The best podcasts for Music Lovers who have long commutes

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 projects, as well as her way of approaching music. Rachel very generously made a special recording of the Prelude from J.S. Bach's fifth solo suite in C minor BWV 1011, and her heartfelt introduction to the power of this music is right after our conversation, so please keep listening till the end! There are timestamps below, and the Bach with her introduction is also a separate bonus episode.

The video version of this episode is here, linked on my website with the transcript: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/e9-s2-rachel-mercer

To learn more about Rachel, her recordings and current projects: http://www.rachelmercercellist.com/

Help me with a tip? https://ko-fi.com/leahroseman This podcast costs me a lot of time and money, and I could really use the help and encouragement. Thanks!

Photo credit: David Leyes

(00:00) Introduction

(02:24) Bonjour Strad and other cellos through Canada Council

(06:19) Baroque performance practice influences and Anner Bylsma

(11:41) Vriendenkrans competition and playing in the Concertgebouw

(13:44) debut solo record “Room”

(15:13) Ernst Reijseger

(16:10) Rachel’s studies with different teachers including Shauna Rolston, Laurence Lesser,Dmitri Ferschtman

(21:10) Aviv Quartet, experiences in South Africa and Israel

(24:49) Yehonatan Berick

(28:38) the influences of many different teachers

(30:13) Ilona Feher, Yehonatan’s teacher

(31:34) Rachel’s obaasan and the experience of Japanese Canadian families internment during the Second World War

(34:18) Rachel’s sister violinist Akemi Mercer-Niewöhner

(36:05) Return to Canada and a career as a chamber musician

(37:59) “Mosaïque Project” with Ensemble Made in Canada

(40:18) Playing orchestral auditions

(43:58) Pre-concert routine and mindfulness

(46:22) Dream journals and realizing projects

(47:34) album “Our Strength, Our Song” with sister Akemi Mercer-Niewöhner

(50:06) Rachel’s way of practicing and learning music

(55:08) Advice and inspiration from the younger generations of musicians

(57:10) Rachel’s introduction to the Bach

(59:03) Prelude from J.S. Bach’s fifth solo suite in C minor BWV 1011

The internationally renowned guitarist Derek Gripper is famous for his groundbreaking technique for evoking the West African kora on the guitar. During this episode you’ll get to hear Derek play quite a bit and you will hear his wonderful insights on how we listen to and learn music, the influence of Montessori and Alexander Technique in his life, his reflections on important collaborations in his career and his perspectives on changes that have been imposed on creators and performers.

Please help me keep this podcast going: https://ko-fi.com/leahroseman

The video and transcript are linked here: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/derek-gripper

https://www.derekgripper.com/

Timestamps:

(00:00:00) Introduction (00:01:45) Bach guitar music with intro (00:04:00) carnatic music studies, album with tabla player Udai Mazumdar (00:06:12) structural improvisation, Bach (00:08:18) Alexander Technique (00:15:28) violin studies (00:16:24) Derek's recording approach (00:20:30) “Billly Goes to Durban” (00:21:28) kora music, Toumani Diabaté (00:25:18) “Tubaka” guitar music (00:26:36) Derek’s transcriptions, Zoom classes (00:30:12) online music economy, Derek’s experiences with selling albums, Platoon label (00:35:35) Montessori method and teaching guitar (00:39:38) "A Year of Swimming" (00:41:34) Alex Van Heerden, “Sagtevlei”, Steve Reich, Bryan Bolton (00:45:36) Guy Buttery and different collaborations (00:48:12) South Africa and COVID’s economic ramifications (00:49:43) Madosini (00:52:06) World Music as a genre and marketing tool (00:58:23) Derek’s style of performing (01:00:31) mental health, touring, mindset with Alexander Technique inhibition and internal resistance (01:04:42) "Seeing Nobody" guitar music (01:07:00) reflections on Derek’s career, being South African, John Williams, Lucy Duran (01:11:30) Derek’s guitars, Paul Galbraith Brahms guitar, “Bloomdorns”, Hermann Hauser, just intonation and bending notes, oud, lute, veena, (01:17:36) Derek’s advice and reflections on too much input

photo: Luke Young

Ali Omar El-Farouk is an Egyptian and Canadian oud guitar player, composer and teacher. Ali plays his oud and three other instruments during this fascinating conversation in which we talked about learning from a place of joy, connecting across cultures through music, languages, architecture, Istanbul, Spain, Umm Kulthum, Nubian music, jazz, and lots more. The link for the video version and transcript: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/ali-omar-el-farouk

Support this series through my Ko-fi page! https://ko-fi.com/leahroseman

https://aliomarelfarouk.com/

photo: Joshua Hansen

Timestamps:

(00:00:00) Intro

(00:01:50) Ali’s background in architectural engineering, coming to Montreal to study jazz

(00:02:57) early music lessons piano and guitar

(00:07:55) about the oud, with improvisation

(00:16:50) Ali’s time in Spain studying flamenco and introduction to “Nostalgia Esperanzadora”

(00:29:31) Ali’s composition “Nostalgia Esperanzadora” for oud and flamenco guitar

(00:38:21) vibrato and different expressive techniques on the oud, about the risha and different types of plectrums

(00:46:28) Arab architecture, Alhambra, traveling in Southern Spain

(00:52:20) learning Spanish, Turkish and communicating through music

(00:55:29) bringing musicians to Egypt, Mike de Masi, Thomas Durant, Freddy Rizk, Hamza El Din, Nubian music

(01:02:47) Umm Kulthum

(01:09:13) Ali’s musicial influences, learning Arabic music, Anouar Brahem, Simon Shaheen

(01:14:55) 2011 pro-democracy protests in Cairo

(01:21:07) different Arabic dialects, Arabic community in Montreal

(01:24:25) Turkey, trip to Istanbul

(01:29:45) album Ela Mataa, Joseph Khoury

(01:36:12) demonstration of frame drum and history of the frame drum

(01:41:08) Montreal jazz scene

(01:44:48) teaching

(01:47:21) Joseph Tawadros, Cengiz Sarikus

(01:49:26) intro to Naima by John Coltrane on electric guitar

(01:53:38) Ali’s advice about practicing and learning music

It’s hard to sum up how important Verna Gillis has been for music lovers. First of all, she is an ethnomusicologist who recorded traditional music around the world including in Kashmir, Afghanistan, Iran, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Surinam, Ghana, and the United States. This episode will bring you along on some of these journeys. 25 of these recordings are available through Smithsonian Folkways and Lyrichord, and I’m very grateful to Smithsonian Folkways for allowing us to use some of these tracks for this specific episode. The albums that this music comes from are linked here in the show notes, where you'll find the video version, transcript, and photo gallery from Verna's career: ⁠https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/verna-gillis⁠

In 1979 Verna opened Soundscape, the first multi-cultural performance space in New York City, which put on hundreds of performances over 5 years. You’ll also hear Verna reminisce about her work on career development with phenomenal international musicians including Youssou N’dour from Senegal, Salif Keita from Mali, and Carlinhos Brown from Brazil. As a producer, Verna was twice nominated for a GRAMMY award for two of the albums she produced with Roswell Rudd. She’s also a writer and spoken word performer. We’ve included in this episode one of her recent spoken word videos with British musician Jennifer Maidman. There’s so much more in this episode, and I hope a wide audience will be inspired by Verna Gillis’ reflections on her remarkable life in music.

Kara Talve and Anže Rozman are composers with Bleeding Fingers Music and together wrote with Hans Zimmer the acclaimed score to the incredible tv series Prehistoric Planet. I was so impressed by this series, and the first part of this episode digs into the unique instruments that were created for this powerful score, and the other part of this episode is a personal and in-depth conversation with Kara and Anže about their lives. They shared their individual stories about challenges, mentors, and have great advice for younger composers. In the show notes and linked to the podcast are 2 bonus tracks which are concert pieces by both Anže and Kara; these pieces are excerpted in the main episode as well. I’ve included detailed timestamps and you can listen to this on your favourite podcast player, watch the YouTube video, read the transcript and see the gallery of images related to this episode,all linked on my website: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/ane-rozman-and-kara-talve

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(05:10) creating the music for Prehistoric Planet with custom instruments

(19:23) help support this series through my Ko-fi page

(19:39) Euphone audio sample, more about unique instruments used in Prehistoric Planet

(22:46) Mark Deutsch Banzantar

(24:48) Bleeding Fingers Music, working with Hans Zimmer and Russell Emanuel

(31:08) Anže’s early years composing, challenges, networking

(34:08) excerpt from Flight/Death from Phoenix for Solo Flute and Orchestra by Anže Rozman

(34:49) finding opportunities to write for different instruments

(37:08) emigration: dealing with homesickness

(38:42) working with orchestras

(41:09) Berklee in Spain, networking skills, connecting with Hans Zimmer

(46:21) advice for people who want to move to LA

(49:13) Kara Talve experience of moving to LA

(51:57) composing for The Simpsons

(52:49) how Tara’s grandmother was saved from the Nazis by her piano teacher Andrée Levallois

(57:34) excerpt from “Winter Rhapsody” by Kara Talve

(58:45) mentors at Berklee Ruth Mendelson and Steven Hunt, Kara’s dad

(01:02:01) Anže reflecting on negative attitudes, advice about following your interests, Jani Golob

(01:08:07) Tara’s bad experiences with piano lessons