Writing is hard because we have a lofty idea of what writing is. We imagine people--fancy people--with degrees and credentials and quills and thick notebooks into which they spill their flawless thoughts from their flawless brains, sitting in flawless libraries filled top to bottom with other flawless books by other flawless authors. Yeah, no. That’s not how it works. The best writing begins with mess. The messier and wilder you are, the better. The best thing we can do is throw ourselves in, as...
Sep 22, 2021•8 min•Ep. 39
“So….do you still play the violin?” Recently, people have been asking me this a lot, and I’ll be honest with you, it kind of pisses me off. My reaction to that question is visceral: defensive, angry, defiant. And a little scared. Because, dammit, I didn’t give up my childhood and every fun thing to be a violinist and have it called into question now . I’m also aware that my outsized reaction to this question also reveals my own insecurities. Because if someone is asking me if I’m still a violini...
Sep 15, 2021•18 min•Ep. 38
Subscribe to the podcast here! Since I received my Fulbright in the creative writing category, I thought it might be helpful for me to share some ideas about how creative writing has helped me and my violin playing: How Creative Writing Could Make You a Happier Musician In classical music, we accept nothing less than perfection. We mustn’t miss a shift or play out of tune. This perfectionism made me relentless and hard-working and followed me from The Juilliard School to the M.F.A. classroom. Bu...
Feb 28, 2021•6 min•Ep. 37
Subscribe to the podcast here! Learn more about the stuff we talk about in this episode: Jennifer Fawcett Jennifer teaches at Skidmore College and her first novel, The Octagon House, will be published by Atria, an imprint of Simon and Schuster. Working Group Theatre , the theatre group that Jenn co-founded. Imposter Syndrome The International Theatre Project , the organization that allowed Jenn to travel to Tanzania and Rwanda to teach storytelling and theatre to young students....
Jan 24, 2021•56 min•Ep. 36
Subscribe to the podcast here! 0:59 - Cellist Laura Usiskin on perfectionism and the ways we compare ourselves to others. 2:41 - Pianist and scholar, Mina Yang, gives some advice on being grateful and why you don’t have to do music professionally to find value in it. 3:43 - Violinist, conductor, and scholar, Sean Wang, talks about the importance of being yourself and finding your unique artistic identity. 6:05 - Sarah Carter is a cellist, medical doctor and a former child prodigy herself. Here, ...
Dec 27, 2020•11 min•Ep. 35
Subscribe to the podcast here! Miki is a core member of the Grammy-nominated ensemble, A Far Cry The Boston Globe profile on Miki's "Little Criers"concerts for families and children. Find "Little Criers" on A Far Cry's Facebook Page. Miki and I play in the Solera Quartet together: MUSIC IN THIS EPISODE is from Mendelssohn's String Quartet, Op. 80, from the Solera Quartet 's debut album, EVERY MOMENT PRESENT. Robert Levin , Professor Emeritus, Harvard University Ronda Cole , Director of NVSMS , V...
Dec 13, 2020•25 min•Ep. 34
Subscribe to the podcast here! Noa Kageyama, Bulletproof Musician Noa teaches at the Juilliard School The Suzuki Method Noa got a double degree at Oberlin Don Greene , Ph.d, Performance Mastery Trainer Seymour Bernstein , pianist and pedagogue Ethan Hawke and his film about Seymour Bernstein This is Your Brain on Jazz : Researchers Use MRI to Study Spontaneity, Creativity Seth Godin Alexander Technique Hidden Brain: The Edge Effect Ivan Galamian , legendary violin teacher of Itzhak Perlman among...
Nov 29, 2020•54 min•Ep. 33
Rev. D. Maurice Charles Subscribe to the podcast here! 2:33 - Dean Charles talks about his growing up in the church and how his family migrated from the Jim Crow South. How his family's stories of slavery and survival and faith make up the story of his heritage. 5:12 - When and how Dean Charles was called to the ministry. His background in microbiology, psychology, and sociology. How he became a university chaplain. "Human beings are stranger than microbes." 7:31 - What is a university chaplain?...
Nov 01, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 32
Subscribe to the podcast here! Kenji Bunch 3:56 - How Kenji got started in music on violin and piano. 5:32 - How Kenji always had an "abstract notion" that he wanted to compose and how this led to his double major in Viola Performance and Composition at Juilliard. 6:49 - The creative aspect of music and how making his own music was always attached to Kenji's musical consciousness and imagination. 7:56 - The value of listening to music in "a non-hierarchical way where everything [is] worth our li...
Oct 25, 2020•37 min•Ep. 31
Subscribe to the podcast here! Karen Rile 2:05 - Karen's childhood growing up in an "arts friendly" family. 3:53 - Nathalie Hinderas , an African American pianist who faced career challenges due to racism and how Karen's mother, Joanne Rile , became her manager and pivoted towards a career in arts management, championing African American classical musicians. 5:58 - Why Karen found music lessons very stressful and anxiety producing. 6:56 - How Karen grew up surrounded by musicians and learned to ...
Oct 04, 2020•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 30
Subscribe to the podcast here! Byron Au Yong 3:13 - The genesis of "Activist Songbook." The murder of Vincent Chin as impetus for U.S. legislation against hate crimes. 5:12 - "'Activist Songbook' is the third in a trilogy of works where I've been addressing what Americans fear; ways out of oppression; and the central focus of these three works: an Asian male in America who receives media attention." 6:03 - "Launched in 2017, 'Activist Songbook' was directly impacted by the election of Donald Tru...
Sep 20, 2020•46 min•Ep. 29
Subscribe to the podcast here! Byron Au Yong 2:50 - "If you hear a child sing, they're trying to comfort themselves." How music provided solace for Byron and a way to process the multiple Chinese languages of his family plus "the healing powers of music." 4:27 - How Byron's Chinese immigrant parents raised him to be English speaking and his experiences growing up in a multilingual family. 6:23 - Byron's experiences in musical theatre and how his aunt encouraged him to audition for "The King and ...
Sep 06, 2020•32 min•Ep. 28
In my conversation with composer Augusta Read Thomas , she expresses her heartfelt support of Black Lives Matter ; her empathy for the performer in her compositions; why the music profession should be "wildly diverse"; and the three things that one needs to be an excellent composer. Subscribe to the podcast here! Augusta Read Thomas 2:40 - Augusta makes a statement about Black Lives Matter and says "it's profoundly urgent that we finally, hopefully, this time, make things better." 3:44 - How Aug...
Aug 23, 2020•48 min•Ep. 27
Subscribe to the podcast here! Blair McMillen Blair's YouTube channel 2:12 - Blair talks about how he got started, going to Interlochen, and then Oberlin . 4:59 - Blair's struggles with a "debilitating fear of performance" and how he learned to manage this anxiety and stage fright. How beta blockers helped him deal with his "preoccupation with playing perfectly." Noa Kageyama, The Bulletproof Musician 13:08 - How Blair helps his own students deal with performance anxiety and stage fright. 14:36 ...
Aug 09, 2020•49 min•Ep. 26
Subscribe to the podcast here! Sean Wang 4:00 - Sean's arduous process and emigration from Taiwan to the U.S. How he won a major competition and left Taiwan to study music abroad. 5:39 - How at age 13, Sean took time off from school in order to practice and win the competition. 6:10 - How leaving Taiwan was necessary at that time, in order fro Sean to develop as a musician. 7:45 - "I always knew that I would be a musician one day. It was always what I wanted to do." Sean's love of music and his ...
Jul 19, 2020•1 hr•Ep. 25
Subscribe to the podcast here! Celia Hatton 2:32 - Celia talks about growing up in a musically and artistically eclectic family and how she got started on the viola. 9:18 - Celia talks about what motivated her to play classical music. 11:55 - Celia talks about what it's been like to be a bi-racial, black woman in classical music and why she started to feel self-conscious about her race in high school and college. Her experiences of invisibility as she rose into the "higher spaces" within classic...
Jul 05, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 24
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Jun 27, 2020•11 min•Ep. 23
Subscribe to the podcast here! Dr. Nadine Kelly 1:44 - Growing up the daughter of Haitian immigrants, Nadine's journey to becoming a pathologist and how she decided to leave medicine after being diagnosed with depression and how this led to her second career as YOGI MD , a yoga instructor for mature women. 9:38 - How the pandemic has changed Nadine's business and empowered her mature women to embrace technology. 13:19 - How yoga is a "whole practice" that allows us to let go of judgement and pra...
May 23, 2020•54 min•Ep. 22
Subscribe to the podcast here! Shannon Wilkinson 1:41 – Shannon’s circuitous path to becoming a life coach before life coaching was “a thing.” How Shannon always knew she wanted to be her own boss. 5:35 – Social entrepreneurs and why Shannon likes to work with people who dedicate their lives to making their part of the world a better place: parents, teachers, artists, employees. 7:52 – How Shannon transformed from someone who was “allergic to exercise” to climbing 12,000 foot mountains and runni...
May 16, 2020•52 min•Ep. 21
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May 09, 2020•8 min•Ep. 20
Subscribe to the podcast here! Mai Der Vang 1:55 - Mai Der's growing up in the U.S, as the child of Hmong refugees. How Mai Der began writing poetry as a kid. 3:12 - How early encouragement and her 5th grade teacher spurred Mai Der's writing habit and her interest in creative writing and poetry. 4:45 - How Mai Der's writing is influenced by both the Hmong and English languages. 5:47 - Mai Der talks about her book, Afterland , and retelling of the devastation of the Secret War that wreaked havoc ...
May 02, 2020•48 min•Ep. 19
Subscribe to the podcast here! Nick Photinos 4:23 - Struggling with productivity and career transformation during the pandemic. 4:38 - Nick talks about the "profound change" his career is taking now as he prepares to leave Eighth Blackbird and how we all identify with our professional personas. 6:00 - The challenges of reinventing oneself during the uncertainty of COVID-19. 8:29 - The genesis of Eighth Blackbird at Oberlin. Tim Weiss . 12:52 - How Nick decided it was time to leave Eighth Blackbi...
Apr 25, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 18
Subscribe to the podcast here! Alexandra DiPalma 3:25 - Alex and I talk about coming to terms with competitiveness. 5:45 - Seth Godin and The Podcast Fellowship : how Alex and Seth Godin created this platform to teach people how to start their own podcasts. What you can learn and gain from producing your own podcast. 8:35 - How can podcasting help you push past perfectionism? 10:10 - How Alex began to produce Food 4 Thot and how it was one of the first queer podcasts in the culture. 12:20 - How ...
Apr 17, 2020•46 min•Ep. 17
Subscribe to the podcast here! Mike Block 3:37 - How Mike got started growing up in a family of classical musicians. 5:09 - Mike shares his experience of unhappiness in classical music and the creative limitations he felt in that genre. 7:34 - How Mike's conflicted decision to pursue a graduate degree at Juilliard led him to play with bands in New York City. 9:10 - How Mike created the Mike Block String Camp , a place he wished had existed when he was younger. The importance of collaboration and...
Apr 10, 2020•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 16
(Subscribe to the podcast here! ) Here's the essay: When it comes to dating, there are so many new ways to be cruel to one another. Ghosting , catfishing , breadcrumbing . And then there are all the fun variations. Haunting is when someone who ghosted you keeps lingering on your social media. (Delightful). Zombieing is when your ex suddenly pops up in your life. Fa--ntastic. I don’t know what it’s called when your ex just vanishes, though, and has no social media presence at all. My friends say ...
Apr 03, 2020•15 min•Ep. 15
Subscribe to the podcast here! Laura Usiskin Check out the Bayberry String Quartet's ONE-PAGE "QUICK GUIDE" TO REHEARSING REMOTELY! 2:25 - Laura talks about how she got started with her first cello teacher, the legendary pedagogue, Gilda Barston . 4:02 - Laura talks about her early issues with confidence and how she compared herself to other players. Laura's cello teachers in college: Fred Sherry , and Aldo Parisot . 6:30 - Why Laura studied neuroscience for her undergraduate degree. 7:14 - How ...
Mar 27, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 14
Ian offers wonderfully rich prompts and all the pieces must be performed live and they must not exceed 5 minutes. It’s quite amazing how this crystalizes all the bullshit thoughts that normally takes up meters of paper and forces you to get to the point right quick because the clock is literally ticking. Not to mention all the trees we’re saving. The prompt for today’s piece was to tell the story of the most frustrating/maddening time you dealt with a bureaucracy (DMV, Bursar's office, traffic c...
Mar 20, 2020•8 min•Ep. 13
Subscribe to the podcast here! 2:34 - Sarah talks about her resentment upon realizing she hadn't had a childhood. 3:34 - What Sarah's classical music training taught her and the skills that serve her in positive ways, every day. 7:35 - How classical music in the way that Sarah experienced it is creative but in a very narrow way. She shares her experience of trying to improvise on the cello for the first time. "The thought of improvising was so terrifying to me that I burst into tears." 8:50 -Sar...
Mar 06, 2020•37 min•Ep. 12
Subscribe to the podcast here! 8:37 - How Sarah became serious about the cello as small child and how she was carried along by the enthusiasm and pressure from adults. 10:23 - Sarah shares how her feelings of worthiness were tied to her ability to perform "perfectly." 11:30 - "The tragedy of perfection" and the high stakes of performance. How missing a shift or playing out of tune made Sarah feel that "all was lost." 14:04 - How our ability to perform well or poorly gets conflated with one's sen...
Feb 28, 2020•52 min•Ep. 11
Subscribe to the podcast here! Learn more about the stuff we talk about in this episode here: Assaff Weisman 3:54 - How the right teacher can change everything and why he credits his life as a musician to his early teacher, Seth Kimmelman. 6:07 - Seth Kimmelman's tragic passing from AIDS. 7:59 - Assaff's identity as an Israeli and an American. 10:15 - How Israeli Chamber Project started. 15:53 - The main learning points and challenges of starting your own organization. 18:20 - How our training a...
Feb 14, 2020•52 min•Ep. 10
