Agile Vocalist

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Folk and classical musician, composer, arranger, instrumentalist, and vocalist Moira Smiley has a broad repertoire of mystical and passionate music that pulls your heart strings. And if you sing, you may find yourself learning something she's written. Her songs, arrangements, artistic collaborations, body percussion sequences, and more have captured audiences shifting some from spectator into participant.  

With her move from California back to Vermont, where she was raised, Moira continues to create art informed by her belief that singing creates community. Her work embodies the sounds of a hopeful future and folds in the rich wisdom of her past. 

Pictures, liner notes, and an episode transcript can be found at:  https://agilevocalist.com

More about Agile Vocalist, including artist biographies, liner notes and additional visual material for every episode can be found on the Agile Vocalist web site. 

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What’s it like to lead the edge of change in the arts? Vocalist, Marisa Winter (Diva Marisa) has done that with her career and she remains driven to offer new audiences music in context. As a classically trained opera singer and Burning Man performer, she shares the impact Burning Man has made on experiential art everywhere. Marisa’s early life vocal experiences at first caused her to reject opera, but then she fell back in love with dedication it required. 

In this conversation, we explore the ways she’s brought opera to the Playa, the circus, to corporate events, to the trapeze,  to her front porch, and more. 

Marisa Winter Bio

Diva Marisa is a maverick singer and performer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a  conservatory-trained opera singer, Marisa has sung with the San Francisco Opera, the Oakland East Bay Symphony, Chris Brubeck, and multiple times in recital with Frederica von Stade. Marisa also sings opera on the trapeze in various settings, including the Thunderdome at Burning Man. Her signature aria is Diva Dance from the movie The Fifth Element.

Pictures, liner notes, and an episode transcript can be found for this (and every!) episode on Agile Vocalist. Go to the episode page. 

More about Agile Vocalist, including artist biographies, liner notes and additional visual material for every episode can be found on the Agile Vocalist web site. 

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• Subscribe to Agile Vocalist on YouTube
• Support Agile Vocalist, a privately funded labor of love dedicated to the arts! Leave a tip here. 

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Dr. Makiko Hirata (“Dr. Pianist") is on a mission to promote the power of music to heal and unite. 

In this episode, she talks about reconciling her training in classical piano with being a woman in music as well as how musicians have a role to play as first responders in times of climate catastrophe. She has shifted her career from being an "Olympian pianist” performer who uses performance to demonstrate ever increasing mastery of challenging piano pieces to instead playing simpler pieces that better connect and resonate with her audiences.

Bio:

Dr. Hirata collaborates with neuroscientists to quantify the benefit of music and promote the power of music as an overlooked social resource through speaking engagements, workshops and writing. Her doctorate is a DMA, Doctorate of Musical Arts from Rice University. In addition to her concerts, she collaborates with neuroscientists to quantify the benefit of music and promote the power of music as an overlooked social resource through speaking engagements, workshops and writing. 

More visual information, liner notes, and an episode transcript can be found for this (and every!) episode on Agile Vocalist.com

More about Agile Vocalist, including artist biographies, liner notes and additional visual material for every episode can be found on the Agile Vocalist web site. 

• Follow Agile Vocalist on IG 
• Subscribe to Agile Vocalist on YouTube
• Support Agile Vocalist, a privately funded labor of love dedicated to the arts! Leave a tip here. 

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Betsy Blakeslee’s work has connected refugees with the healing power of music for two decades. She directed expressive arts programs for refugee youth in Bosnia and Croatia during the wars of the 1990s. Since 2016, her Expressive Arts Refuge team and Moira Smiley have been running similar programs at refugee camps in France, Greece, and Lebanon.

In this episode she shares stories of how her experiences as a volunteer have touched the lives of Sudanese and Syrian children. She talks about how expressive arts- music and body percussion touch and shift traumatic experiences, especially for those fleeing war and violence. Betsy gives us before and after stories, a demo (with me) of music and body movements she teaches, as well as how brain science is truly behind why music creates belonging and connection among people. Betsy Blakeslee is the co-author on forthcoming book about the Calais Jungle refugee camp in Calais, France. 

More visual information, liner notes, and an episode transcript can be found for this (and every!) episode on Agile Vocalist.com

More about Agile Vocalist, including artist biographies, liner notes and additional visual material for every episode can be found on the Agile Vocalist web site. 

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• Subscribe to Agile Vocalist on YouTube
• Support Agile Vocalist, a privately funded labor of love dedicated to the arts! Leave a tip here. 

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In celebration of Agile Vocalist's 1-year anniversary, this epilogue takes you back through an unexpected trend that emerged with many of my guests about creativity. The theme was this:  people are often most creative and get their sound practice and ideas... in the bathroom, specifically the shower. Cars were also a theme as havens for creating. Who knew?

Talking about bathrooms, showers, cars & visions for the arts (post-pandemic) are my guests from the past year (in order of app(H)earance):

Chloe Medanic-Watt (intro/outro)

Rachel Medanic

Opal Louis Nations

Joshua Silverstein & Joshua at Spoken Funk event

Pamela Rose

Vidya Srinivasan

Mary Ford

Brian Walker

Beauty Awaits, courtesy Harps of Comfort

Justin James & his mix:  Rare vol. 15, DJ Just-IN Radio #12

Podcast theme music:  Looperman

All podcast listeners (and non-listeners looking for a little fun & to learn something) are invited to take the 1-year anniversary quiz! 

A little music knowledge and some observation powers will get you 6+ right answers...which enters you in a drawing to win podcast swag, Girl Scout cookies & other fun things that will show up in your mailbox. Drawing offered only to U.S. & Canada residents. 

More about Agile Vocalist, including artist biographies, liner notes and additional visual material for every episode can be found on the Agile Vocalist web site. 

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• Subscribe to Agile Vocalist on YouTube
• Support Agile Vocalist, a privately funded labor of love dedicated to the arts! Leave a tip here. 

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What is it like to be a modern-day disc jockey(DJ) artist? How, with sound alone, does a DJ engage people they’ve never met to celebrate, raise the energy, hop onto a dance floor, and come together for a shared experience? I talk engagement and the craft of DJing, including the craft of Dance Floor Architecture in this interview with veteran DJ, Justin James. His work leading Justintertainment, an events company with a team of DJs for hire, helps us to understand the power and skill needed to bring unique sound and music experiences to the people.

Short Guest Bio

For years, DJ Justin (Just-IN) has brought energy, electricity and one-of-a-kind musical experiences to events throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Known for orchestrating the perfect crescendos at occasions of all kinds, DJ Just-IN ties together unique musical sounds to create the perfect soundtrack for any event.

A great DJ is an artist and Justin is skilled in his craft. With deep musical knowledge and a love of all genres, he is able to connect with diverse audiences and match his mixes to what they want to hear. He is a  Professional Dance floor Architect. 

Outside of DJing Justin enjoys spending time doing just. about anything outdoors with his family. 

More visual information, liner notes, and an episode transcript can be found for this (and every!) episode on Agile Vocalist.com

More about Agile Vocalist, including artist biographies, liner notes and additional visual material for every episode can be found on the Agile Vocalist web site. 

• Follow Agile Vocalist on IG 
• Subscribe to Agile Vocalist on YouTube
• Support Agile Vocalist, a privately funded labor of love dedicated to the arts! Leave a tip here. 

This continuing conversation with Indian classical music vocalist, Vidya Srinivasan gives us insights into how she balances a multi-dimensional life with music and how music is a tool as frequently used in her work life as it is in her personal life as a creator and performer.

Vidya Srinivasan was introduced to the world of music at age 2 by her parents. Enrolled in music school at age 3 to learn Carnatic music, she gave her first solo concert at age 5. She holds a degree in Carnatic music. Vidya has performed in 4 Indian TV shows in Tamil and Telugu and numerous stage shows. Her voice appeared in Sapthaswarangal and Ennodu Paatu Paadungal, both popular Tamil reality music TV shows.

Vidya sings in 4 different languages and likes to experiment across different music types to create hybrid mashups. Music is her favorite escape from her work in technology and Vidya often opens her tech talks with a song.

Vidya has been the General Chair of Grace Hopper conference since 2019.  Her love of tinkering with tech and has won her awards at Hackathons and so far she has filed 21 patents for her work.

This episode is part 2 of a two-part series about Vidya.

More visual information, liner notes, and an episode transcript can be found for this (and every!) episode on Agile Vocalist.com