In my discussion with Bay Area pianist, musical activist and community organizer Sarah Cahill, we talk visioning, dream journals, when the music is not about you, the purpose of LinkedIn, and Sarah's project, The Future is Female.

Sarah Cahill is a prolific pianist who has commissioned, premiered, and recorded numerous compositions for solo piano. Cahill founded and co-organizes the annual Garden of Memory event at Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland, CA (my favorite event of all time -- sorry! had to interject!!). Before the pandemic, she also curated a monthly series of new music concerts at the Berkeley Art Museum and before that at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. Cahill is faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory, and host of the radio show Revolutions Per Minute on KALW in San Francisco. She’s had works dedicated to her by the likes of John Adams, Terry Riley, and Pauline Oliveros, and has premiered pieces by Lou Harrison, Julia Wolfe, George Lewis, and more, more, more.

www.sarahcahill.com

Photo by Marianne LaRochelle. Used by permission.

In this episode I talk bubble charts, YouTube view count, and trying to pick THE ONE THING with New Orleans-based vocalist, instrumentalist and composer Aurora Nealand.

Nealand appears frequently with her own New Orleans jazz band, The Royal Roses, and works closely with organizations like Found Sound Nation, the Walden School for Young Composers, and Sound Observatory New Orleans. In New Orleans she leads a performance collective of her own original music, The Monocle Ensemble; she’s also the front woman for the rock band Rory Danger & the Danger Dangers; a member of Panorama Jazz Band; and member of the New Orleans Klezmer Allstars. Nealand has also performed extensively in New York City at the Lincoln Center Summer Festival, the Blue Note, Barbès, and the Knitting Factory, and has premiered original works at Symphony Space and Alice Tully Hall. Find out more about Aurora Nealand at auroranealand.com.

Photo used by permission of the artist.

In this interview, Ellen, Theresa and I talk about grant warriors, long-haul perseverance, mid-life shifts, and keeping your eyes on the ultimate prize: joy in the work.

Ellen Fullman is known for her creation and mastery of the Long String Instrument, an installation of over 40 delicate strings played by hand that spans 50 to 100 feet in length. Fullman's distinguished career includes a recent 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship, and upcoming commissions from the JACK Quartet, and The Living Earth Show. Cellist, vocalist and composer Theresa Wong's prolific career includes original multimedia projects like the improvised opera, O Sleep, and The Unlearning, songs for violin, cello and two voices, first performed at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts with violinist Carla Kihlstedt. Fullman and Wong's new album, Harbors, praised by Pitchfork for its "dramatic physical presence," is available online here.

Find out more about the artists at theresawong.org and ellenfullman.com.

Photo used by permission the artists; taken in front of a Yayoi Kusama installation.

In this episode I chat with Scott Solter about artistic insecurity and what it means to get in your own way; we also talk about the benefits of being mean, and what he calls "bringing the pathology" to a musical career.

Solter is known primarily as a recording engineer, producer, and mixer who has worked with super-talents like St. Vincent, John Vanderslice, Spoon, The Mountain Goats, Maps and Atlases, Superchunk, Bombadil, and Fred Frith. An artist himself, Solter is a member of the ambient group, Boxharp, and has also released two solo albums, The Brief Light and One River. He has also released a number of album remixes of original albums by John Vanderslice, Pattern is Movement and others. 

Image used by permission of the artist.

In episode three, I talk with musical artist and social activist Jessica Lá Rel about looking at your music career like an MBA, provoking social change, quarantine creativity, and the question all artists dread: "If you can imagine doing anything other than being an artist, shouldn't you do it?"

Lá Rel is an award-winning songwriter, storyteller and activist whose music spans R&B and Soul. Her 2016 debut EP, Four Freedoms, ranked #12 on the UK Soul Charts, and landed her opportunities to perform for Oprah Winfrey, Sterling K. Brown, US. Rep John Lewis, Civil Rights Freedom Rider Rip Patton, and Rev. Jesse Jackson. Lá Rel’s music videos have gained national attention around the issues of police brutality, Black women’s liberation, and representation in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics). Huffington Post gushes, "[Lá Rel] uses her song and video to provide an anthem for the contemporary movement for Black rights. She is a rising superstar with incredible potential, an artist who inspires, and someone that we should all be looking out for.” Learn more at http://www.jessicalarel.com/.

Photo credit: Kola Shobo. Used by permission.

In episode two, I talk with singer and composer Lalin St. Juste about troll attacks, fishnets and fake eyelashes, introversion, the perils of going it solo, and crazy good fortune.

St. Juste is co-founder and front woman for the San Francisco Bay Area band, The Seshen, which draws from a range of influences including electronica, R&B and indie rock. The Seshen has opened for some of today's most energetic and beloved bands, including Hiatus Kaiyote, PetiteNoir, tUnE-yArDs, and Thundercat. The six-piece band includes producer-bassist and co-founder Akiyoshi Ehara, drummer Chris Thalmann, keyboard/synth player Mahesh Rao, percussionist Mirza Kopelman and sequencer Kumar Butler. St. Juste describes their most recent album, Cyan (Tru Thoughts 2020), as her journey to become "unapologetically black, unapologetically queer, unapologetically a woman." 

Photo credit: Brittany Powers. Used by permission.