To hear him tell it, Christian Howes once had the world by the strings. He excelled at the violin from the time he was 5 and in high school, he attracted scholarship offers from several prestigious conservatories. But Christian seemingly flushed his future away when he was busted for selling drugs, spending four years in a medium-security prison in Ohio. But he says the connections and music he made in prison steered him into jazz, and the decades since saw him carving a distinctive career path.

Here, Matt Peiken talks with Christian about his life and career before, during and after prison, how his time behind bars still affects how he views his life in and out of music and why, after 11 years since moving to Asheville, he’s only now looking to rekindle his performing career. We also talk about the new documentary he commissioned in collaboration with a poet and ex-convict, "Redemption Time."

If you’re a devotee of Appalachian folk, you’ll feel right at home in the seats of a performance by the acclaimed Danish folk trio Stundom. The violin and cittern are central to the music, but so are contemporary flavors brought by pianist Julian Svejgaard. He’s the guest on this episode of the See Hear podcast.

Stundom, which tours internationally, is on the marquee Oct. 10 at Asheville's Wortham Center for the Performing Arts.

In today’s conversation with Matt Peiken, Svegaard talks about the parallels and perpendiculars between Nordic and Western folk music and the challenges he and his bandmates face straddling the tightrope separating contemporary music anchored in timeless folk traditions. We also peel back the meaning of the title of the band’s latest album, which translates to “If They Aren’t Dead, They’re Still Alive.”

Like a rabbit out of a hat, Mike Super pulled himself into the national limelight a dozen years ago as a finalist on season 9 of America’s Got Talent. Today, he’s a star magician performing two shows Sept. 19 at the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts.

In today’s podcast conversation with See Hear's Matt Peiken, Mike dives beyond his bag of tricks and pursuit of amazement to reveal the art, craft and storytelling he builds into his act. We also distinguish between the work of a magician and mentalist and the label he chooses to wear, as a mystifier. And if you’re watching on video, we close with a trick he makes look all too easy.

Asheville singer-songwriter Jane Kramer talks with See Hear's Matt Peiken about her personal new album, Moon and Mother, and how it chronicles a profound chapter of her life — becoming a mother while losing her own mother to cancer.

Jane talks about navigating grief through her songwriting process and questions whether the music industry still has a place for her. She also looks back on her time in the Barrel House Mamas, leaving Asheville for Portland, and finding her way back—both to the city and to her voice.

Toward the end of the conversation, Jane performs two songs from her new album—"Ballast" and the title track. Catch video of the performances here.

Her full-band performance Sept. 19 at Asheville's Ayurprana Listening Room previews the album, which is officially out Oct. 9.

Jakob Heinemann is a double-bassist and Keefe Jackson a reed player who found each other in a fertile Chicago jazz scene and bonded over an appreciation of each other’s compositions and love of improvisation.

Heinemann spoke with See Hear’s Matt Peiken last week from Madison, Wis., a few hours before the opening performance along the group’s tour. Their concert is 5pm Sunday, Aug. 30, at Mars Landing Arts Center.

In this conversation, Heinemann talks about his roots in the avant-garde jazz of Chicago, the art of composing for specific musicians, the array of experimental music he’s involved with and the new music the quartet will perform in Mars Hill.

Erin Brethauer and Tim Hussin are a filmmaking/photography couple who met in Asheville, worked together in California making intimate documentaries and have returned to Asheville to raise a child and put their professional focus into their production company, This Land Films.

Stray Embers, their latest project, douments people in a small Northern California town recovering after devastating wildfires. The film gets its local premiere Sept. 22 at the Fine Arts Theater. Erin and Tim are now in the middle of their latest project focusing on their own and other people’s recoveries from Hurricane Helene.

In this episode of the See Hear podcast, Tim and Erin talk about their leap of faith away from working at mainstream news outlets, collaborating in the field for their own work and what matters most to them as documentary filmmakers.

At the height of this country’s fight for civil rights, some of America’s Black jazz artists were composing would-be soundtracks to the movement. Many of the charts and recordings they created for the Blue Note label were lost or forgotten through the decades. New York bassist David Ambrosio has done his part to bring them back to life through a project called Civil Disobedience. 

Ambrosio led a quartet of New Yorkers two years ago in a fantastic concert of this music at Mars Landing Arts Center, in Mars Hill. Now, with a new album of this music in hand, Ambrosio’s returning to Mars Hill for a performance Saturday, Aug. 22. 

On this episode of the See Hear podcast, Matt Peiken talks with Ambrosio about his initial interest in this music, how the social and political undertones of the day shaped the sound and the contemporary relevance for both himself and his audiences.

From New York jazz clubs to Minnesota art houses, Ted Nash and Jeremy Walker have been friends and collaborators for more than two decades.

Nash is a two-time Grammy Award winning saxophonist and a longtime member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. Walker is a pianist and composer who has been featured on NPR’s Composers Datebook and just last year moved to Asheville. Nash and Walker are reuniting this Saturday for a one-night-only performance, June 27, at Mars Landing Arts Center in Mars Hill.

Matt Peiken talks with Nash and Walker about their shared history and musical connections, their creative arcs as composers and the program they’re cooking up at Mars Landing.

If you were to scan the rosters of symphony and chamber orchestras throughout the country and internationally, not to mention the credits of film scores, commercials and anywhere else calling for real classical musicians, you’d likely find one or more players who’ve studied or taught at the Brevard Music Center.

This is the 90th season for the Brevard Music Center. More than 1,000 student musicians from 47 states, the US Virgin Islands and 20 countries are spending much of their summer in Brevard, diving into six intensive weeks of study. It’s no longer just classical music. Jazz and Americana have their own curricula alongside opera and vocal performance.  

And that broadened educational focus is reflected in the concert season. Brevard Music Center hosts live music virtually every night of the week through early August—sometimes a classical recital in the afternoon is followed by a performance that evening drawing nearly 2,000 people to Brevard’s one-of-a-kind amphitheater.

As the 90th season got underway, See Hear's Matt Peiken spoke with CEO & President Jason Posnock about Brevard Music Center's place in the world of music, its challenges in preparing students for a career in a highly competitive, evolving field and the culture of community baked into Brevard’s operating code.

Chris Aluka Berry's intimate photos from within Black Appalachian communities are collected in his first book, Affrilachia: Testimonies. More than 100 photos are interspersed with poetry, along with Aluka’s personal observations through the six years he spent making photos in the pockets of Black communities in Western North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee.

A handful of these photos are on view through July 2026 in the upstairs gallery of the Madison County Arts Council building in downtown Marshall. Aluka, as he prefers to be called, talks with Matt Peiken about his career and creative arcs and the work and time he puts into earning the trust, and the welcome mat, from his subjects.