Conversations with Musicians, with Leah Roseman

This is a short bonus episode in my Inspiring Excerpts series, featuring the violinist Veronica Thomas. She speaks about some of the incredible outreach the unique Préville Fine Arts Centre is doing, of which she is General Director. There’s also a clip about her experience of being on the jury of the Canadian Music Competition. In the full episode, she speaks about her unique and fascinating chil...

Jesse Stewart is an award-winning percussionist, scholar, composer, artist, writer, instrument-maker and community activist. In 2012 he founded “We Are All Musicians” founded on his belief that music is a fundamental human right, through which he helps create opportunites for people to make music regardless of age, musical training, socio-economic circumstance and ability. During the conversation...

Diane Nalini is an incredibly nuanced jazz singer, and composer. She performs in 4 languages and teaches jazz ukulele as well. I hope you’ll join me in my fascination with the incredible range of Diane’s interests and expertise.  Besides being a phenomenal musician she also is a Rhodes scholar with Phd in Applied Physics from Oxford university and presently works in environmental  science policy f...

I'm re-releasing my very first episode, recorded May 27, 2021 with the wonderful nyckelharpa player, violinist, teacher, and composer Kirsty Money.  During the episode she plays some wonderful music for us and shares some charming stories about how she got to know this beautiful and unusual instrument.  All of these episodes are also in video format, and I have also published the complete transcri...

I speak with Elaine Klimasko, who is a Canadian violinist who joined the newly-formed National Arts Centre Orchestra in 1969 as the youngest member, and is well-known as a teacher. Her students are very frequently winners of competitions and hold important positions as chamber and orchestral musicians all over North America. In 2003 NACO Music Director Pinchas Zukerman asked her to launch the firs...

This short bonus episode in my Inspiring Excerpts series is  with Québecois traditional fiddler Alexis Chartrand, created from clips from Episode 5 Season 1.  We first hear Alexis perform a jig by Josef Allard.   Alexis learned a lot from playing with dancers from a young age, and In the next clips you’ll hear him  discuss both groove and ornamentation in traditional Quebecois fiddling.  The full...

Megan Jerome is a really special musician with a wonderful creative voice. In this episode you’ll hear her perform some of the songs from her new up-coming album, which will be the seventh album of her original compositions. We also talk about her unique and inspiring teaching style, her experiences through some very difficult personal losses, some ways she has found healing and connection, and he...

This short bonus episode in my Inspiring Excerpts series has clips from E4 S1 with erhu player, educator, and author Patty Chan.  The links for both video and podcast versions of the original conversation as well as the complete transcript, are on my podcast website: http://leahroseman.com/blog/e4-s1-patty-chan-transcript-links-for-podcast-and-video photo credit: SG Won Patty Chan on YouTube: http...

In this short bonus episode, you'll hear clips from the conversation I had with the amazing award-winning singer, song-writer and motivational speaker, Kellylee Evans. You'll also hear short clips from the performance she gave of "Feelin' Good",  one of the most-requested songs in her repertoire, by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse.  For the complete episode in both video and podcast format, as...

In this conversation with the really inspiring cellist, Rachel Mercer, we discuss the arc of her career so far as a chamber musician, soloist, principal cellist, the late Yehonatan Berick, an amazing violinist and pedagogue, who was her life partner, "Our Strength, Our Song" with her sister, the wonderful violinist Akemi Mercer-Niewöhner and many other chamber music collaborations and unique proje...

At the end of E9 S2, my conversation with the incredible cellist Rachel Mercer, you will find Rachel's heartfelt introduction to this inspiring performance which she made for this podcast. I have added it here as a special bonus episode in case listeners wish to listen to it again without having to scroll through the interview. For those listeners who have discovered this recording separately from...

I have re-released this in video format for those who follow this podcast on Spotify! Here’s my very first interview of this podcast, recorded May 27, 2021 over Zoom, I spoke with Kirsty Money about her nyckelharpa journey and she demonstrates this beautiful instrument for us, as well as shares some charming stories about how she learned about the nyckelharpa. She plays some Bach, a traditional Sw...

This is a short bonus episode in my Inspiring Excerpts series, from E3 S2  with guest Sophie Lukacs, the kora player, singer and songwriter. You'll hear a short clip of her performance of a traditional tune "Jula Jegere",  you'll hear her explain about the kora a bit, and then you'll hear her talk about her unique personal journey, leaving medical school to go live in Mali and immerse herself in t...

In this short bonus episode, violinist and Concertmaster of the National Arts Centre Orchestra Canada Yosuke Kawasaki gives wonderful advice for musicians playing orchestral auditions, which I think applies to everyone in their lives about being aware of our strengths. Also in this short episode, he tells us about some of his memorable experiences studying with the legendary Doronthy Delay. The fu...

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...

This is a short bonus episode in my Inspiring Excerpts series, with violinist and vocalist Carissa Klopoushak who is a  member of National Arts Centre Orchestra and  Ironwood Quartet, and the Artistic Director of Ottawa Chamberfest and  Co-director of both Ritornello Chamber Music Festival and Classical Unbound Festival . In this short video we are treated to Carissa's singing and violin playing,...

In this Inspiring Excerpts short bonus episode  you'll hear violinist, educator and entrepreneur Lynn Kuo talk about dealing with her playing injuries while writing her DMA thesis at University of Toronto while working as the Assistant Concertmaster of the National Ballet Orchestra, some lessons learned from Lorand Fenyves, and her perspectives on new opportunities for Classical musicians online. ...

 This interview really had to be a longer one because Josh just does so much creatively, and I had so much I wanted to ask him about! We start with his remix of Curried Soul for CBC radio's daily show As It Happens, and circle around to topics (timestamped below) including:  sampling, Yiddish culture, changes in the industry from when he got his start selling CDs mail-order to touring internationa...

In this short bonus episode you'll hear short clips from my conversation with jazz violinist and vocalist Eva Slongo. She lets us listen in a little to her creative process, and she speaks about her journey from being a classical violinist to the world of jazz, and learning to be an improvisor. If you enjoyed this, please have a listen to the complete episode, linked here both podcast and video: h...

Nyckelharpa player Kirsty Money introduces us to this beautiful instrument in this short bonus episode .  She also performs one of her original tunes, The Grind Polska. This is compiled from excerpts from the original episode, which is also in video format,  available here: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/e1s1kirstymoney For more about Kirsty and her current projects: http://kirstymoney.ca/ab...

I spoke with the renowned  bassoon player Christopher Millard about many topics, including many fascinating insights into the orchestra profession, the physics of sound production on both the bassoon and violin, great advice on how best to practice music, the legendary flutist Marcel Moyse and much more. Timestamps listed below! Like all my episodes, this is also a video, linked here on my website...

In this episode we hear the incredible award-winning singer Kellylee Evans talk about her life and some of the challenges she has faced in her life, including two near-death experiences. She talks about her upbringing, her journey to jazz, her creative process,  and much more. She is such a wonderfully engaging person, and I hope this episode will help listeners feel inspired by her story. We talk...

Hi! I’m a violinist and my podcast Conversations with Musicians with Leah Roseman follows my curiosity about fellow musicians: how did they get to where they are today, what are their perspectives on a life in music? In my interview with the kora player, singer and violinist Sophie Lukacs we hear her very unique and personal story and also learn about this beautiful instrument. She plays a traditi...

Hi! I’m a violinist and my podcast Conversations with Musicians with Leah Roseman follows my curiosity about fellow musicians: how did they get to where they are today, what are their perspectives on a life in music? The format is in-depth conversations prepared with lots of research and many episodes also feature the guests playing music. I speak to musicians playing in different styles of music,...

In Episode 2, Season 2 of "Conversations with Musicians with Leah Roseman" I speak with the wonderful violinist and educator Lynn Kuo. In this wide-ranging discussion we covered a lot of topics, some of which include: injury prevention, performance anxiety, lessons learned and advice for musicians in a post-pandemic world. To follow Lynn or get in touch with her about her current courses and works...