Episode 18 - Jenna Veverka
Episode 18 features Jenna Veverka, performer, educator, and co-founder of the Key of She Brass Workshop. We talk with Jenna about her organizations, projects, and composition and audition practices.
Episode 17 - Clare Loveday
Episode 17 features Clare Loveday, an internationally acclaimed new music composer, known for her saxophone works and interdisciplinary writing. We talk with Clare about her varied experiences as a women composer in different parts of the world, her ongoing work to uplift the women around her, and her current musical projects.
Episode 16 - Gala Flagello
Episode 16 features Gala Flagello, composer, DMA student at the University of Michigan, Festival Director, and co-founder of the nonprofit contemporary music festival Connecticut Summerfest. We talk with Gala about Connecticut Summerfest, hidden music fees, making music accessible, and writing an opera!
Episode 15 - Dr. Alexandra Fol
Episode 15 features Dr. Alexandra Fol, an international composer, organist, pianist, and conductor based in Montreal. We talk with Alexandra about her research, composition career, and recent projects.
Episode 14 - Yukiko Nishimura
Episode 14 features Yukiko Nishimura, a pianist, composer, and arranger from Japan and now living in Los Angeles. We talk with Yukiko about her life, composing career, and the current projects she is working on!
Episode 13 - Dr. Lauren Rudzinskas
Episode 13 features the General Manager of the International Women’s Brass Conference, Lauren Rudzinskas. We talk with Lauren about the International Women’s Brass Conference Mentorship Program, the Virtual Trombone Workshop, and impacts of the pandemic on her life and music as a whole.
Episode 12 - Dr. Jeananne Nichols
Episode 12 features Dr. Jeananne Nichols, Music Education professor, guest conductor, historian, and narrative researcher based in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. We talk with Jeananne Nichols about her research with the Women in the Air Force band, interpreting history, confronting problematic musical pasts, and the ultimate band redemption story.
Episode 11 - Dr. Brendan Ige
Episode 11 features Dr. Brendan Ige, a performer, educator, composer, and founder of the Tuba-Euphonium Social Justice Initiative. We talk with Brendan about his music, TESJI, and a whole bunch of activism.
Episode 10 - Allyssa Jones
Episode 10 features Allyssa Jones, a composer, performer, educator, and consultant based out of New Orleans, Louisiana. We talk with Allyssa about her background, leap of faith, and entrepreneurial adventures she has been launching!
Episode 9 - Dr. Elizabeth Peterson
Episode 9 features Dr. Elizabeth Peterson, Associate Director of Bands at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. We talk with Beth about her advice to young teachers, generational changes she has seen, and how her programming has changed over the years.
Episode 8 - Cait Nishimura
Episode 8 features Cait Nishimura, Canadian composer based in Ontario known for her concert band works and pieces approachable for student-level ensembles. We talk with Cait about her composing background, flexible arrangements, and the connection between sustainability, mental health, and music.
Episode 7 - Estela Aragon
Episode 7 features Estela Aragon, trumpet player, educator, and music entrepreneur based in Austin, Texas. We talk with Estela about how her experience as an ESL student affected how she chose her instrument and her journey in building multiple successful music entrepreneurship platforms.
Episode 6 - Zoe Cutler
Episode 6 features Zoe Cutler, composer, creator, and performer based in Detroit, Michigan. We talk with Zoe about her journey as a musician, her experience in both the classical and jazz fields, and how she can become an entire brass quintet while playing on one instrument!
Episode 5 - Dr. Jace Saplan
Episode 5 features Dr. Jace Kaholokula Saplan, conductor, educator, advocate, and researcher based in Hawai’i. We talk with Jace about his upbringing in music, gender identities and gender expressions, the Nā Wai Chamber Choir, and how to have conversations with students and ensembles to talk about the controversial past of ensembles while moving to be culturally responsible.
Episode 4 - Dr. Lauren Bernofsky
Episode 4 features Dr. Lauren Bernofsky, an international composer, violinist, clinician, and extraordinary person. We talk with Lauren about her upbringing into composing, her experience of new music settings vs. academic music settings, and the stories behind her upcoming projects.
Episode 3 - Marcus Grant
Episode 3 features Marcus Grant, a composer, arranger, educator, and director of the Trumpeter’s Multi-Track Competition. We talk with Marcus about his transition into teaching, TMTC, and advice he is for expanding our repertoire.
Episode 2 - Mary Elizabeth Bowden
Episode 2 features Mary Elizabeth Bowden, an international soloist, founding member of Seraph Brass, Chrysalis Chamber Players, half of the Dash Duo, Gold Medal Global Music Award Winner, trumpet professor at Shenandoah University. We talk with Mary about her recent trumpet concerto commission, how she balances so many ensembles and projects, and advice she has to musicians wanting to create opportunities for themselves.
Episode 1 - Cassie Ruiz
Our first ever episode features Cassie Ruiz, a Puerto Rican violinist and music educator originally from Chicago, the current elementary orchestra director for grades 4 and 5 in West Chicago, IL, and winner of the Illinois American String Teachers Association Emerging Educator Award! We talk with Cassie about her teaching during a pandemic and how she builds culturally responsive lessons that teach her students to become anti-racist while celebrating their own heritages.