Stand Partners for Life

By Nathan Cole and Akiko Tarumoto

What's Stand Partners for Life about?

Violinists (and husband and wife) Nathan Cole and Akiko Tarumoto give you an inside look at performing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Each week brings new repertoire, conductors, soloists… and new stories from their life-long love affair with classical music, the violin, and their family.

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Stand Partners for Life episodes:

12.03.2022
Music or muddle: Shostakovich’s 5th Symphony
Shostakovich had never had it worse: his latest opera, Lady Macbeth, had been panned. And not just by an ordinary critic: Joseph Stalin himself had paid a visit to the opera house. The official Soviet opinion of the work? "Muddle...
11.27.2022
The best cadenza ever? Prokofiev and Ma Vlast
Have you ever "discovered" a major piece, live, in the concert hall? Nathan remembers sitting right next to a big star performing Prokofiev's second Piano Concerto, with its massive and breathtaking first-movement cadenza. Then he and Akiko talk about sitting...
11.18.2022
Stand Partners “Four” Life
This week's landmark episode marks the return of Akiko, plus a pair of fellow stand partners for life: violists Kate Reddish and Eric Lea! We discuss the slings and arrows of a career in music, what you can and...
11.11.2022
Travis Maril, Violympic Champion
I'm joined in the backyard this week by Violympian and VMC participant Travis Maril, as well as his fellow USC alum and my Director of Operations, Kate Reddish. Our wide-ranging conversation includes no small measure of pedagogical geekery, as well...
11.04.2022
Kerstin Tenney and the Light Album
Nathan, Kerstin and Kate (and Kate's SPFL Eric) in Pasadena Today I'm talking with Kerstin Tenney, VMC violinist par excellence, as well as my Director of Operations, violist (and VMC alumna par equally excellence) Kate Reddish. We talk about Kerstin's musical...
10.28.2022
Tour-ready? Copland 3, Mahler 1, and more
It's tour time! While you're listening, we'll be flying, driving, and playing our way through Boston, New York, Mexico City, and Guanajuato. So to kick off the trip, let's talk tour repertoire and hand out some awards. Tour rep includes Copland's...
10.21.2022
Welcome back with the All-Time Awards
Akiko and I are back for the 2022-2023 season! In this first episode we share with you a fun new format: awards in all kinds of different categories. Next week we'll focus on the season-opening tour prep weeks at the...
06.28.2020
039: Summer motivation, plus Q & A
We took quite a long break from recording the show with everything going on at the moment, but we are so glad to be back. To kick things off again we thought we would use this episode to go through...
03.04.2020
038: Do we really need a conductor?
Here at Stand Partner HQ, we get this question a lot! And that should tell you something without even knowing the answer. Nobody asks what a pilot does, or if we really need one for our airplanes. But the conductor's...
02.11.2020
037: Orchestra Players Anonymous
Twelve-step programs have helped millions of people, including some of our colleagues. But their constant references to a "higher power" rub some people the wrong way. As orchestral musicians, we only know one "higher power": the conductor, who rules every aspect...
12.22.2019
036 – Johnny Lee wasn’t meant to be a Harvard MD
Violinist Johnny Lee is Akiko's mirror image on stage at Disney Hall: he sits fourth chair second violin, while she's fourth chair first violin. But they have something else in common too. Both went to Harvard, where there is no music...
11.22.2019
035: Playing by numbers, or Advanced Orchestra Stats
How many times have you been jealous of the box scores for baseball and basketball, or the advanced statistics for football? Don't you wish that you too could be measured by notes attempted, notes played in tune, entrances successfully counted? If...
11.03.2019
034: The spirit is willing, but the Flesch is weak
This week, we're talking scales and etudes. Are they the foundational blocks on which your entire technique is built? Or more like raw vegetables that you have to choke down if you want to stay healthy? Akiko actually had a scale...
10.27.2019
033: The audience experience, with superfan Roderick Branch
Chicago Symphony cellist Brant Taylor may have been our very first special guest here at the Stand Partners, but so far we've been missing the perspective of his partner Roderick Branch. Roderick is a musician, though his day job...
10.19.2019
032: What about Bob? Robert deMaine, our principal cello
Today we're joined by our good friend and LA Phil principal cello, Robert deMaine. Bob tells us about his childhood, his musical family and an early teacher who gave him a complete musical education, including piano and composition. He also unpacks...
10.11.2019
031: That’s life in the hot seat, Mr. Concertmaster!
Today we're talking concertmaster, and what it means to sit in the hot seat. What are the duties and expectations, and what makes "first chair violin" attractive or unattractive to different players? Is playing concertmaster more like being the point guard...
10.03.2019
030: All about Amadeus
Nathan says: "My top three movies of all time would be The Godfather, Rocky, and Amadeus in some order." Akiko's not into those "top whatever" lists. But both of us love Amadeus so much that we would drop whatever we're doing and...
09.23.2019
029: Living the rock star life at the Hollywood Bowl
It isn't every day that you get to perform for 18,000 screaming fans... especially if you're a violinist. But a handful of times each summer, we get the rock star treatment at the Hollywood Bowl! OK, so those 18,000 folks probably...
08.15.2019
028: Help, my audition’s tomorrow!
Maybe it's the proverbial "seven minutes to midnight", or maybe you've still got a week or two. It never feels like enough time, trust us. So here's some advice for those last few days, hours, and minutes before your big day,...
07.01.2019
027: A Fistful of Mahlers
First, some exciting news: we've got Stand Partners for Life T-shirts! Check them out here, and show your Stand Partner love! For this episode, Akiko and I just had a one-word outline: Mahler! And it turns out we had plenty to...
05.13.2019
026: Live from the Fischoff, Day 3
05.13.2019
025: Live from the Fischoff, Day 2
05.11.2019
024: Live from the Fischoff, Day 1
05.03.2019
023: What does my future hold?
Here at Stand Partners for Life, we get a lot of questions about the future: what happens if I'm not playing concerto X by age Y? What will happen if I study with teacher Z, or go to school-- I...
04.25.2019
022: An unfortunate break
If it seems like we've been silent the last couple of months, that's because Akiko's life has been pretty different since early March! One moment she was working out at the gym like she did five times a week, and...
02.21.2019
021: The best orchestra audition concerto
OK, you guessed it: it's going to be impossible for us to narrow things down to one "best"! But Akiko and I give it our best shot, outlining the pluses and minuses for all the popular choices. In this episode we...
02.11.2019
020: Ray Chen – how insecurity leads to maturity
Virtuoso Ray Chen hardly needs an introduction, but let's start with his Gold Medal at the Queen Elisabeth competition in 2009, at the age of 20! His career since then, by all appearances, has been an effortless climb. But as...
02.02.2019
019: Joseph Bein and the myth of the “Attic Stradivarius”
I met Joseph Bein almost as soon as I moved to Chicago to join the CSO in 2002. We've talked great instruments and bows ever since, over dinners, glasses of wine, and even Cubs games! Come to think of it,...
01.24.2019
018: Fake it till you make it? How we learn music
When it comes to getting all those notes, rhythms, dynamics, and articulations under your fingers, you've got to use every trick in the book. In this episode, we talk about how we get through our stacks of orchestra music. Of course,...
01.15.2019
017: The show must go on – When conductors cancel
A recent change of plans at the LA Phil leads us to reminisce on other times we've had conductors cancel. What happens when the audience is waiting and the show must go on? Transcript Nathan Cole: ...
01.06.2019
016: Violin resolutions we’ve made, kept, and broken
Happy New Year and new season of Stand Partners for Life! In this episode, we take a look back at resolutions we've made about our playing... and not all of them stuck! From scale practice to solo Bach, counting rests to keeping...
07.22.2018
015: We all need an audition helping hand
We were pretty good back in the day, but even so we weren’t winning auditions on our own. Here are those moments when we got a helping hand!
07.08.2018
014: The very first steps in audition preparation
As soon as we see a job listing online or in the International Musician, our wheels start turning. Which way do they turn? What are the first steps we take to get started preparing? In this episode, we look at the...
06.09.2018
013: Violin fitness – staying healthy or playing hurt
As Kramer says in Seinfeld’s “The Wig Master” episode, “I don’t argue with the body, Jerry. It’s an argument you can’t win.” Sooner or later, we all learn the truth of that statement, especially those of us who are forced to rely on...
05.31.2018
012: Hugh Fink, playing Carnegie and writing for SNL
Some people were just born to do what they do, and Hugh Fink was born to be funny. Or was he born to play the violin? Because even though comedy has set the course of Hugh’s life, he has performed...
05.22.2018
011: Orchestra tours – the good, the bad, and the ugly
In this day and age, when an orchestra can broadcast its performances worldwide (as the Berlin Philharmonic does with its Digital Concert Hall), why would a group like the LA Phil pack up and lumber around the world? That question...
05.13.2018
010: Stand Parents – Nathan’s Mom and Dad on raising a violinist
If you’re a musician and you have a young child, do you start him on an instrument? If so, is it the same instrument you play? If so, do you teach him? Or do you make sure your kids steer...
04.25.2018
009: Nate Farrington, on stage and on-screen in Hollywood
Summary What would you do if you showed up to an audition and heard, “OK, when I give you the signal, play something intense. Then on the next signal, more intensity!” Well, that’s exactly what happened to double bassist Nate Farrington. Except he...
03.17.2018
008: The decline and fall of an orchestra player
Akiko is back to take on what could be a depressing subject: the inevitable erosion of your skills as a violinist when you play in an orchestra. But don’t every violinist’s skills go away eventually, or is there something about...
02.28.2018
007: Why cellist Brant Taylor took a break from the Chicago Symphony
A reminder that if you don’t yet have our free guide to evaluating and upgrading your violin, make sure to click this link to download it. Even if you’re not in the market, you never know when you’ll be called...
02.04.2018
006: Stand Partner Feud – Etiquette Do’s and Don’ts
Let me start by saying that I just spent five minutes looking up the proper and accepted way to spell “do’s and don’ts”, so you can rest assured that I’ve nailed it! Do you want to be the kind of stand...
01.24.2018
005: What we love (and loathe) about young conductors
“All music was new music once,” we often have to remind ourselves, and the same is true of conductors: they were all young once upon a time. But what does age have to do with a conductor’s artistic vision, or...
01.07.2018
004: Audition advice for our younger selves
Everything would have been so easy if we’d just known then what we know now! In this episode, we revisit what auditioning was like back when we started, and what’s changed for us as we’ve both taken, and judged, so...
12.25.2017
003: Nathan’s journey from Kentucky to Curtis
Nathan comes from a musical family, which might have saddled him with unmanageable expectations. But his parents were careful to keep things light and fun, while making sure he had a strong foundation. In this episode, Akiko learns about Nathan’s beginnings...
12.23.2017
002: Akiko’s journey from Eastchester to Harvard
Akiko’s parents aren’t musicians, but that didn’t stop them from wanting her to play an instrument from an early age. So when she was five, she began the violin in her public elementary school (imagine that happening today)! Before long,...
12.22.2017
001: Secrets of the Symphony; Meet the Stand Partners
In this first episode, we reveal the secrets of the symphony: what it’s really like to work day in and day out with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. As two violinists raising three kids, we find that our job means different...
01.16.2017
What does Zigeunerweisen sound like with no E string?
Step back with me to August of 2004. It was summertime in Chicago, I had just started dating Akiko, and I was about to fly across the world for my first ever international competition. Things were good. Here's 2004 Nathan looking ahead to...

What's Stand Partners for Life about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Stand Partners for Life episodes:

Music or muddle: Shostakovich’s 5th Symphony

The best cadenza ever? Prokofiev and Ma Vlast

Stand Partners “Four” Life

Travis Maril, Violympic Champion

Kerstin Tenney and the Light Album

Tour-ready? Copland 3, Mahler 1, and more

Welcome back with the All-Time Awards

039: Summer motivation, plus Q & A

038: Do we really need a conductor?

037: Orchestra Players Anonymous

036 – Johnny Lee wasn’t meant to be a Harvard MD

035: Playing by numbers, or Advanced Orchestra Stats

034: The spirit is willing, but the Flesch is weak

033: The audience experience, with superfan Roderick Branch

032: What about Bob? Robert deMaine, our principal cello

031: That’s life in the hot seat, Mr. Concertmaster!

030: All about Amadeus

029: Living the rock star life at the Hollywood Bowl

028: Help, my audition’s tomorrow!

027: A Fistful of Mahlers

026: Live from the Fischoff, Day 3

025: Live from the Fischoff, Day 2

024: Live from the Fischoff, Day 1

023: What does my future hold?

022: An unfortunate break

021: The best orchestra audition concerto

020: Ray Chen – how insecurity leads to maturity

019: Joseph Bein and the myth of the “Attic Stradivarius”

018: Fake it till you make it? How we learn music

017: The show must go on – When conductors cancel

016: Violin resolutions we’ve made, kept, and broken

015: We all need an audition helping hand

014: The very first steps in audition preparation

013: Violin fitness – staying healthy or playing hurt

012: Hugh Fink, playing Carnegie and writing for SNL

011: Orchestra tours – the good, the bad, and the ugly

010: Stand Parents – Nathan’s Mom and Dad on raising a violinist

009: Nate Farrington, on stage and on-screen in Hollywood

008: The decline and fall of an orchestra player

007: Why cellist Brant Taylor took a break from the Chicago Symphony

006: Stand Partner Feud – Etiquette Do’s and Don’ts

005: What we love (and loathe) about young conductors

004: Audition advice for our younger selves

003: Nathan’s journey from Kentucky to Curtis

002: Akiko’s journey from Eastchester to Harvard

001: Secrets of the Symphony; Meet the Stand Partners

What does Zigeunerweisen sound like with no E string?