S3 Ep.3: Violinists Elena Urioste and Melissa White of Intermission join me for a conversation about yoga, performance nerves, ditching perfection, healthier practice, artistic agency, and allowing a musical career to become bigger than one prescribed path.
This episode feels a little full-circle for me…
I first crossed paths with Elena and Melissa more than 20 years ago, back in our Encore School for Strings days in Ohio. Years later, watching them bring music and yoga together through Intermission helped me imagine something I hadn't fully seen for myself yet: that being an artist didn't have to mean following one single, narrow path.
Their work was part of what inspired me to pursue my own yoga teacher training in 2019, so getting to sit down with them all these years later felt particularly special.
In this conversation, we talk about how yoga entered each of their lives and how it ultimately changed the way they play, practice, perform, teach, and relate to themselves as artists.
We get into performance nerves, body awareness, perfectionism, healthier self-talk, and the idea that "you are your best and forever teacher." We also talk about agency: learning to trust your own body, your own artistic instincts, and your own sense of what works for you.
And then we get into the Artist + of it all.
Elena and Melissa share how Intermission began with two roommates, a Moleskine notebook, and an idea that other people didn't always understand. We talk about entrepreneurship, following an idea before you know exactly where it's going, and letting your career path curve rather than assuming you have to leave one identity behind to explore another.
For any musician who has ever wondered, "Is this all I'm allowed to be?" I hope this conversation gives you a little more room to imagine.
Maybe the path doesn't have to completely change.
Maybe it can just curve.
KEY TOPICS
Yoga and classical music Performance nerves and breathing Body awareness and violin technique Perfectionism and healthier self-talk Compassion in the practice room The "three victories" practice Agency and artistic self-trust Teaching musicians to trust themselves Building an "artist +" identity Entrepreneurship for classical musicians Creating Intermission Letting your career path curve Intermission retreats and restorative practice
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Welcoming Elena Urioste and Melissa White
01:21 - Remembering Curtis, Encore, and our shared history
03:01 - What our younger selves would think today
08:11 - How Intermission inspired my own yoga journey
09:07 - Melissa's yoga origin story
13:54 - Elena finds hot yoga after heartbreak
18:01 - Yoga, violin technique, and performance nerves
22:28 - Compassion, discipline, and healthier self-talk
28:14 - Three victories and a new way of evaluating ourselves
34:42 - Yoga blocks, mirrors, and recording as practice tools
40:10 - Agency, ownership, and trusting yourself as an artist
48:07 - From violinists to entrepreneurs: creating Intermission
51:13 - How Intermission got its name
56:54 - The artist + life and letting a career path curve
67:22 - Inside the Intermission retreats
72:00 - Rapid fires + guest info
MY FAVORITE QUOTES
"You are your best and forever teacher."
"This is your today."
"What's the one thing only I can do?"
"Why do you have to switch direction? Why can't the path just curve a little bit?"
ABOUT ELENA + MELISSA
Elena Urioste is an internationally acclaimed violinist, yogi, educator, and entrepreneur. A former BBC New Generation Artist and first-prize laureate of the Sphinx Competition, she has performed with major orchestras throughout the U.S. and abroad. She is also co-director of the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, Artistic Director of Chamber Music by the Sea, Professor of Violin at the Royal Academy of Music, and a Kripalu-trained RYT-200 yoga teacher.
Melissa White is an acclaimed violinist, educator, and founding member of the Grammy Award-winning Harlem Quartet. A first-prize laureate of the Sphinx Competition, she has appeared as soloist with major orchestras across the U.S. and internationally. She teaches at NYU Steinhardt and the University at Buffalo and completed yoga training in Vinyasa and Ashtanga in Goa, India.
Together, Elena and Melissa co-founded Intermission in 2017, bringing music, movement, mindfulness, breath, and self-compassion together through student sessions, professional retreats, and online resources for musicians.
FIND ELENA, MELISSA + INTERMISSION
Intermission www.intermissionsessions.com
YouTube www.youtube.com/@intermission1777
Instagram @intermissionsessions
Melissa White @afroviolinist
Elena Urioste @elenaurioste www.elenaurioste.com
MORE INFO ON MINDFULOPUS:
Curious about working together? Book a 30 minute consult: https://calendly.com/mindfulopus/30min?month=2026-09
Find out more about my work: mindfulopus.com
Follow me on instagram: @mindfulopus
