A Musical Soliloquy: A Classical Music Podcast

Hosted by Steven Song and Zachary Brandon :) Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction and Overview 0:45 Why is Classical Music “boring”? 8:43 Why has Classical Music Culture “fallen”? 12:00 The Power of Great Art 16:30 YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels 18:51 How Classical Composers Conceived Music 25:30 Development of AI and Technology 28:19 How to Appreciate Classical Music 30:57 Expressing Yourself throug...

Hosted by Steven Song and Zachary Brandon :) Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction and Overview 0:45 Why is Classical Music “boring”? 8:43 Why has Classical Music Culture “fallen”? 12:00 The Power of Great Art 16:30 YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels 18:51 How Classical Composers Conceived Music 25:30 Development of AI and Technology 28:19 How to Appreciate Classical Music 30:57 Expressing Yourself throug...

Hosted by Steven Song and Zachary Brandon :) Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction and Overview 0:45 Why is Classical Music “boring”? 8:43 Why has Classical Music Culture “fallen”? 12:00 The Power of Great Art 16:30 YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels 18:51 How Classical Composers Conceived Music 25:30 Development of AI and Technology 28:19 How to Appreciate Classical Music 30:57 Expressing Yourself throug...

Hosted by Steven Song and Zachary Brandon :) Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction and Overview 0:45 Why is Classical Music “boring”? 8:43 Why has Classical Music Culture “fallen”? 12:00 The Power of Great Art 16:30 YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels 18:51 How Classical Composers Conceived Music 25:30 Development of AI and Technology 28:19 How to Appreciate Classical Music 30:57 Expressing Yourself throug...

Hosted by Steven Song and Zachary Brandon :) Timestamps: 0:00 Intro and Overview 1:07 Qualities of a Great Teacher 3:27 Schools We Applied to for Undergrad 9:24 Danielle Belen 10:52 New England Conservatory 12:06 Colburn Conservatory of Music 15:48 Curtis Institute of Music 19:45 Studio Culture 30:20 Learning from Other Students in the Studio 32:05 Three Qualities of Undergrad Teacher 40:26 Choosi...

Hosted by Steven Song and Zachary Brandon :) Timestamps: 0:00 Intro and Welcome 1:23 iPad Pros  5:40 Sheet Music Pros 7:58 M4 iPad Pro 10:49 Aaron Rosand Memory 13:20 iPad Page Turning Woes 19:49 Getting Distracted on iPad 25:45 Physical vs Digital Media 29:45 Markings in the Music 36:30 Sight Reading 38:42 Playing Piano 41:39 Piano Improvisation in Different Styles 46:22 Playing Sonatas from Memo...

Hosted by Steven Song and Zachary Brandon :)Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 1:00 Ilkhom Musical Journey 13:00 Practicing in America 14:50 How We Met 27:00 Preparing Rite of Spring as Concertmaster 31:30 Practice Tip of the Week - Ilkhom 34:10 Life in Pittsburgh Symphony 43:00 Beta Blockers 48:10 Winning the Pittsburgh Symphony Audition 53:55 Manfred Honeck and Shostakovich 5 57:30 Soloing with Pitts...

Hosted by Steven Song and Zachary Brandon :) Timestamps: 0:00 Intro and Overview 0:52 Current Strings 6:25 Evah Pirazzi Green vs Gold 8:37 Dynamo Strings 10:14 Larsen Il Canone Strings 12:50 Rondo Violin Strings 14:30 Peter Infeld Violin Strings 23:42 Dominant Pro  25:35 Vision Strings 26:45 Vision Titanium Solo vs Vision Solo 29:58 TI Strings 30:58 Dominant Strings 35:00 Gut Strings - Pirastro Ol...

Hosted by Steven Song and Zachary Brandon :) Timestamps: 0:00 Intro and Overview 0:43 What Makes Mozart So Hard 2:54 Intonation in Mozart 5:18 Articulation in Mozart 9:10 Mozart like an Orchestral Excerpt 11:05 String Crossings in Fast Passages 17:12 D String 20:23 Getting Tense in Mozart 23:34 Being Specific in Technique 33:20 Slow Movements in Mozart 40:00 Mozart 4 2nd Mvt Ending 42:38 Mozart as...

Hosted by Steven Song and Zachary Brandon :) Timestamps: 0:00 Intro and Welcome 0:55 Steven’s Bow Journey 5:15 Pierre Simon 13:00 Zach’s Bow Journey 17:00 Sartory and Voirin 20:42 Charles Peccatte 21:50 Tourte Bow Story 24:54 Dominique Peccatte 25:47 François Tourte 28:40 Persoit and Kittle 30:54 Francois Peccatte 31:55 Nicolas Maire 36:18 Buying a Bow 46:40 What Makes a Great Bow 48:40 Light vs H...

Hosted by Steven Song and Zachary Brandon :) Timestamps: 0:00 Intro and Overview 5:00 Big Picture vs Small Picture 15:00 Music as an Internal Experience 18:19 Saint Saens Havanaise 26:07 Detailed Work 31:00 Dividing Time Equally 33:20 Figuring Out Your Own Fingerings and Bowings 36:00 Having Different Ideas From Your Teacher 43:16 Combining Detailed Work and Big Picture 48:20 Performance Anxiety 5...

Hosted by Steven Song and Zachary Brandon :) Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 1:00 Steven’s Violin Journey 6:20 Steven’s Antoine Nedelec 11:28 Johannes Cuypers 21:00 Zach’s Violin Journey 30:55 Zach’s Antoine Nedelec 38:35 Carl Becker 45:30 Franz Kinberg 46:31 Joseph Curtin 49:41 Stradivarius 53:19 Guarneri del Gesu 57:00 Guadagnini 1:01:51 Amati 1:04:51 Practice Tip of the Week - Zach 1:09:42 Record...

Timestamps: 0:00 Intro and Overview 1:00 Stage Fright 9:35 Nathan Cole Bow Shake Tip 14:00 Nervousness in Performance 15:10 Accepting your Worst Performance as your Level 19:35 The Confident Mind Book 23:35 Steven Posture Journey 27:00 Mathis Constantly Reinventing 31:31 Augustin Hadelich 34:10 Right Arm Position 37:57 Michael Cleveland Bluegrass Fiddler  39:29 No Shoulder Rest 42:58 Violin as Sin...

Hosted by Steven Song and Zachary Brandon :) Timestamps:0:00 Introduction and Overview 1:35 Geneva Competition 2:10 Confucius Competition 2:50 - Sejong Competition 8:38 Carnegie Hall Competition 10:44 Society of American Musicians (SAM) Competition 14:22 Local Concerto Competitions 17:02 DePaul Concerto Competition Story 20:10 Chicago Symphony Concerto Competition 22:49 Prokofiev 2 with Orchestra...

Hosted by Zachary Brandon and Steven Song :) Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction and Overview 1:20 Recording Bach Tips 3:20 Competition Prescreenings 6:33 Editing in Recordings 8:20 Video Quality 11:58 Audio Quality 13:18 Mic Placement 15:54 Playing For the Mic 17:50 Microphone Recommendations 21:10 Playing Softly in Recording 24:20 Arthur Grumiaux 25:39 Good Playing Translates to Good Recordings 29:25...

Hosted by Steven Song and Zachary Brandon :) Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction and Overview 0:50 - Our First Memorable Performances 10:40: Zach’s Emotionally Intense Performances 13:14 - Being in Performance Mode 15:52 - Performing a Concerto with Orchestra 21:00 - Memorable Chamber Music Performances 24:00 - Clicking with Duo Partner 26:33 - How Steven and Zach Met and Playing Together 32:00 - Brahms...

Hosted by Steven Song and Zachary Brandon :) Timestamps: 0:00 Welcome + Opening Banter 0:50 Why We Love the Violin 3:50 Choosing Violin Over Piano 11:15 First Encounters With the Instrument 15:57 The Violin, the Human Voice, and the Other String Instruments 24:00 What Makes the Violin So Special? 37:23 Why the Violin Becomes Part of You 39:25 Physics of the Violin  50:23 Life Without the Violin 1:...

Hosted by Zachary Brandon and Steven Song Timestamps: 0:00 Overview 0:56 - Paganini 1  4:00 - Paganini 24 Overview 12:58 - Theme 15:34 - Variation 1 20:14 - Variation 2 22:55 - Right Arm Position 34:09 - Variation 3 38:25 - No Vibrato 42:12 - Variation 3 42:39 - Variation 4 47:55 Variation 5 51:30 - Variation 6 53:54 - Variation 7 (pizzicato) 56:51 - Variation 8 (chords) 57:15 - Variation 9 (Slow)...

Hosted by Zachary Brandon and Steven Song :) Timestamps 0:00 Welcome and Intro 0:25 Aspen Music Festival and School 12:20 Cons of Aspen 24:12 - Sounding Point Academy 28:10 - Brian Lewis Young Artist Program 30:57 - Heifetz International Music Institute 35:11 - Meadowmount School of Music 41:55 - Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival 44:42 - Music Academy of the West 47:55 - Concertmaster 57:27 - Pr...

Hosted by Zachary Brandon and Steven Song :) 0:00 Welcome and Overview 1:19 - Debussy Violin Sonata  4:50 - Pablo Picasso La Vie 6:20 - Impressionist Movement 8:47 - Music as Painting 10:25 - Mark Rothko’s Color Fields 12:30 - Franck Violin Sonata  19:20 - Jackson Pawlak 26:27 - Johann Sebastian Bach 31:58 - Bach Fugues 39:40 - Bach Partita No. 3 in E Major  43:22 - Bach Sonata No. 2 Andante 46:02...

Hosted by Zachary Brandon and Steven Song :) Timestamps: 0:00 Welcome Musical Inspirations: 0:40 Thomas Zehetmair 2:56 Jascha Heifetz 4:40 David Oistrakh 7:19 Christian Ferras 11:14 Robert Schumann 13:05 Isaac Stern 16:26 Nathan Milstein 19:23 Yehudi Menuhin 21:45 Eugene Ysaye 23:49 Sayaka Shoji 25:39 Maxim Vengerov 29:27 Itzhak Perlman 31:25 Pinchas Zukerman 33:46 Fritz Kreisler 41:00 Menuhin &am...

Timestamps: 0:00 Welcome 1:00 - How to Prepare for an Audition 22:10 - Technique and Musicality 51:35 - Mindset for an Audition 1:07:42 - The Day of the Audition 1:16:00 - Practice Tip of the Week