What Would Mozart Do?

Today I am talking to baritone and entrepreneur Brian Witkowski. In our chat we talk about the path that brought Brian to starting his own business called the Lucrative Artist, a platform where artists are helped to identify their purpose, to recognise their worth, and realise their value.
Brian Witkowski is a singer, actor and voice teacher turned business coach for entrepreneurial artists and educators. As the Founder and CEO of the Lucrative Artist, where he provides boutique business coaching services and trainings for fellow entrepreneurial artists and educators to help them become more prosperous, purposeful and authentic in their work. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts with emphasis in Vocal Performance and minor in Theatre at the University of Arizona; his studies and career have spanned the globe with an eclectic range of repertoire including opera, musical theatre, oratorio, art song and music ministry. He has taught in K-12 and collegiate settings, facilitates professional development seminars to teachers and artists through Arts Integration Solutions, Self-Employment in the Arts and other organizations, is regularly sought out as a speaker, and offers masterclasses and lectures in authenticity, financial empowerment, and leadership. He believes everyone has the ability to create more of the life and career they want to have as an entrepreneur.

Today I am talking to soprano Henriikka Gröndahl. In our chat we discuss how career trajectories can change over time and the possible influence of relationships and parenthood on negotiating a singing career. Henriikka Gröndahl is a versatile lyric soprano with one foot firmly in the chorus of the Royal Opera House in Stockholm, and the other foot happily freelancing.

Today I am talking to baritone Duncan Rock. In our chat we are discussing how Duncan’s dedication to fitness, nutrition and a healthy lifestyle influences his international career as an opera singer and how by developing his own nutrition brand Duncan combined health and art through his involvement with the Voice Care Centre in London.
Duncan Rock MMus, PGCert (nutritional science) - has an active international career as an operatic baritone. He has performed roles at the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera, Teatro Real, Glyndebourne, English National Opera and many others. He is a nutritionist and member of the Royal Society for Public Health. He works specifically on nutrition for singers and voice actors at the Voice Care Centre, London.

Today I am talking to pianist Peter Jablonski. We discuss piano repertoire in and outside the canon, how careers take time to develop, and wonder about the influence of social media on the longevity of a career in music.
Peter Jablonski is an award-winning internationally acclaimed Swedish pianist. Discovered by Claudio Abbado and Vladimir Ashkenazy, and signed by Decca in his seventeenth year, Jablonski went on to perform, collaborate, and record with many of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Kirov (now Mariinsky), La Scala Philharmonic, Tonhalle Zürich, Orchestre National de France, NHK Tokyo, DSO Berlin, Warsaw Philharmonic, Philadelphia, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Cleveland Orchestra; Vladimir Ashkenazy, Valery Gergiev, Andris Nelsons, Daniel Harding, Kurt Sanderling, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Riccardo Chailly, Daniele Gatti, and Myung-Whun Chung.

Jablonski has performed and recorded the complete piano concertos of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Bartók, and all ten piano sonatas by Prokofiev. Hailed an ‘unconventional virtuoso’ (Present Arts), during his three-decade-long career, Jablonski developed a diverse repertoire that includes works by Barber, Gershwin, Szymanowski, Lutosławski, Copland, Stenhammar, with most recent additions of such Scandinavian and European composers as Valborg Aulin, Elfrida Andrée, Laura Netzel, Johanna Müller-Hermann, Grażyna Bacewicz, and Alexey Stanchinsky.

Composers with whom Jablonski worked include Witold Lutosławski and Arvo Pärt, and he has had a number of works composed for, and dedicated to him, including Wojciech Kilar’s Piano Concerto, for which he won the Orpheus award for the world premiere performance at the Warsaw Autumn Festival. Jablonski remains a supporter of today’s composers and regularly gives world premieres of new works, together with those that have been neglected by music history.

Jablonski’s extensive discography includes recordings he has made for labels such as Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Philips, Altara, Octavia, and Ondine. He received numerous accolades for his recordings, which include the Edison and the Grammophone Classical Music Award.

Peter Jablonski is the recipient of the Litteris et Artibus medal for his services to culture, granted to him by the King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf. He is also the winner of the prestigious prize Årets Svensk i Världen (International Swedish Personality of the Year), receiving it before ABBA and Astrid Lindgren.

Today I am talking to countertenor Daniel Keating-Roberts. We discuss the importance of creative minds channeling over linear matter, we consider potential ways in which the pandemic has left a positive mark on the performance industry, and Daniel shares his enthusiasm and interest in performance psychology.
Daniel studied in Sheffield, before completing his Masters at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, with awards from the Foyle Foundation and the Countess of Munster Trust. He also won the 2009 Guildhall aria competition. In 2010, he became the first counter-tenor to be accepted onto the English National Opera’s Operaworks programme and in 2014, Daniel was awarded a ‘Golden Mask’ award, a ‘special jury prize’ with a team for his work in the title role of Franziskus (Sergei Nevsky) at the Bolshoi Theatre.

Daniel has performed with opera companies all over the world and currently lives in Hamburg, Germany.

Outside of performing, Daniel is a singing teacher and educator with a specialism in performance coaching. Alongside his individual studio, Daniel has worked with several different opera companies and music colleges to deliver workshops and coaching. His workshops are now in demand for corporate team building and creativity exploration, offering businesses the same fun and self-awareness we enjoy as performers.

Recently, Daniel began his first project as producer for a site-specific work in East London, working with private firms to encourage dialogue with the communities they exist alongside.

A founder member of Voces8, Daniel has previously been Corporate Events and Training manager for the New London Orchestra, and held roles within the charity MAMA, an organisation working in Mozambique, Africa. Daniel still works as an agent in London, organising performers for private events and studio recordings for film and computer games.

Today I am talking to Frederick Robin a composer and perfumery artist. In our chat Frederick talks about the synergy between his music and processes that brought about creating a series of nine fragrances as well as his passion to collaborating with other artists across the boundaries of various disciplines.

A strong sense of minimalism guides the artistic philosophy of Frederick Robin as he creates contemporary-classical musical and olfactory works in synergistic collaboration with other artists in various media.

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Today I am talking to tenor Karl Marx Reyes. During his studies as a pre-med student he was scouted for the chorus of Seattle Opera. Karl now holds a hybrid position performing compramario & featured roles. In our talk we discuss the career from the perspective of the opera chorus and how Karl’s experience in medicine not only enabled him to maintain a long career in opera but also how it created a safety net for him particularly during the pandemic.
Karl Marx Reyes is a Filipino/American tenor trained in the Pacific Northwest. Reyes made his Seattle Opera debut as a Contadino in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, followed by his roles as the Messenger in Verdi's Aida, the NVA Lieutenant Commander in the world premiere of Daron Hagen's Amelia and, most recently, the Wig Maker in Richard Strauss’s Ariadne Auf Naxos. Other roles include Remendado in Bizet's Carmen, John Styx & Orpheus in Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld, Pedrillo in Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio, Goro in Madama Butterfly, Rodolfo in Puccini's La Bohème and Ferrando in Mozart’s Così fan Tutte. Reyes has been a proud member of the Seattle Opera Chorus for the past two decades.

Today I am talking to flautist Angela McCuiston. In our chat Angela passionately shares her story of how a series of playing-related injuries have caused her to become a Fitness Trainer for Musicians.
Angela McCuiston is a NASM-CPT, CES, SFS and CETI-CES (Certified Personal Trainer and Corrective Exercise Specialist, Senior Fitness Specialist and Cancer Exercise Specialist) and owner of Music Strong, a business that specializes in personal fitness training for musicians.

Winner of the 2007 NFA Piccolo Master class, Angela received her Master of Music in Flute Performance from Florida State University and her Bachelor of Music in Flute Performance from Tennessee Technological University. An avid performer, Angela is Assistant Principal/Piccolo of Sinfonia Gulf Coast of Destin, Nashville Philharmonic, Columbus Symphony and Nashville Flute Choir. Joining the military soon after 9/11 she recently became a member of the 313th Army Band in Huntsville, AL, after completing a 16-year tenure in the 129th Army Band in Nashville, TN. In addition to her solo performances, she has performed with such celebrities as Kristen Chenowith, Pink Martini, Jamie Bernstein, Morgan James, Chris Mann, Nancy Griffith and Mary Wilson of the Supremes.

As a trainer, Angela maintains several training locations in Nashville and also travels to give her workshops and presentations, most notably presenting at the National Flute Association Conventions in Salt Lake City, UT; Las Vegas, NV, Washington, D.C. and Orlando, FL. Among her recent workshops, she has travelled to present at Arizona State University, Florida State University, Stephen F. Austin University, Ft. Lewis University and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga among others.

Recently she was sought out by the Old Guard, Army Fife and Drum Corps as a special consultant to prevent playing related injuries. She has since taken up residence on the faculty of the Stetson University flute camp and has been sought out for numerous other positions including her recent appointment Fall of 2018 as Chair of the National Flute Association Performance Health Committee and adjunct flute professor at Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, TN in August 2020.

In February 2019 she published her first book: The Musician’s Essential Exercises, with plans to branch out into instrument-specific volumes in the near future. During the pandemic of 2020 she recorded over 20 instrument specific workouts available for download.

When she is not performing or training, Angela can be found riding her Trek road bike as many hours as there are sunshine. She recently completed her 4th century ride (100+ miles) and has a goal to ride between 5-12 centuries and log 5,000 miles.