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Working in technology, it’s rare to find someone whose passion is as deeply embedded in the arts as it is in the sciences. With very early life training in Carnatic music, Vidya Srinivasan’s career journey is filled with insights about how she uses a music as a tool for creativity, problem-solving, and as a means for processing life's emotional rhythms. In this two-part episode, we explore her career, the basics sounds and flavors of Indian classical music, and Vidya’s abundant wisdom as well as her life turning point when she realized going full-into being a singer wasn’t a sustainable path for her personally.

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.

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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Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir singer Mary Ford talks about her career with the group and her life roots with the art form. Mary chose the gospel at a crossroads after nearly losing her life on her honeymoon. The power of music on and inside the body as well as the unifying spirit it brings to audiences and performers is featured in this conversation with Mary. 

Mary Ford has been a vocal performer for 45 years. She has sung a capella, as an accompanied soloist and most recently has been a member of the The Left Coast Sextet, an all women’s jazz ensemble. She's sung for 34 years with the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir.
 
Mary is a mother, spouse, retired psychologist and bodyworker, as well as an active artist, writer and adventurer. She works with several local nonprofits as an advisor, teacher and donor activist, and is dead serious about economic and racial justice. Mary is a boogie boarder and rabidly competitive pickleball player.

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

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In this conversation with audio engineer, Brian Walker, we talk through Brian's work learning the JackTrip technology. Use of JackTrip dramatically reduces audio latency while preserving original audio quality. The technology allows musicians to make music together synchronously via the internet and can be used for either rehearsals or live performances. This episode contains performance examples using JackTrip from the San Francisco Girls Chorus as well as Brian's singing group, Worldsong.

Brian Walker is an audio engineer who has had an extensive career recording, mixing and mastering audio for gaming experiences, consumer products, text-to-speech applications, and personal voice assistants. He’s worked for LeapFrog Enterprises, Facebook, and Google.  

An expert in live direct-to-two-track recording, Brian spent the earlier part of his career as a touring Front-of-House engineer and Tour Manager for artists performing in the US, Canada, Europe and Asia. Brian is the Freight & Salvage’s staff engineer and works on projects for Articulate Audio at San Francisco Bay Area-based venues, along with festivals and other venues.

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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In this continuing conversation about Jennifer Hollis's music-thanatology work (part 2 of a 2-part episode), she shares her perspective on the future of music-thanatology and Harps of Comfort, an organization she formed that has adapted with virtual music to the circumstances of Covid-19.  

Jennifer Hollis is a writer, music-thanatologist and project director for Harps of Comfort, an organization that provides virtual harp and vocal music to isolated COVID-19 patients. Jennifer is the author of Music at the End of Life: Easing the Pain and Preparing the Passage. Her essays and articles have appeared in The New York Times, the Washington Post, Harvard Review, and her poems have won international awards. She has been a certified music-thanatologist offering harp and vocal music to patients for decades and was president of Music-Thanatology Association International for 6 years. Stories about her work have appeared on NPR, in the Boston Globe, and several podcasts. She has a degree in child development and a master of divinity from Harvard Divinity School.

This episode is part 2 of a two-part series. Information and details for part 1 can be found here.

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

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There is a little-known branch of the performing arts that brings harp and vocal music to the bed side of the dying. It’s called music-thanatology. In this part 1 episode with music-thanatologist Jennifer Hollis, she shares what music-thanatology is and the amazing discoveries she made about the field researching her book about the power of music in medicine.

Jennifer Hollis is a writer, music-thanatologist and project director for Harps of Comfort, an organization that provides virtual harp and vocal music to isolated COVID-19 patients. Jennifer is the author of Music at the End of Life: Easing the Pain and Preparing the Passage. Her essays and articles have appeared in The New York Times, the Washington Post, Harvard Review, and her poems have won international awards. She has been a certified music-thanatologist offering harp and vocal music to patients for decades and was president of Music-Thanatology Association International for 6 years. Stories about her work have appeared on NPR, in the Boston Globe, and several podcasts. She has a degree in child development and a master of divinity from Harvard Divinity School.

This episode is part 1 of a two-part series about Jennifer

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

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Part 2 of my 2-part conversation with San Francisco Bay Area vocalist, Pamela Rose.  Originally published:  March 2021 as a celebration of International Women's Day.

Pamela Rose is a  jazz and blues vocalist who has thrilled local and international audiences for decades with her swinging, soulful style. Rose has performed at clubs and jazz and blues festivals throughout the United States, Germany, and Denmark. She has six recordings to her name. In recent years, Rose has toured nationally with her critically acclaimed show Wild Women of Song: Great Gal Composers of the Jazz Era and her more recent Blues is a Woman, a collaborative show among five exceptional blues musicians that tells the remarkable story of women and the blues. 

Liner notes, visual information, and a transcript of this (and every) episode can always be found on Agile Vocalist.com.

Part 1 of this conversation is available here or wherever you get your podcasts. 

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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Agile Vocalist's inaugural compact audio memoir episode. This episode is a personal reflection on and for our world navigating Covid-19 and the treacherous realities of 2020. This compact audio memoir was created as an expression of gratitude for all the people who powered us through 2020:  healthcare workers, essential workers, all those whose work is “now seen.” I am so thankful for them and the perils they faced putting their lives at risk to simply “go to work.”

This audio memoir is also a tribute to those who are still here, those who lost their loved ones, those who are still home isolated and trying to protect their health as they await the vaccine. You may still want –very much– to scream. These 6 minutes are to say “I hear you!”

This episode was originally published in March 2021. More visuals, a transcript, and a link to the interactive "sounds of emotions" tool referenced in this episode (created by UC Berkeley researchers) can be found on the Agile Vocalist web site.

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

Send us Fan Mail

San Francisco jazz and blues vocalist, Pamela Rose has thrilled local and international audiences for decades with her swinging, soulful style. Rose has performed at clubs and jazz and blues festivals throughout the United States, Germany, and Denmark. She has six recordings to her name. In recent years, Rose has toured nationally with her critically acclaimed show Wild Women of Song: Great Gal Composers of the Jazz Era and her more recent Blues is a Woman, a collaborative show among five exceptional blues musicians  that tells the remarkable story of women and the blues. Originally published:  March 2021 as a celebration of International Women's Day. 

 This episode is part 1 of a two-part series about Pamela.

More details and liner notes about this episode can be found 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. 

Send us Fan Mail

Joshua is an award-winning actor, comic, writer, beatboxer, and educator whose path into the arts was punctuated by overcoming a speech impediment. The episode also includes his live improv soundscape performance as a meditation for 2021.   

Joshua’s various performances have received admiration from Norman Lear to Prince. He has collaborated with artists such as Slash (Guns and Roses), poet Ursula Rucker, and Wayne Brady. Joshua has dropped beats for Drop the Mic, a segment of The Late, Late Show with James Corden. 

This episode was originally released in February 2021. 

More episode visuals and Liner Notes about this episode are available the Agile Vocalist web site.

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.