Soundweavers

The following episodes were recorded live at Lake George Music Festival 2023. In this two part series, Rosy chats with three of the festival's participants, Joshua Lauretig, Garret Arney, and Kevin Dombrowski. Topics center around music education, career trajectories, and the musicians' relationship to the festival.

To learn more about the musicians featured in these episodes, please click on the links below:

Joshua Lauretig

⁠https://bpo.org/staff-members/joshua-lauretig/⁠

Garrett Arney, arx duo ⁠https://www.arxduo.com/members-bio⁠.

Kevin Dombrowski

⁠https://www.ilsymphony.org/about/our-musicians/kevin-r-dombrowski/⁠

Lake George Music Festival 2024 will take place from August 11 - 22. For more information, please visit ⁠https://www.lakegeorgemusicfestival.com/⁠.

The following episodes were recorded live at Lake George Music Festival 2023. In this two part series, Rosy chats with three of the festival's participants, Joshua Lauretig, Garret Arney, and Kevin Dombrowski. Topics center around music education, career trajectories, and the musicians' relationship to the festival.

To learn more about the musicians featured in these episodes, please click on the links below:

Joshua Lauretig

https://bpo.org/staff-members/joshua-lauretig/

Garrett Arney, arx duo https://www.arxduo.com/members-bio.

Kevin Dombrowski

https://www.ilsymphony.org/about/our-musicians/kevin-r-dombrowski/

Lake George Music Festival 2024 will take place from August 11 - 22. For more information, please visit https://www.lakegeorgemusicfestival.com/.

This week Rosy chats with members of the Juliani Ensemble - Anita Graef, Julian Graef and Emily Seaberry. They speak about maintaining ensemble longevity, the role of family within the ensemble, and Julian's experience of transforming a barn into a concert hall. Juliani Ensemble is currently preparing the launch of its new chamber music festival, the Tallgrass Chamber Music Festival, for summer 2023.

To learn more about the Juliani Ensemble and/or the Tallgrass Chamber Music Festival, please visit https://www.julianiensemble.org/ and https://tallgrassfestival.org/.

In this episode, Rosy chats with Nicholas Finch, Artistic Director of Derby City Chamber Music Festival and Principal Cellist of the Louisville Orchestra.

Derby City Music Festival 2023 will take place on May 23rd, 25th and 30th at Second Presbyterian Church in Louisville, KY.

To reserve tickets or find out more about the festival, visit https://derbycitychamberfest.org/

To learn more about Nicholas Finch, visit http://nicholasfinch.com/

In this episode, Rosy delves into deep conversation with British composer Arthur Keegan. They speak about his new song cycle based on the works of author Thomas Hardy, grad school funding, and the virtues of patience when examining one's own career trajectory.

If you would like to support the Hardy project or preorder the album, please visit Arthur’s Kickstarter at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wessexlovesongs/help-us-record-an-album-celebrating-hardys-poetry-and-music

In this episode, Rosanna chats with the Icarus Quartet - Larry Weng, Christopher Goodpasture, Matt Keown, and Jeff Stern - about building repertoire, working with composers, maintaining a work-life balance, and the practical realities of recording.

To find out more about Icarus Quartet, visit https://icarusquartet.org/

Icarus Quartet’s debut album Big Things can be heard at https://icarusquartet.bandcamp.com/album/big-things

Welcome to Season 3 of the Soundweavers Podcast!

In this short introductory episode, host Rosanna Moore, editor Evan Henry and producer Nikolas Jeleniauskas chat about the direction they are hoping to take the show this season. They also discuss the upcoming guests for the next four episodes: Icarus Quartet, Arthur Keegan, Derby City Music Festival and the Juliani Ensemble.

Soundweavers Podcast will be on hiatus until next year.

In the final Cast Chat and episode of season 2, we are joined by the hosts of UpBeat Podcast (a part of Everything Conducting), John Devlin and Enrico Lopez-Yañez, to discuss the similarities between large and small ensemble musicianship, and our respective approaches when developing podcasts.

The transcript for this episode can be found here.

For more information about Everything Conducting, John and Enrico, please visit their websites.

Guitarist and composer DJ Sparr joins us to chat about the central role that the relationships built in school play in securing future work. He shares about his experience performing Kenneth Fuch’s Electric Guitar Concerto with JoAnn Falletta and the London Symphony Orchestra and the difference between performing his vs. others’ works. We also talk about the typical day-to-day schedule of a performer-composer, and working this into family life.

Electric guitarist and composer D. J. Sparr, who Gramophone recently hailed as “exemplary,” is one of America’s preeminent composer-performers. He has caught the attention of critics with his eclectic style, described as “pop-Romantic…iridescent and wondrous” (The Mercury News) and “suits the boundary erasing spirit of today’s new-music world” (The New York Times). The Los Angeles Times praises him as “an excellent soloist,” and the Santa Cruz Sentinel says that he “wowed an enthusiastic audience…Sparr’s guitar sang in a near-human voice.”

He was the electric guitar concerto soloist on the 2018 GRAMMY-Award winning, all-Kenneth Fuchs recording with JoAnn Falletta and the London Symphony Orchestra. In 2011, Sparr was named one of NPR listener’s favorite 100 composers under the age 40. He has composed for and performed with renowned ensembles such as the Houston Grand Opera, Cabrillo Festival, New World Symphony, Washington National Opera, and Eighth Blackbird. His music has received awards from BMI, New Music USA, and the League of Composers/ISCM. Sparr is a faculty member at the famed Walden School’s Creative Musicians Retreat in Dublin, New Hampshire. His works and guitar performances appear on Naxos, Innova Recordings, & Centaur Records.

D. J. lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with his wife Kimberly, son Harris, Nannette the hound dog, and Bundini the boxer. D. J. Sparr’s music is published by Bill Holab Music.

The transcript for this episode can be found here.

For more information about DJ Sparr, please visit his website.