all of them!  But you probably don't know the name of the man who wrote all of them.  Meet Mike Post. He's defined the sound of television for 50 years. In this interview, we talk about the "obsession" required to...

How do you get Gen Z to care about a 400-year-old art form?  Matthew Shilvock, General Director of San Francisco Opera, has spent his career finding out. The stories he shares reveal exactly why opera still matters.  In this episode, he talks about the moments that still give him chills, why staging Wagner’s Parsifal next to a brand-new Monkey King excites him, and what it feels like when 20,000 p...

Imagine you're a professional musician. You've flown halfway across the world for a big concert in Istanbul. You walk out on stage... and there are three people in the audience. The band literally outnumbers the crowd. So what do you do? That one story from violinist Jeremy Cohen got host Vonn Vanier thinking: In a creative life full of uncertainty, in a business known for being brutal,...

Grammy-nominated composer Peter Boyer joins Vonn Vanier on Beyond the Notes to share the story of his two most ambitious new works:  "American Mosaic", commissioned by the Kennedy Center for America’s 250th anniversary, blending Boyer’s music with the imagery of Americana photographer Joe Sohm.  "A Hundred Years On" is an equal collaboration between Peter Boyer and librettist M...

Leslie Ann Jones: GRAMMY-winning engineer behind Apocalypse Now, Herbie Hancock, & Halo | Beyond the Notes  What’s the secret sauce behind the music that stays with us? Legendary engineer Leslie Ann Jones turns session chaos into clarity—whether for Apocalypse Now, video games, or jazz albums.  In this interview with composer Vonn Vanier, she shares:  The studio trick that made bands rethink w...

"The most rapacious exponent of artist abuse are the major record companies. By far. They steal. It's terrible."  In this episode, we sit down with legendary producer and founder of the iconic Artists House label, John Snyder. With a career spanning five decades, over 300 albums, and 35 Grammy nominations, John has worked with a staggering list of legends, from Stevie Wonder and Eri...

What if one of the most-heard violins in history wasn't locked away in a museum, but was still making music today? On this episode of "Beyond the Notes," host Vonn Vanier sits down with the instrument's current steward: 8-time Grammy-nominated violinist, composer, and educator Jeremy Cohen.  This isn't just any violin. Forged in 1868 and later serving as the principal viol...