Classical Schmassical

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Join me as I chat with Lidiya Yankovskaya about her work as the first female conductor of a multi-million dollar opera company!

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Guest Bio: 
Russian-American conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya is a fiercely committed advocate for Russian masterpieces, operatic rarities, and contemporary works on the leading edge of classical music. She has conducted more than 40 world premieres, including 16 operas, and her strength as a visionary collaborator has guided new perspectives on staged and symphonic repertoire from Carmen and Queen of Spades to Price and Prokofiev. As Music Director of Chicago Opera Theater, Ms. Yankovskaya has led the Chicago premieres of Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick, Rachmaninov’s Aleko, Joby Talbot’s Everest, Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, and the world premiere of Dan Shore’s Freedom Ride. Her daring performances before and amid the pandemic earned recognition from the Chicago Tribune, which praised her as “the very model of how to survive adversity, and also how to thrive in it,” while naming her 2020 Chicagoan of the Year.
In the 2021/22 season, Ms. Yankovskaya makes a trio of Texan debuts, leading performances of Carmen at Houston Grand Opera, a tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg at Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and concerts featuring works by Gershwin and Dawson at Fort Worth Symphony. Elsewhere, she debuts with Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, makes her Minnesota Opera debut with Voices United, leads a program of Brahms and Wagner at Elgin Symphony, and makes her Pasadena Symphony debut conducting works by Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Gabriela Lena Frank. At Chicago Opera Theater, she conducts the Chicago premiere of Mark Adamo’s Becoming Santa Claus and a concert version of Carmen, starring Jamie Barton opposite Stephanie Blythe.
Ms. Yankovskaya has recently conducted Don Giovanni at Seattle Opera, Pia de’ Tolomei at Spoleto Festival USA, Il barbiere di Siviglia at Wolf Trap Opera, Ellen West at New York’s Prototype Festival, and the world premiere of Taking Up Serpents at Washington National Opera. On the concert stage, she has been recently engaged with Chicago Philharmonic, Rhode Island Philharmonic, and the symphony orchestras of Hawaii and Oviedo, Spain.
Ms. Yankovskaya is Founder and Artistic Director of the Refugee Orchestra Project, which proclaims the cultural and societal relevance of refugees through music, and has brought that message to hundreds of thousands of listeners around the world. In addition to a National Sawdust residency in Brooklyn, ROP has performed in London, Boston, Washington, D.C., and the United Nations. She has also served as Artistic Director of the Boston New Music Festival and Juventas New Music Ensemble, which was the recipient of multiple NEA grants and National Opera Association Awards under her leadership.
An alumna of the Dallas Opera’s Hart Institute for Women Conductors and the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship, Ms. Yankovskaya has also served as assistant conductor to Lorin Maazel, chorus master of Boston Symphony Orchestra, and conductor of Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra. She has been featured in the League of American Orchestras Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview and Cabrillo Festival for Contemporary Music, and assisted Vladimir Jurowski via a London Philharmonic fellowship.
Ms. Yankovskaya’s belief in the importance of mentorship has fueled the establishment of Chicago Opera Theater’s Vanguard Initiative, an investment in new opera that includes a two-year residency for emerging opera composers. Committed to developing the next generation of artistic leaders, she also volunteers with Turn The Spotlight, a foundation dedicated to identifying, nurturing, and empowering leaders – and in turn, to illuminating the path to a more equitable future in the

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Join me for a discussion with violinist Caitlin Edwards as we discuss her career as a violinist, the relationship and intersection between Classical and Black music, and her recent grant from 3arts Entertainment.

Guest Bio:
Caitlin Edwards is a classically trained violinist, arranger, recording artist, and teacher based in Chicago. She has performed with the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra, Nairobi Philharmonic, Grant Park Festival Orchestra, and Chicago Sinfonietta. She’s played and recorded with artists such as John Legend, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Common, and with PJ Morton’s on his “Gumbo Album”, for which she received a Grammy Certificate. She also recorded for the Disney movie score, The Lion King, at Sony Studios. For a more detailed list of Caitlin’s work please check out her professional biography and collaborations on her website, https://www.caitlinedwards.com/. 

MISSION
Music is a gift, a force that transcends all of our differences. Music is healing to a broken soul, clarity in the midst of confusion, life to those who seek it. It is my mission to share my gift to all. I will help educate and inspire the next generation of young Black musicians. My dream is to see the normalization of Black voices and faces in traditionally monopolized spaces through increased visibility and disruption of the status quo in classical music. Ultimately, I want people to see themselves in my music, connect, and heal in their own way.

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Elijah Daniel Smith and I discuss compositional process, pedagogical development, and his upcoming piece for the Chicago Symphony's Homecoming concert. 

Guest Bio:
Described by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as a “rising star”, composer Elijah Daniel Smith is quickly establishing himself as one of today’s leading young composers. From orchestral compositions to multimedia and interdisciplinary collaborations, Elijah’s affinity for dense and complex textures, rhythmic ambiguity and fluidity, and rich gravitational harmonies shines through in all of his creations. Elijah’s music has been premiered and performed by world renowned ensembles such as Mivos Quartet, Sō Percussion, Sandbox Percussion, Contemporaneous, Ensemble Linea, Ecce Ensemble, Fuse Quartet, and Earspace. Upcoming commissions include new works for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for MusicNOW, Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, Bergamot Quartet, and saxophonist Julian Velasco on behalf of the Luminarts Cultural Foundation.

 Elijah’s creative endeavors extend beyond the realm of traditional concert composition, including interdisciplinary work and commissions from multiple dance companies and choreographers throughout the United States. His ability to realize his own dynamic multimedia visions was cultivated by his experience as a recording, mixing, and mastering engineer for his own studio music, film scores and electro-acoustic music. In his 2019 multimedia project Come, Clarity, Elijah exercised his visual artistry as a filmmaker and photographer, creating the film as well as composing and producing the music himself.

       Elijah is currently pursuing his PhD in Music Composition at Princeton University as a President’s Fellow after earning a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Composition from the Boston Conservatory in 2017, and a Master of Music degree in Music Composition from the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University in 2020.

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Join me in conversation with powerhouse musicians Renee Baker, Adegoke Steve Colson, and Vanessa Rose discussing the upcoming anniversary concert, put on by the AACM, ACF, and Great Black Music Ensemble. 

Guest Bios:

A visual artist, filmmaker, composer, violinist and re-contextualist, Renée C. Baker is an multi-disciplined engineer. She utilizes movement, film projections of real and imaginary objects, vignettes and sounds to create an exquisite arena of surrealist activity.

Steve Colson – aka Adegoke – pianist and composer, has performed internationally as a leader of jazz ensembles ranging from trios to orchestras. A critically acclaimed figure in modern jazz, Steve’s compositions are finding their way into the “jazz standard” repertoire and are being performed and recorded by some of today’s jazz greats as well as by his own group. He became a member of The Association for Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in the early 70s, a musicians’ collective that has influenced music internationally in the 20th and 21st Century. 

Vanessa Rose became President & CEO of the American Composers Forum in January 2019. For more than a decade, Vanessa has been working with artists and organizations dedicated to living creators, including the International Contemporary Ensemble, the Lark Play Development Center, The Knights, the American Composers Orchestra, and Arco Collaborative. She has led organizations through significant transitions: establishing new leadership positions, building effective planning strategies, clarifying mission-driven priorities, and strengthening racial equity work. 

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Today on Classical Schmassical, internationallly renowned pianist and commercial musician Emile Pandolfi talks about his career, making his start, and bringing emotion into your playing, as well as his newly released book, "Play it Like You Mean It."

Guest Bio:
With over 30 recordings in his discography, Emile Pandolfi ranks among America’s most popular piano artists. With the majority of his performance repertoire being lush, intricate arrangements of Broadway and standards that form the canon of "The Great American Songbook," his influences are, in fact, more classical than pop. It is this subjective layering of classical style that Pandolfi infuses onto the broad palette of selections—from his beloved Chopin, to Andrew Lloyd Webber, to "Once Upon a December," from Anastasia—performed in his live concerts and recordings that resonates with audiences everywhere.

For more information on Emile and his music, visit his website at: https://www.emilepandolfi.com/ and check out his youtube channel, with many wonderful arrangements, at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8V0lD8nqBEjw5QfQmELdjA

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Join me for a short and sweet episode of Classical Schmassical, where I talk to Lena Smith about trombone, mental health, personal identity, and belonging in the music world. 

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Classical Schmassical returns with an incredible discussion featuring Marcus Norris, new composer in residence with the Chicago Philharmonic. 

Guest Bio: Marcus Norris’ first foray into making music came in the form of producing rap beats on pirated software, installed on a Windows 98 computer that he Macgyvered together from spare parts while laying on the floor of his childhood bedroom. Though he came to composing concert music later, he transferred that same imagination and ingenuity to writing music of all kinds. Marcus has been called a “New Musical Talent in our Midst” by Chicago’s N’digo Magazine, and has made a number of achievements, including being selected as an inaugural Composer-in-Residence for the Chicago Philharmonic from 2021-24, being awarded the prestigious Cota-Robles fellowship for pursuing his PhD at UCLA, being chosen in 2020 for the LA Philharmonic’s National Composers Intensive, and in 2017 winning 1st prize in the Southeastern Composers League Competition. His violin concerto “GLORY” opened to three sold-out performances when premiered by the Jackson Symphony Orchestra in 2019, and then was subsequently performed in Guangzhou, China later that year. His Dance Suite “I Tried So Hard for You” premiered in Havana in 2018, closely following the Russian String Orchestra premiere of “My Idols Are Dead” in Moscow. In 2020 he founded South Side Symphony – the only orchestra that would perform “Back That Thang Up” on the same concert as Beethoven.

For more information on Marcus and his music visit  www.MarcusNorris.com and www.SouthSideSymphony.org .

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Join me as I talk with multi-instrumentalist and musical theater performer Meghan Doyle about guitar in different contexts, gear setup in a big city context, and dealing with imposter syndrome. 

Guest Bio: Meghan Doyle is a New Jersey based multi-instrumentalist.  She is primarily a guitarist but also plays drumset, bass, a little bit of keys, and the occasional bit of banjo, mandolin, lap steel, and trombone.  She also has a wealth of experience in both live audio and recording, and a bit of experience in theatrical lighting and production.  Recent credits include: Legally Blonde (National Tour), Fun Home (Arden Theater Company), Michelle Foster’s Broadway 2020, The Picher Project (A New Musical: Concert Edition), Bridesmaids: a Dance Narrative, and Various 54 Below and Green Room 42 Credits.  Upcoming projects include Get Happy!: A Judy Garland Tribute at Papermill Playhouse, and Sweet Seasons: Michelle Foster’s Carole King tribute in Haddonfield, NJ. Meghan has three cats and an awesome wife.

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On today's episode of Classical Schmassical, I'm joined by score-maker James Creed as we talk about a composer's role in music through notation, performance, score, and compositional voice. 

Resources mentioned:
Piano Studies 1-6 Bandcamp: 
https://jamesmcreed.bandcamp.com/album/piano-studies-1-6

James' Scores: https://jamescreedmusic.wixsite.com/website/scores

Talk with Lola de la Mata and Joanna Ward on open/text notation: https://www.mixcloud.com/Feminist_Library/lola-de-la-mata-and-joanna-ward-discuss-open-scores-and-sound-through-a-feminist-lens/

James is a score-maker and guitarist currently based in London, UK. 

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Join me as I talk with astrid [Seamus] hubbard flynn about being a composer-flutist and incorporating equity into artistic practice as white musicians. 
Resources mentioned: 
Alex Temple's article Composers Performers and Consent: https://nmbx.newmusicusa.org/composers-performers-and-consent/
Resmaa Menakem's book My Grandmother’s Hands: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781942094470

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Guest Bio: astrid hubbard flynn (b. 1999, they/them), from Saint Paul, Minnesota, is a composer, flutist and noise-maker whose mediums range from staff notation to electronics to text-based and graphic-based improvisation. astrid is currently pursuing a B.A. in Music at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where they have studied composition with Kristina Warren, Wang Lu and Eric Nathan. Outside Brown, they have also studied with Libby Larsen, Abbie Betinis and Edie Hill. As a music educator, astrid has designed discussion sections on popular music, facilitated introductory aural skills lab sections, and helped organize concerts through Brown's student-run composer organization, Fermata. astrid's music has been performed by professional ensembles such as Minnesota's Zeitgeist, New York's YarnWire and Switzerland's Kukuruz Quartet, and at summer festivals such as Minnesota's Source Song Festival and Maine's Atlantic Music Festival.