Divergent Paths with Dan Dunford

Back from Covid and stronger than ever! (?)

This week’s guest is mezzo soprano and fellow denizen of the South Bronx Linda Collazo. I was super happy to catch her in between engagements because she is busy as hell. We talk about her background and development as a singer, the never ending struggle for motivation, and take a lengthy detour to talk about the difficulty of balancing outreach in tough neighborhoods like the ones we hail from. Linda is great and to check out some of her past work and her upcoming performances, hit up lindacollazo.com.

This week, my friend Leonor Falcón joins the podcast to talk about her journry from Venezuala to New York, her journey from classical violin to jazz/avant-garde, and her new album, Imaga Mondo, Vol.2. We also hear a few contributions from her 1 year old son, and talk about pregnancy and motherhood as a working musician, an issue that often gets overlooked. Check it out. She's awesome. leonorfalcon.com falcongumbarecords.bandcamp.com/album/imaga-mondo-vol-ii

Mental health care is so vital in today's world. But there are very specific obstacles that musicians and artists face when trying to get help for themselves. Enter Creatives Care, an organization, whose mission is connecting artists with affordable mental health care providers with experience and/or interest in serving artists. The 3 founders, Dr. Alana Mendelsohn, Columbia neurobiologist and psychiatrist, Eric Kohlmann, venture capitalist and entrepreneur, and Catherine Hancock, Marketing Expert and former opera singer, all join me to have a great conversation about the importance of mental health care for artists, how their organization works, and how to take advantage of the service they are offering.

creativescare.org

This week, I have a fun and a little loopy (on my side) conversation with film composer/arranger Bethany Brinton. We talk about her background, her process and projects, and a load of movies and movie music. Bethany does her own composing and writing for film and television but also works on concert productions of some of the greatest film scores in history. She is absolutely great! Take a listen!

bethanybrinton.com

This week, I'm excited to share a really lovely interview with the extremely talented Sarah Elizabeth Haines. We talk about playing in rock bands, touring with the most popular musical on the planet (Hamilton), and the vulnerability of songwriting. In addition, we cover Sarah's brand new album, Castaway, available on February 25th, 2022. This was a really fun talk. Sarah is a delight! sehaines.com sehainesmusic.bandcamp.com

It was such a pleasure to share a fun chat with the extra-talented percussionist Mariana Ramírez. We talk about her background in Mexico, her transition to the city, her flexibility across styles, and her time on Six The Musical on Broadway. Get into it because she is great! marianapercussion.com

So happy to have some friends from a relatively new organization called Press Start Orchestra. Press Start is dedicated to taking the worlds of gaming/video game music and classical music and bringing them and their respective communities togther with both digital projects and in-person performances. Zach Nicely, Clyde Daley, Ash Turner, and Dmitry Laping (all from the leadership team) were able to sit down for an extremely fun and laugh-filled chat about what we love about video games and music. CHECK IT OUT! psorch.org

This week, trumpeters Melissa Muñoz and Kate Amrine and hornist Rebecca Karu, founders of the excellent non-profit Brass Out Loud join the show to talk about the origins of thir diversity-championing organization, their goals for brass/music education and their 2022 Brass Workshop. brassoutloud.com brassoutloud.com/workshopregistration brassoutloud.com/support

This week, the multi-faceted and multi-talented Gina Izzo hops on to talk about experimental, improvisational, and electronic flute performance, her project ladyybirdd, her mentorship organization bespoken, and much more! ginaizzo.com ladyybirdd.com righteousgirls.com bespoken.org

Say hello to Janet Yieh! She is a fantastic musician and an assistant organist at Trinity Church Wall Street in New York City. We had fun talking about the organ, sacred music, and the organization she co-founded, Amplify Women Composers, among many other things. It's really good. CHECK IT OUT. janetyieh.com amplifyfemalecomposers.org