Conversations with Musicians, with Leah Roseman

Ceara Conway is an Irish contemporary vocalist and visual artist, and this episode features music from her album CAOIN as well as excerpts from some of her other projects. I find Ceara’s curiosity about so many important topics around arts and culture really inspiring and this conversation  circled around to her explorations of different languages and cultures as well as her rootedness as an Irish...

Like all my podcast episodes, you can watch the video on my YouTube and the transcript is linked here as well: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/emmolei-sankofa EmmoLei Sankofa https://www.e-sankofa.com/ is a an American composer, producer, musician, and artist whose work spans music, visual media, and fine art. Detailed show notes below with timestamps! You can sign up for my weekly newsletter...

Welcome to Conversations with Musicians, with Leah Roseman: This podcast is available wherever you listen to podcasts, or as a video on my YouTube. This week’s episode is with the award-winning GRAMMY-nominated harpist and composer Kirsten Agresta Copely. The video and transcript are linked on my website: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/kirsten-agresta-copely Kirsten has had a really diverse...

This week’s episode is a special double episode with the jazz piano duo of Peter Hum and Steve Boudreau, who have recently released their album Nonlinear Blues.  Peter and Steve performed three of their original tunes for this podcast and we’ve also included some of their other compositions from their respective discographies, and in terms of the conversation, it was a wide-ranging dialogue with i...

There’s such  a fascinating variety to a life in music; and this series features wonderful musicians worldwide with in-depth conversations and great music, with over 100 episodes to explore. For this week’s episode I was  able to add some additional music to a special re-release  with fiddler Alexis Chartrand who has shared 3 tracks for you to listen to. His Bandcamp and socials are linked below;...

Please consider signing up for my weekly newsletter , which will give you access to Sneak Peeks for upcoming guests: ⁠https://mailchi.mp/ebed4a237788/podcast-newsletter Did you know that all episodes are also available as a video on my YouTube, and that I publish the transcripts to my blog? I'd like this to be accessible to everyone which is why I put this extra work into this. Complete catalogue...

Conversations with Musicians with Leah Roseman is available wherever you listen to podcasts. The video and transcript are linked here on my website, where you can check out my episodes catalog and sign up for Sneak Peeks for upcoming guests: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/jeremy-mastrangelo This week’s guest is violinist Jeremy Mastrangelo, who’s a wonderful colleague of mine in Canada’s Nat...

Conversations with Musicians with Leah Roseman is a weekly podcast with in-depth conversations featuring a fascinating variety of guests worldwide. Michael Bridge is an accordion virtuoso who performs in many styles on both concert accordion and digital accordion. In this wide-ranging conversation, Michael spoke to me about how best to engage with audiences, the subtleties intrinsic to programming...

This week I’m highlighting an episode from the archive: the charming and engaging Jack Everly, who is well-known to audiences throughout the United States and Canada for his Symphonic Pops programs and storytelling. We recorded this in 2021 when concerts had been mostly shut down for a year. It was so much fun having this opportunity to sit down and speak in depth with Jack. We had a lively exchan...

Today’s guest is the Emmy-winning songwriter, singer, producer and composer Kat Raio Rende. Together with her husband JP Rende she has a successful songwriting and production company Earworm Music company. This episode is a fascinating window into the world of music for children’s tv shows, jingles, working with celebrities, and music production in general. We talked about writing for Sesame Stree...

Margaret Maria is a wonderful cellist who’s a unique composer. Her compositions are all written by layering cello lines in some gorgeous and emotive aural tapestries. Her personal story is interesting and moving: she started the cello as a teenager, was admitted to the University of Toronto at age 16 without graduating from high school, and was then admitted to the prestigious Curtis Institute. Sh...

This is a bonus Catch-Up Episode with Julie Lyonn Lieberman. My original conversation with her is linked below (Season 2, Episode 7 if you're looking in your podcast player). Julie is an innovative multi-style violinist/vocalist, author, composer, producer and educator. In our original episode, we discussed her unique path through world music, some of her projects including You Are Your Instrument...

In this  episode, you get to hear the brilliant and engaging keyboard player and composer Kait Dunton in both conversation and a mini theory workshop on her hit tune This One’s For You!  In this wide-ranging conversation, we talked  about her early days with Snarky Puppy, recording the soundtrack to A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood, her love of vintage keyboards and the challenges they present...

This week’s episode is with the Canadian musician Jack Hui Litster, who 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. The music included in this episode features two...

As a bonus, this track, which is a special version of "Roots Girl" has generously been provided by Jah'Mila. The interview with her also features two other tracks, within this fascinating episode. You can listen to it on your favourite podcast player, watch the video, or read the transcript. The shownotes are also linked here: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/jahmila

Jah’Mila is a 🇯🇲 Jamaican-born  Reggae singer-songwriter based in Halifax, Canada. In this episode you’ll hear about both her youth in the countryside of Jamaica singing gospel and then her immersion in Reggae roots and Rastafarian culture in Kingston. Her father is the legendary Earl “Chinna” Smith who has performed extensively with the Soul Syndicate, been featured on over 500 albums, and also p...

Kara Talve and Anže Rozman are composers with Bleeding Fingers Music and together wrote with Hans Zimmer the acclaimed score to the incredible tv series Prehistoric Planet. I was so impressed by this series, and the first part of this episode digs into the unique instruments that were created for this powerful score, and the other part of this episode is a  personal and in-depth conversation with...

 I had a lot of fun stitching together some of the many highlights from this Season 3 so far, in a 10 minute compilation I’ve posted to both my podcast and here on my YouTube: I've included clips from every full episode in 2023 so far in this video! It’s time for my summer break, but the podcast will be back September 2nd with a special episode with two composers who are life partners and also wor...

 Bukhu Ganberged is an incredible Mongolian-Australian musician who is a master of both the Morin Khuur, the Horsehead fiddle,  and Khuumii, the Mongolian Overtone Throat Singing. This episode features a lot of special music, and  Bukhu’s personal story of growing up in Mongolia and emigrating to Australia. Like all my episodes, this is available as both a video with Closed Captions, a transcript,...

This episode features the Venezuelan composer Sandro Morales-Santoro who composes for film, tv and new media and is based in L.A. In this episode you’ll hear lots of music and our in-depth conversation during which Sandro tells the inspiring story of how he learned to read and write music while attending law school in Venezuela, then was accepted into the Berklee college of music, and was awarded...

I have in-depth conversations with a fascinating diversity of musicians worldwide, and I hope these personal stories highlight the incredible breadth and depth of a life in music for listeners everywhere. Like all my episodes, you can listen to all this on your favourite podcast player, watch the video, and read the transcript, all linked here: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/kavisha-mazzella...

Kelly Thoma is a Greek musician who plays the Cretan lyra player and this episode has beautiful music and a wide-ranging conversation including Kelly’s personal story of becoming a musician after training as a dancer, Cretan culture, the influence of Ross Daly and the Labyrinth Musical Workshop which he founded in 1982. Kelly speaks so eloquently about her love of music and collaboration; I really...

It’s hard to sum up how important Verna Gillis has been for music lovers. First of all, she is an ethnomusicologist who  recorded traditional music  around the world including in Kashmir, Afghanistan, Iran, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Surinam, Ghana, and the United States. This episode will bring you along on some of these journeys.  25 of these recordings are available through Smithsonia...

I’m joined by my colleague in Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, violinist Frédéric Moisan. Originally from the Breton town of Saint-Brieuc in France, he immigrated to Finland and then Canada. In this wide-ranging conversation we talked about wind-surfing,family, languages, different cultures’ approaches to education, the challenges of playing the violin, the original version of the Sibelius...

 Daniel Ramjattan is a phenomenal classical guitarist and this episode features some of his performances as well as many valuable insights in his work as a performance coach and educator,  and from his reflections on the significant challenges he has overcome in his life and career. Like all my episodes, this is available on your favourite podcast player, a video on YouTube, and the transcript, al...