Strings Stories
Strings Magazine
Articles from the pages of Strings Magazine - read aloud by the editor and authors!
Strings keeps you informed on the music, musicians, and instruments that matter. Published since 1986, our editors and expert contributors share stories from the vibrant community surrounding stringed instruments. For teachers and students, amateurs and professionals, players of violin, viola, cello, bass, and fiddle, Strings is your magazine.
All episodes
Best episodes
Top 10 Strings Stories Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Strings Stories episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Strings Stories for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Strings Stories episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
A Conductor Takes His Place in the (Sort Of) Family Business
Strings Stories
04/19/24 • 4 min
This story was written by Scott Flavin for the March-April 2024 issue of Strings magazine and is read by the author.
How important is your relationship with your grandparents? Has it influenced who you are or your life’s path? What if you hardly knew or never met them?
05/07/24 • 13 min
This story was written by Thomas May for the May-June 2024 issue of Strings magazine and is read by editor Megan Westberg.
Nature sings in the work of countless composers in the Western classical tradition. The calls and flutterings of birds, spine-tingling thunder, falling raindrops: Vivaldi transformed a repertoire of found sounds from the natural world into some of the most memorable moments in The Four Seasons. But growing awareness that humanity’s relationship with nature has gone astray in the wake of the Industrial Revolution and modern capitalism could already be discerned long before we started becoming accustomed to unrelenting news of environmental catastrophe.
03/15/25 • 11 min
This story was written by Megan Westberg for the March-April 2025 issue of Strings magazine and is read by the author.
Sometime around the year 2000, violinist David Harrington of the California-based Kronos Quartet received an email. Its author wasn’t a colleague or a publicist. Or even an adult. This email was, in fact, written by a teenage cellist living roughly 5,000 miles away...
Cellist Anastasia Kobekina Creates an Aural Slideshow of Her Trip to Italy on 'Venice'
Strings Stories
04/26/24 • 10 min
This story was written by Megan Westberg for the March-April 2024 issue of Strings magazine and is read by the author.
Venice isn’t a place easily rendered. It is a place where imagination and reality blend, and not always harmoniously, where the past and present sit side by side. And to a certain extent, Kobekina wanted to represent Venice as it is and was, but she wasn’t particularly interested in approaching that idea in a literal way.
11/22/23 • 13 min
This story was written by Cliff Hall for the November-December 2023 issue of Strings magazine and is read by Megan Westberg, Editor.
Way up in the Northwoods of Wisconsin on the shores of Pickerel Lake is a small cadre of cabins on about 14 acres of bucolic land. Named “Fiddle Sticks,” this compact compound was the birthplace of some of the most valuable American violins ever built. But the output of those violins depended entirely upon how the fish ran.
A Look Inside November-December 2023
Strings Stories
10/25/23 • 2 min
Editor Megan Westberg shares highlights from the latest issue of Strings magazine and gives a behind-the-scenes look at how and why we started this Strings Stories project.
Get your copy of the November-December 2023 issue here. It's available in both print and digital editions. And, to be sure you never miss a new issue, why not subscribe? Strings Stories listeners get a special deal.
04/05/25 • 9 min
This story was written by Emily Wright for the March-April 2025 issue of Strings magazine and is read by editor Megan Westberg.
There’s an old Monty Python skit where a husband and wife are discussing what could be scraped together for dessert after a horrendous dinner. The wife begins listing the options: rat cake, rat sorbet, rat pudding, and strawberry tart. The husband is suspicious of the innocent-sounding option, and after a beat, his wife admits there is some rat in the tart...
This story was written by Megan Westberg for the January-February 2025 issue of Strings magazine and is read by the author.
It exists at a crossroads, violin making. Where living hands take on the work of those who abandoned their tools several centuries before. And from that perspective, it seems fair to say that all violin makers dwell in both the present and the past. That they must, in fact, because Stradivari still firmly guides their movements, peers over their shoulders...
A Look Inside March-April 2025
Strings Stories
03/11/25 • 2 min
Editor Megan Westberg shares highlights from the latest issue of Strings magazine. Get your copy of the March-April 2025 issue here. It's available in both print and digital editions. And, to be sure you never miss a new issue, why not subscribe? Strings Stories listeners get a special deal.
Multidimensional Imagination: Cellist Abel Selaocoe Continues to Redefine His Approach to the Instrument
Strings Stories
03/13/25 • 13 min
This article was written by Thomas May for the March-April 2025 issue of Strings magazine and is read by editor Megan Westberg.
“Music is embedded in everything we do in South African life,” says Selaocoe. “Not even only as an artist, but as a member of the public, being able to express yourself musically through the voice or dance has been such an integral part of my growing up.”
Show more best episodes
Show more best episodes
FAQ
How many episodes does Strings Stories have?
Strings Stories currently has 23 episodes available.
What topics does Strings Stories cover?
The podcast is about Bass, Music, Music History, Podcasts, Classical Music, Arts, Music Commentary and Performing Arts.
What is the most popular episode on Strings Stories?
The episode title 'A Look Inside November-December 2023' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Strings Stories?
The average episode length on Strings Stories is 11 minutes.
How often are episodes of Strings Stories released?
Episodes of Strings Stories are typically released every 14 days, 10 hours.
When was the first episode of Strings Stories?
The first episode of Strings Stories was released on Oct 2, 2023.
Show more FAQ
Show more FAQ