Phillip Gainsley's Podcast

Jeremy Denk is one of America’s foremost pianists.  He is also the recipient of both the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship and the Avery Fisher Prize, and he is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Jeremy is known for his interpretations of the music of American composer Charles Ives.

He is also known for his original and insightful writing on music. His New York Times best-selling memoir, Every Good Boy Does Fine was published to universal acclaim by Random House in 2022.  

His latest album of Mozart piano concertos was deemed “urgent and essential” by BBC Radio 3, while his recording of the Goldberg Variations reached No. 1 on the Billboard classical charts.

Sarah Hicks is the in-demand conductor across an array of genres, and as an educator, arranger, producer, writer and speaker committed to creating connections through music.

Sarah has worked extensively with all the major orchestras in the US and abroad. 

She is a specialist in film music and the film in concert genre.  

Sarah has acted as advisor on numerous projects for Disney Music Group and is a consultant and frequent collaborator at Disney Concerts. Since 2020, she has been the primary host and writer of “This is Minnesota Orchestra”, broadcast on Twin Cities PBS and streamed globally. 

She is a frequent guest lecturer and panelist, and was on faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music from 2000 to 2005 and staff conductor until 2012. Her presentation, “The Art of Conducting”, has illustrated collaborative leadership to numerous organizations, civic groups and corporations. 

Her interest in mental health and music led to the production of a 2019 concert titled “Music and the Mind.”  Her most recent project, "Music and Healing", is a collaboration with the Minnesota Orchestra. Available digitally, the project includes a concert, commissioned works, interviews, and conversations with neuroscientists, wellness experts and musicians.  

The Winchendon Music Festival is a non-profit concert series held in Winchendon, Massachusetts. The Festival showcases performances by international artists from a variety of genres including classical, folk, jazz, historical performance, and world music.

Concerts are free to the public, thanks to support from several local cultural councils, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Robinson Broadhurst Foundation, the Winchendon History & Cultural Center, and the First Congregational Church of Winchendon.

The Winchendon Music Festival presents solo, small ensemble, and chamber orchestral programs. 

The festival was founded in 2016 by multi-instrumentalist, scholar, and composer Andrew Arceci who was our guest on Episode 106, and who now joins us with guitarist Colin Davin, a performer in this season’s (2024) program.

As you will hear, performances for the Winchendon Music Festival take place at several venues around Winchendon.

Cello playing is at the center of Matthew Barley’s career, while his musical world has virtually no geographical, social or stylistic boundaries. His passions include improvisation, education, multi-genre music-making, electronics, and pioneering community programs.

Matthew is a world-renowned cellist who has performed in over 50 countries.

Matthew’s new music group, Between The Notes undertook over 60 creative community projects with young people and orchestra players around the world.

Matthew has given premieres by Pascal Dusapin, Dai Fujikura, Detlev Glanert, Thomas Larcher, James MacMillan, Roxana Panufnik, and recently a concerto by Misha Mullov-Abbado with a cello part that is more than half improvised, at the London Jazz Festival for the BBC.

His current project, Light Stories, is a new program for cello, electronics and visuals from Yeast Culture with much of the music written by him. 

He is also launching a new charity to run workshops using creative music and theatre to help university students with their mental health.

The 2023/24 season marked Chad Goodman’s inaugural year as music director of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra—only the fifth leader in the orchestra’s prestigious seven-decade history.

Chad also serves as artistic director of IlluminArts, Miami’s art song and chamber music concert series.  He curates site-specific classical music programs in collaboration with the leading museums, art galleries, and historic venues of Miami.

From 2019 to 2023, he was the Conducting Fellow of the New World Symphony, where he was the assistant conductor to Michael Tilson Thomas. In addition to leading the orchestra in more than fifty performances, Chad created the educational program “SPARK: How Composers Find Inspiration,” which blended engaging audience participation with captivating light design and videography.

He has served as an assistant conductor to the San Francisco Symphony, working alongside Michael Tilson Thomas, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Manfred Honeck, Daniel Harding, Elim Chan, Simone Young, and James Gaffigan, among others.

As you will hear, Chad also leads workshops that teach young musicians the business skills needed to navigate successfully the music world. Forbes praised his bold strides both on and off stage and hailed him as “An entrepreneur bringing innovation to classical music.” Last year, he published the book, You Earned a Music Degree. Now What?

Peter works extensively as a director of theater, musical theater, opera and new work development. He is the producing artistic director at Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Florida. We recorded this conversation in January 2023, as he assumed that position.

Peter and I spoke on Episode 27 when he was artistic director of Theater Latté Da, a Twin Cities-based company.  Since the Theater Latté Da’s inception in 1992, Peter directed 92 main-stage productions, including 14 world premieres and 14 area premieres. In 2012, the company launched NEXT, a major new works initiative for the development of new music-theater. 

Peter was also prominent on our Merrily We Roll Along panel, Episode 73, as Theater Latté Da produced its highly successful rendering of Stephen Sondheim’s masterpiece.

He has also directed shows for other theater companies nationwide.

Peter has served  on the board of directors for the National Alliance for Musical Theatre. He has been as a panelist and evaluator for the Playwrights’ Center, the McKnight Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board and the National Alliance for Musical Theater’s Festival of New Musicals.

Teddy Abrams, Musical America’s 2022 Conductor of the Year, starts his tenth season as music director of the Louisville Orchestra in the fall of 2024.  Teddy has been the galvanizing force behind the orchestra’s extraordinary artistic renewal and commitment to innovative community engagement since his appointment in September 2014.

Teddy is also a prolific and award-winning composer.  We’ll hear an excerpt from his piano concerto written for his regular collaborator Yuja Wang, with whom he and the Louisville Orchestra made their Deutsche Grammophon debuts on the virtuoso pianist’s March 2023 release, The American Project.

He is now at work on ALI, a new Broadway musical about boxing legend and activist Muhammad Ali, which is scheduled to receive its fall 2024 world premiere in Louisville, the boxer’s birthplace, before opening on Broadway in spring 2025.

Teddy Abrams remains in high demand as a guest conductor, which is how I met him.

Monet Sabel was born and reared in Redondo Beach, California. She grew up heavily participating in her local community theater, The Norris Theatre, to which she attributes all of her success.

Monet moved to New York to attend NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where she earned her BFA in Drama from the New Studio on Broadway.

After college, Monet was cast in the Off-Broadway Barrow St. revival of Sweeney Todd, as the standby for Johanna, the Beggar Woman, and, notably, the male role, Adolfo Pirelli.

She then joined the National Tour of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.

Later, Sabel Monet flew off on a Japanese tour of Disney on Classic, a concert series featuring Disney movies with a full symphony orchestra.

Ben West is a musical theatre artist and historian. His book, The American Musical, chronicles a detailed and comprehensive history of the art form’s artistic evolution. 

Ben also created 20 “Timeline Wall” exhibits for the Museum of Broadway, that trace the history of the Broadway stage from 1732 to 2021, and spotlight more than 500 productions and 100 artists.

He has worked in various capacities on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regionally, and created and directed Unsung Carolyn Leigh for Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series. 

Ben has spoken at several institutions including Yale University, University of Michigan, the Dramatists Guild, and the Shubert Organization. He is a recipient of Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award.

Simon Woods brings more than 30 years of experience working with orchestras to his leadership role as president and CEO of the League of American Orchestras.

Simon is known throughout the world of classical music as a highly trusted mentor and advisor to orchestra management professionals.

His leadership includes regular columns in professional periodicals about the future of orchestras, as well as lectures and speaking engagements at conferences and orchestra boardrooms around the country.  I was fortunate enough recently to host a panel discussion with him on the subject of the presentation of classical music.

Prior to joining the League in 2020, Woods served as CEO of the Los Angeles Philharmonic; he was interim executive director of the Grand Teton Music Festival, president and CEO of the Seattle Symphony, chief executive of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, as well as serving the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and The Philadelphia Orchestra. 

Born in London, England, Woods earned a degree in music from Cambridge University and a diploma in conducting from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. He currently serves on the boards of Astral Artists and the Performing Arts Alliance.