Recording engineer and producer, Dirk Fischer, chats about his career with Marie over coffee in St. Truiden, Belgium, where they have just finished recording Brahms Clarinet Sonatas and Trio with historical instruments. Dirk talks about his role in the recording process, and how it is much more artistically crucial than most people think. The sound engineer (or 'Tonmeister', which is the revered German title - literally 'Sound Master') sits apart in an enclosed booth, but is really directing the...
May 06, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 35
Marie sat down with historical cellist, Claire-Lise Démettre, to talk about Romantic-period string playing and techniques. They discuss Claire-Lise's cello and set-up, what it feels like to play gut strings, portamento, different kinds of vibrato – and those special moments that don't require anything from the player, when the music is just beautiful enough on it’s own. You’ll hear excerpts from the Trio recording that begin the episode and are interspersed through the musical conversation. The ...
Feb 06, 2020•46 min•Ep. 34
This episode is very personal. Marie plays some short examples of various tracks from the new historically informed Brahms recording and talks about the inspirations, stories, experiences, and influences behind each example. Brahms’ inspirations for works often included nature, occasions, and the players for whom he dedicated his music. In this episode, Marie talks about her own personal inspirations for the interpretation and ideas heard on the recording.
Dec 14, 2019•44 min•Ep. 33
The Brahms Mini-Series corresponds to the recent release of a new CD of the Brahms Works for Clarinet and Piano with Marie Ross (clarinet), Petra Somlai (piano), and Claire-Lise Démettre (cello). It was released on the Centaur Records label (CRC 3760) on Nov. 15. In the first episode of her Brahms Mini-Series, Marie introduces some concepts of the historical performance practice of the Romantic era, in particular relating to Brahms' chamber music. She introduces the concept of the mini-series: t...
Dec 06, 2019•37 min•Ep. 32
Marie shares her experiences doing something she never thought she'd do: organize a composition contest. As an early music specialist, she was venturing into the foreign world of contemporary music while still new to the foreign country of New Zealand. As the University of Auckland prepares to host its third annual "Clarinet Weekend", Marie discusses the composition contest from last year: how it got started and the impact it has had on the New Zealand clarinet community. She talks about the 48 ...
Jun 07, 2019•43 min•Ep. 31
David Crowell is a member of the Philip Glass Ensemble, playing woodwinds, and is a genre-crossing composer in his own right, leading his own band, Empyrean Atlas. David plays guitars and saxophones in Empyrean Atlas, as well as writing the music, managing the band, and producing their 3 albums. His music has been said to be a mix of classical, jazz, pop, post-punk, African, ambient, and minimalism. David has played all over the world with the Philip Glass Ensemble, and chats to Marie about what...
Apr 18, 2018•54 min•Ep. 30
Posy Knight is a dancer, choreographer, actor, scenic designer, director, and arts educator. She studied dance at Juilliard, and later went on to study scenic design at the University of Connecticut before moving to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she lives now. Marie chats with her about all the threads of her artistic life, how they fit together, and how she uses her creativity to better her local community in Milwaukee. They discuss thinking and the philosophy behind a physical art form such as d...
Apr 05, 2018•59 min•Ep. 29
This is the second part of Marie's interview with clarinetist, Franklin Cohen. If you haven't heard Part 1 yet, you can start there! This episode is all about intimacy in relationships – between musicians, between a musician and the audience, and even between a musician and the music itself. It’s about growing up, knowing when and how to come into your own and to find your own voice as an artist. Marie chats with Frank about the Munich Competition, Leopold Stokowski, and Frank even gives some pr...
Mar 22, 2018•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 28
Marie talks with Franklin Cohen, Grammy award winning clarinetist and Principal Clarinet of the Cleveland Orchestra for 39 seasons. They chat about his experience auditioning (twice!) for the Cleveland Orchestra and Lorin Maazel, expressivity on an instrument, how to find your voice as an instrumentalist (or artist), performance anxiety and accepting yourself. We hear some samples of Frank's playing including the second movement of Peter Schickele's Quartet for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano...
Mar 06, 2018•50 min•Season 2Ep. 27
Marie talks about her journey moving across the world to New Zealand and from being a full-time performer to also including a teaching position at The University of Auckland. She chats about some of her own teachers and influences, and how it can be possible to teach creativity through music. As well as being the Lecturer of Clarinet at The University of Auckland, Marie also teaches historical clarinet as a secondary instrument to her students. She discusses what modern classical musicians with ...
Feb 22, 2018•35 min•Ep. 26
Hip-hop artist and classical violinist, Miki Kekenj, joins the podcast to discuss the Concerto Köln education project, Speak!. For this project, the period-instrument orchestra, Concerto Köln combined to play the Mozart Requiem with the period-instrument youth orchestra, Jugendbarockorchester Rheinland, and the choir of the famous Cologne Cathedral, the Judgendchor am Kölner Dom. As well as playing the complete original piece, in between several movements, they also performed rap versions with c...
Sep 22, 2015•57 min
Josh Salsbury was a trombonist in the freelance scene in LA. He had his own ensemble and was starting to play Hollywood blockbuster movie soundtracks when he decided to give up the trombone and pursue his new dream of woodworking. Josh now works full time designing and buliding custom furniture by hand. Josh talks very honestly and openly about his journey, and the inner doubts and struggles he battled with along the way to finally having the realization that being a musician just wasn’t for him...
Sep 07, 2015•54 min
In the second part of the interview with award-winning director, Mark Kirkland, he discusses his artistic life outside of his work for The Simpsons. He takes us inside his latest project, a silent film called The Moving Picture Company 1914. Mark wrote, directed, and produced the film (together with his wife, Letty), and shares his experiences of the film making process from the first conception of the idea through the final intricate editing and photography work that went into giving the film i...
Aug 04, 2015•1 hr 18 min
Three-time Emmy award winning animation director for The Simpsons, Mark Kirkland, chats with Marie about all the aspects of his career as an artist: drawing, animation, directing, and comedy. He talks about his beginnings drawing with his father, the famous photographer, Douglas Kirkland. About his time as a student learning from legendary Disney animators who worked on films like Bambi, Snow White, and Fantasia. He talks about the start of his career at Hanna-Barbera and how that prepared him f...
Jul 15, 2015•1 hr 7 min
Dubliners 100 is a collection of 15 short stories, just like James Joyce's original short story collection, Dubliners, but each one written by a contemporary Irish wirter. They are not re-written stories or modernizations of the original work, but editor Thomas Morris thought of the idea of making 15 "cover versions" like in pop music. Dubliners 100 was released on the 100th anniversary of the publishing of Joyce's Dubliners. While Joyce wrote about the everyday middle-class people of Dublin, th...
Jun 22, 2015•58 min
Marie speaks with her colleagues, specialists of historical performance, about their original wind instruments. They tell the stories of their favorite instruments - where and how they got them, and what they had to do to play it again today! German oboist, Peter Wuttke, talks about the English Horn by Carl Theodor Golde that was played in the orchestra in Weimar that Liszt was conducting. He tells us about how he used this instrument for a recording of the Liszt Dante Symphony. Italian clarinet...
Jun 11, 2015•53 min
In this episode, Marie and her early music colleagues from the wind section share stories about one of their original historical instruments. These stories are not only about the instruments, but about the players who have found them, restored them, and perform on them today. In many cases, these were instruments that were covered in dust and grime and in various states of disrepair when they were found. To most musicians they would look like trash, or something to be made into a lamp - but to s...
May 26, 2015•1 hr 8 min
Baritone, Peter Kálmán, and Marie Ross chat at the Salzburg Festival in part 2 of their interview. Peter discusses the opera characters that he creates on stage and how he gets his inspiration from real life experiences. Theater and acting in opera is about gestures that make up character traits and the slightest color or how an emotion plays through the voice, and Peter Kalman is a master of these qualities. On stage, Peter is like a fish in water. He got his education and training back stage, ...
Feb 13, 2015•42 min
Internationally renowned baritone, Peter Kálmán, joins the podcast from the Salzburg Festival where he was singing Schubert's opera, Fierrabras, with Ingo Metzmacher and the Vienna Philharmonic. Peter chats with Marie about how he came to opera through his love of acting and the theater. He is the bass-baritone of choice for Cecilia Bartoli – the one she insists on singing next to when she does an opera production or makes a recording. Peter has sung all over the world. He was a member of the Zu...
Jan 30, 2015•41 min
Michael Walters started out his career as a contemporary ballet dancer with the Netherlands Dance Theater, Frankfurt Ballet, and Lyon Opera, and has since transitioned into a career as an actor. After achiveing the top level of success as a dancer, Michael talks to Marie about what it was like to start over again in a new artistic field, and what it was like to go back to school again at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London where he trained as an actor. Michael's story is so incredible t...
Jan 12, 2015•56 min
Flute player and conductor of Les Ambassadeurs, Alexis Kossenko, demonstrates some favorite flutes from his collection. He takes us from the modern flute through the renaissance, baroque, classical and romantic periods. Some are copies of historical instruments made by modern instrument makers, and some are original instruments from the period. He tells the stories of these very special instruments, how he found them, about each of their specific idiosyncrasies, and which period and type of musi...
Dec 22, 2014•32 min
This episode is about the newly released recording of Mozart's opera, Cosi fan tutte, by Russian orchestra MusicAeterna and conductor, Teodor Currentzis. This recording was made over two weeks in January in Perm, a Russian provincial city close to the Ural Mountains. Marie talks about her experience making this recording in Perm and what it was like to play in a Russian orchestra. Playing musical clips from the recording, she recounts stories and anecdotes from the making of these CDs, and talks...
Dec 04, 2014•37 min
Flutist and conductor, Alexis Kossenko, joins the program to discuss the melding of his two passions. He chats about his early life and how he got started on the flute at an unusually early age. Although he had an early and precocious interest in conducting, he explains how that came later after he had already established himself as a performer and soloist. Alexis takes us behind the scenes and describes the process he had to go through to create a successful orchestra from the ground up. He tal...
Nov 18, 2014•59 min
Goth-chic fashion designers and baroque violinists, Vivien and Olivia Steindler, join the podcast to talk about how they think about fashion as an art form and how they started their clothing and jewelry brand, Voriagh. They are sisters, and discuss their early lives, influences, and their early passions for fashion, music - and all things gothic. Vivien and Olivia have a fashion boutique called Voriagh in the center of the Bastille in Paris, where they sell their original designs. Begun in 2007...
Nov 03, 2014•1 hr 3 min
It is an experience to play 4 different Rossini operas in one season. Marie talks about the four different productions that Ensemble Matheus played this season throughout Europe on historical instruments - and what the culture of theater life was like in Rossini's 19th century Italy when these works were first performed. She talks about how Rossini was the first superstar composer and how he was at the center of the chaos and excitement of 19th century theater life. That adrenaline rush is still...
Oct 20, 2014•43 min
In part 2 of the conversation with opera star, Barry Banks, he talks openly about the issues that all performers and artists deal with: confidence, nerves, the dedication it takes to be a musician, and how important it is for him to have a life outside of singing. He talks about the balance that he has struggled to achieve in his life and how he's learned how to not be too effected when things do not go as perfectly as he would like in a performance. Barry and Marie compare notes and discuss mus...
Jul 18, 2014•49 min
International opera star, tenor, Barry Banks, talks with Marie in Salzburg, Austria, during their production of Rossini's Otello at the Pfingstfestspiele in June. Barry chats about his early life as a trumpet player, and how his experience as an instrumentalist and love for the trumpet and brass bands have influenced him as a singer. Barry discusses his favorite operatic roles, how he creates them on stage, and what it's like to play the villain. He reminisces about his past productions in Salzb...
Jul 02, 2014•55 min
June 16th is Bloomsday, the only city-wide celebration of a day from a work of fiction! Bloomsday is a celebration of James Joyce's Ulysses, and it is the day that the events from the book took place in Dublin. In this special episode, Marie talks a bit about the book itself and delves into some of the stories and history behind the book. She speaks with 3 guests in Dublin who are all associated with Bloomsday, but also have 3 different perspectives on the day and Joyce's work. The first guests ...
Jun 16, 2014•1 hr 2 min
Michael Markwick is a Berlin based Dutch-American painter. In this episode, Marie joins him in his art studio in the Kreutzberg district of Berlin to talk with him about the inspirations, memories, and experiences behind his work. Michael's work is based in nature, and they talk about his process of creating a painting and his relationships with different natural and urban environments, while also discussing what it's like to be an artist today and the new life a painting takes on when it is dis...
Jun 02, 2014•50 min
Marie talks about her experience being a historical performer in Europe, what her life is like, and also about what it means to be a performer today. She explains how she got into the early music world from being a modern clarinetist in the United States, what motivated her, the process of learning a historical instrument, and how this made her a more complete musician. The lifestyle of an early music wind player is discussed - everything from travel, playing with musicians from other cultures, ...
May 20, 2014•29 min
