The internet is so full of content that it is hard to find the most useful. The latest flash in the pan can easily distract us. We musicians must constantly search for the inspiration that keeps us moving forward. Here are five podcasts that will change your thinking about music and the music world.
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast, created by conductor Joshua Weilerstein, spends each episode digging into a single piece or one topic for up to an hour and a quarter. The podcast is intended for anyone with an interest in classical music, but is still useful for professionals. Weilerstein devotes plenty of time in the show to the music itself, with commentary about the circumstances of a piece’s composition. Some shows are interviews with composers and performers, such as Caroline Shaw and Marc-André Hamelin.
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Inside Chamber Music podcast with composer Bruce Adolphe takes us inside the minds of composers as they create their works. He also explores parallels from other art forms. The podcast includes recordings of Adolphe’s live lectures for CMS.
On the jazz side of the music world, two of St. Louis’s musical lights, Peter Martin and Adam Maness, intersperse recordings of influential jazz musicians with their own light-hearted banter in their delightful podcast You’ll Hear It. For jazz musicians, it’s great resource for learning how to play better jazz. For classical musicians, it’s a thoughtful introduction to jazz if you enjoy it but feel out of your element.
Although it’s not in current production, Reena Esmail’s Resonant Space is worth a listen for its intimate look at the struggles of creation for a composer. In these short video episodes, Esmail is often brutally frank about her processes, self-doubts, and (Note: this is not the same as the Resonant Space podcast currently available, which is on the topic of healing modalities). You can also hear performances of her music on more recent videos on her channel.
Although not specifically about music, the weekly The Herstorical Society Podcast of St. Louis musicians Amanda Stewart and Cara Kizer looks at gender hierarchy and history, including the ways that gender oppression has affected the lives of women musicians. It takes a deep look at historical movements, including women’s suffrage and the #MeToo movement, and places them in a broader context to try to make sense of today’s world.
We all have to keep on keepin’ on when it comes to playing in tune. Since we are fallible humans playing with other fallible humans, every note we play has a chance to go a little off. Here are a few thoughts about keeping up with the challenge of playing in tune: Don’t rely just on your tuning app. While tuning apps can be a good reality check about what our ears are telling us,
Musicians are, in general, remarkably unaware of how copyright works. I can say that because, although I consider myself a fairly well-informed musician, I have learned a lot about copyright since I started my music publishing career. Questions that I encounter: Q: If I wrote this arrangement of this copyrighted work, don’t I own the arrangement? A: No. The copyright holder of the original work owns the arrangement. In fact, you should get permission from
When we practice, we are learning to move our bodies in the optimum way to fulfill our musical intention. We improvise, try things out, experiment with this or that musical intention and find the most efficient and effective way to move to achieve that intent. When we practice well, we are rehearsing a sequence of movements that are guided by a series of musical intentions. When we work through a difficult spot, we are intensifying
Woody Allen said, “80% of success is showing up.” But showing up shouldn’t mean simply being in the room. Showing up should mean being present—attending to what’s happening around you. As an orchestral trombonist, my role in the orchestra often meant that I stayed in the background for long periods of time. Entire movements of some symphonies don’t have any trombone at all. It’s tempting to “check out” during those times. However, I found it
In some musical circles and in some eras, transcriptions have been disdained. The current trend in authentic performance practices for music of the Baroque era, for example, is difficult to replicate on some modern instruments. Another concern is that music from other cultures will be “culturally appropriated” if played by Western musicians on Western instruments. But isn’t there some value in transcribing music? Although pianists, violinists, and cellists could live their entire performing lives playing
I’m at a performance of the San Francisco Symphony tonight, with James Gaffigan conducting. Program: Missy Mazzoli: Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres) (2014) Samuel Barber: Violin Concerto, Opus 14 (1940), with violinist Ray Chen Sergei Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, Opus 100 (1944) Live music is the best music.
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