Soundweavers

The following episodes were recorded live at Lake George Music Festival 2023. In this two part series, Rosy chats with three of the festival's participants, Joshua Lauretig, Garret Arney, and Kevin Dombrowski. Topics center around music education, career trajectories, and the musicians' relationship to the festival. To learn more about the musicians featured in these episodes, please click on the links below: Joshua Lauretig ⁠https://bpo.org/staff-members/joshua-lauretig/⁠ Garrett Arney, arx duo ⁠https://www.arxduo.com/members-bio⁠. Kevin Dombrowski ⁠https://www.ilsymphony.org/about/our-musicians/kevin-r-dombrowski/⁠ Lake George Music Festival 2024 will take place from August 11 - 22. For more information, please visit ⁠https://www.lakegeorgemusicfestival.com/⁠.

The following episodes were recorded live at Lake George Music Festival 2023. In this two part series, Rosy chats with three of the festival's participants, Joshua Lauretig, Garret Arney, and Kevin Dombrowski. Topics center around music education, career trajectories, and the musicians' relationship to the festival. To learn more about the musicians featured in these episodes, please click on the links below: Joshua Lauretig https://bpo.org/staff-members/joshua-lauretig/ Garrett Arney, arx duo https://www.arxduo.com/members-bio. Kevin Dombrowski https://www.ilsymphony.org/about/our-musicians/kevin-r-dombrowski/ Lake George Music Festival 2024 will take place from August 11 - 22. For more information, please visit https://www.lakegeorgemusicfestival.com/.

This week Rosy chats with members of the Juliani Ensemble - Anita Graef, Julian Graef and Emily Seaberry. They speak about maintaining ensemble longevity, the role of family within the ensemble, and Julian's experience of transforming a barn into a concert hall. Juliani Ensemble is currently preparing the launch of its new chamber music festival, the Tallgrass Chamber Music Festival, for summer 2023. To learn more about the Juliani Ensemble and/or the Tallgrass Chamber Music Festival, please visit https://www.julianiensemble.org/ and https://tallgrassfestival.org/.

In this episode, Rosy chats with Nicholas Finch, Artistic Director of Derby City Chamber Music Festival and Principal Cellist of the Louisville Orchestra. Derby City Music Festival 2023 will take place on May 23rd, 25th and 30th at Second Presbyterian Church in Louisville, KY. To reserve tickets or find out more about the festival, visit https://derbycitychamberfest.org/ To learn more about Nicholas Finch, visit http://nicholasfinch.com/

In this episode, Rosy delves into deep conversation with British composer Arthur Keegan. They speak about his new song cycle based on the works of author Thomas Hardy, grad school funding, and the virtues of patience when examining one's own career trajectory. If you would like to support the Hardy project or preorder the album, please visit Arthur’s Kickstarter at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wessexlovesongs/help-us-record-an-album-celebrating-hardys-poetry-and-music

In this episode, Rosanna chats with the Icarus Quartet - Larry Weng, Christopher Goodpasture, Matt Keown, and Jeff Stern - about building repertoire, working with composers, maintaining a work-life balance, and the practical realities of recording. To find out more about Icarus Quartet, visit https://icarusquartet.org/ Icarus Quartet’s debut album Big Things can be heard at https://icarusquartet.bandcamp.com/album/big-things

Welcome to Season 3 of the Soundweavers Podcast! In this short introductory episode, host Rosanna Moore, editor Evan Henry and producer Nikolas Jeleniauskas chat about the direction they are hoping to take the show this season. They also discuss the upcoming guests for the next four episodes: Icarus Quartet, Arthur Keegan, Derby City Music Festival and the Juliani Ensemble.

Soundweavers Podcast will be on hiatus until next year.

In the final Cast Chat and episode of season 2, we are joined by the hosts of UpBeat Podcast (a part of Everything Conducting), John Devlin and Enrico Lopez-Yañez, to discuss the similarities between large and small ensemble musicianship, and our respective approaches when developing podcasts. The transcript for this episode can be found here. For more information about Everything Conducting, John and Enrico, please visit their websites.

Guitarist and composer DJ Sparr joins us to chat about the central role that the relationships built in school play in securing future work. He shares about his experience performing Kenneth Fuch’s Electric Guitar Concerto with JoAnn Falletta and the London Symphony Orchestra and the difference between performing his vs. others’ works. We also talk about the typical day-to-day schedule of a performer-composer, and working this into family life. Electric guitarist and composer D. J. Sparr, who Gramophone recently hailed as “exemplary,” is one of America’s preeminent composer-performers. He has caught the attention of critics with his eclectic style, described as “pop-Romantic…iridescent and wondrous” (The Mercury News) and “suits the boundary erasing spirit of today’s new-music world” (The New York Times). The Los Angeles Times praises him as “an excellent soloist,” and the Santa Cruz Sentinel says that he “wowed an enthusiastic audience…Sparr’s guitar sang in a near-human voice.” He was the electric guitar concerto soloist on the 2018 GRAMMY-Award winning, all-Kenneth Fuchs recording with JoAnn Falletta and the London Symphony Orchestra. In 2011, Sparr was named one of NPR listener’s favorite 100 composers under the age 40. He has composed for and performed with renowned ensembles such as the Houston Grand Opera, Cabrillo Festival, New World Symphony, Washington National Opera, and Eighth Blackbird. His music has received awards from BMI, New Music USA, and the League of Composers/ISCM. Sparr is a faculty member at the famed Walden School’s Creative Musicians Retreat in Dublin, New Hampshire. His works and guitar performances appear on Naxos, Innova Recordings, & Centaur Records. D. J. lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with his wife Kimberly, son Harris, Nannette the hound dog, and Bundini the boxer. D. J. Sparr’s music is published by Bill Holab Music. The transcript for this episode can be found here. For more information about DJ Sparr, please visit his website.

Jacquelyn Lankford and Stephanie Ycaza of Calypsus Brass join us to chat about the significance of being an all-female-identifying group in the world of brass ensembles. They speak with us about the workshops, which range from discussions on military and orchestral work to musician wellness. We talk about their involvement with Rising Tide Music Press and how they tackle the challenges associated with funding the commissioning and recording of new works. Founded in 2021, Calypsus Brass is a professional chamber ensemble performing new works recitals, creating high-level professional recordings for composers, and working with chamber musicians at all levels. The five founding members are avid performers and educators touring around the world, giving masterclasses and recitals. Calypsus Brass is a groundbreaking musical group founded by five women who earned a doctoral degree in music, the first of its kind. Between them, members hold 5 doctorates, a total of 14 degrees, 3 minors, and 4 advanced certificates in cognates such as pedagogy and jazz improvisation. Calypsus Brass serves as a recording ensemble for composers whose works have never been recorded. Founded in 2021, Calypsus members perform at the highest level of excellence in musical performance and education. Calypsus Brass is committed to prioritizing recording and performing works of historically marginalized composers to uplift the highest quality of music. To further this mission, Calypsus Brass is proud to be the Ensemble in Residence for Rising Tide Music Press, an organization that publishes and promotes BBIA (Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Asian) musicians in their 10 years of professional-level work as composers and arrangers. Because professional recordings can be cost-prohibitive for composers and many composition competitions and calls for scores require recording with real instruments for consideration, Calypsus Brass is committed to recording works by emerging artists. We encourage all musicians to program music by a diverse array of composers so that the music we perform is inclusive of the community we serve as artists. Calypsus is proud to lead by example in this mission with recording and commissioning projects. When premiering and recording works, Calypsus Brass creates a relationship with composers, helping to build their portfolios with recordings that the composers are proud to showcase while providing expert advice and coaching regarding idiomatic writing for brass instruments. As devoted educators, Calypsus members bring a robust pedagogical background to each masterclass and outreach event. Combining 80 years of educational experience, Calypsus Brass presents specialized masterclasses and clinics on topics including: chamber music, classical, orchestra, and jazz performance, wellness, audition preparation, military and orchestral careers, performance anxiety and psychology, music career development, marketing and branding, arts administration and nonprofit management, commissioning, audio engineering, and intersectionality in the music community. The transcript for this episode can be found here. For more information about Calypsus Brass, please visit their website.

Violist Annalisa Boerner of Music Haven and the Haven String Quartet joins us to discuss the organization's mission to enhance access to chamber music education for the students of New Haven, Connecticut. We chat about how the organization works to connect the work their students are doing in the studio with the world beyond their practice, and how they work to counter the violence and hostility of society through community-building. We speak about the ways in which the organization is currently striving to improve inclusivity in employment and programming, and how they manage to provide learning opportunities 100% tuition-free to students in need. Featured in the New York Times and on NPR, and sought after for both their command on the concert stage and their mastery as teachers, Haven String Quartet has been described as “exquisite” by the NH Register. Its four members represent the world’s top conservatories and bring outstanding chamber music performances to New Haven neighborhoods and throughout the region with a full season of concerts, recitals, educational workshops, and performances for diverse audiences in public spaces. The Quartet serves as the permanent quartet-in-residence and teaching faculty for Music Haven, and  spearheads the organization’s tuition-free strings program for youth, which has been recognized as a top 50 after-school arts program in the country by the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities for six years. Each member of HSQ teaches a full studio of 15-20 Music Haven students in private lessons, group classes, studio classes, chamber groups, and an advanced chamber orchestra. The transcript for this episode can be found here. For more information about Music Haven, please visit their website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

Our new producer, Evan Henry, joins us to discuss his life as a student and composer and how he found his way into audio engineering as a segment of his professional career. Evan Henry is a composer and music copyist (and now, podcast producer, it seems!) currently living in Eugene, Oregon. His formal musical study began at the Eastman School of Music in 2008 as a jazz trumpet major. After switching focus to composition and piano, he graduated with a BM in composition in 2013, and briefly continued his studies at the University of Pennsylvania in 2016. In 2017, he began exploring Balinese gamelan music extensively, performing, teaching, and composing for Eastman's two ensembles, Gamelan Sanjiwani and Gamelan Lila Muni. In 2021, he won the Random Opera New Works Competition, and his opera The Heavenly Ledger will be premiered online in September 2022. His musical influences draw from his eclectic background and include everything from Stravinsky to Eric Dolphy to David Wise to Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon.

Irine Røsnes, Trevor Bartlett, and Jonny Best of FRAME Ensemble joins us to discuss their work improvising for silent films, from how they got started working within this genre to their process preparing for each film. They share about their approach to the traditions for performance with silent films and how they approach the various challenges associated with a genre so uniquely situated in a specific moment in time. The transcript for this episode can be found here. For more information about Nina Shekhar, please visit her website and Facebook.

Composer Nina Shekhar joins us to chat about her work exploring identity, vulnerability, love, and laughter in her work and her process for exploring such complex aspects of humanity in seemingly mundane experiences, such as the car horns on the streets of India. We talk about how she approaches the business side of a professional career in composition, and how her work as a flutist, saxophonist, and pianist has informed her comfort with a wide array of compositional styles. And we speak about how we can all be more mindful to empower and promote the agency of composers and performers from marginalized communities and avoid the risks of exploiting any individual's otherness. Nina Shekhar is a composer who explores the intersection of identity, vulnerability, love, and laughter to create bold and intensely personal works. Described as “tart and compelling” (New York Times), “vivid” (Washington Post), and “surprises and delights aplenty” (LA Times), her music has been commissioned and performed by leading artists including LA Philharmonic, Albany Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, New World Symphony, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Eighth Blackbird, International Contemporary Ensemble, JACK Quartet, New York Youth Symphony, Alarm Will Sound, The Crossing, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, ETHEL, violinist Jennifer Koh, saxophonist Timothy McAllister, Ensemble Échappé, Music from Copland House, soprano Tony Arnold, Third Angle New Music, The New York Virtuoso Singers, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Lyris Quartet, Ray-Kallay Duo, New Music Detroit, and Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra. Her work has been featured by Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Walt Disney Concert Hall (LA Phil’s Noon to Midnight), Library of Congress, National Gallery of Art, National Sawdust, National Flute Association, North American Saxophone Alliance, I Care If You Listen, WNYC/New Sounds (New York), WFMT (Chicago), and KUSC and KPFK (Los Angeles) radio, ScoreFollower, and New Music Detroit’s Strange Beautiful Music. Upcoming events include performances by the New York Philharmonic, LA Philharmonic (joined by soloists Nathalie Joachim and Pamela Z), Minnesota Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, and her Hollywood Bowl debut with the LA Philharmonic. Current projects include commissions for the Grand Rapids Symphony, 45th Parallel Universe Chamber Orchestra (sponsored by GLFCAM), and Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) (sponsored by LA Phil and New Music USA). Nina is the recipient of the 2021 Rudolf Nissim Prize, two ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards (2015 and 2019), and the 2018 ASCAP Foundation Leonard Bernstein Award, funded by the Bernstein family. The transcript for this episode can be found here. For more information about Nina Shekhar, please visit her website, Facebook, and Instagram.