WE PASSED OUR VOICES RADIO TRIAL! Here's our most recent episode-show where we answer beautiful questions from our Insta followers (thanks you guys!). We chit-chat about our favourite and least favourite memories of TMDTA, Father Christmas and Wendy Christmas, a slightly different origin story of the podcast, the power of sharing our stories on social media, balancing pod commitments, Becca's wet cat and not treating the pod as a job. Thanks again to Voices Radio for giving us another platform to continue breaking down the barriers and talking about the things musicians don't talk about.

If you've been affected by any of the issues mentioned in this episode, head to our Resources page for further signposting and support.

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Editor: Abbeydot - Audio Engineering for Women and LGBTQIA folks

Music: Katy Ehrlich

Hosts: Hattie Butterworth & Rebecca Toal

Photographer: Venetia Jollands

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we speak with the inspiring Emily Ashton, baroque cellist, viola da gambist and climate activist. Emily is a founding member of XR Baroque, a group of early music environmentalists who perform at Extinction Rebellion protests. We discuss how we process the overwhelm and anxiety that come with thinking about climate change, the murkiness of being a freelance musician and staying true to your beliefs, and the tension between the need for systemic and individualistic change in environmental action.

We are so grateful to Emily for talking with such eloquence and gravitas on one of the most important topics.

XR Baroque's Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/375287633080945/

Check out Extinction Rebellion's website to see how you can get involved: https://extinctionrebellion.uk

Support us

Want to support us on a regular basis? Consider joining our Patreon for £3 a month: https://www.patreon.com/tmdta

Got a few pennies to spare? Buy us a Kofi! https://ko-fi.com/thingsmusiciansdonttalkabout

Feeling extra generous? Help us raise funds for the podcast: https://www.gofundme.com/f/things-musicians-dont-talk-about

Follow us on all the socials: @tmdtapodcast

Edited by and music composed by Katy Ehrlich

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, Hattie speaks with flautist Kathryn Williams, co-author of the Independent Society of Musicians's (ISM) Dignity at Work 2 study, which looked into the experiences of discrimination among those working in the music sector. They also speak about Kathryn's experiences as a single parent 11 years ago, navigating studying at the Royal Northern College of Music whilst being the sole carer for a 1-year-old.

Follow Kathryn on Instagram: @kathrynwilliamsflutes

Discover the ISM here

Parents in Performing Arts (PiPA) Campaign

Click here for transcript

If you've been affected by any of the issues mentioned in this episode, head to our Resources page for further signposting and support.

Support us

Want to support us on a regular basis? Consider joining our Patreon for £3 a month: https://www.patreon.com/tmdta

Got a few pennies to spare? Buy us a Kofi! https://ko-fi.com/thingsmusiciansdonttalkabout

Feeling extra generous? Help us raise funds for the podcast: https://www.gofundme.com/f/things-musicians-dont-talk-about

Follow us on all the socials: @tmdtapodcast

Edited by Hattie Butterworth

Music by Katy Ehrlich

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Things Musicians Don't Talk About, Hattie and Becca chat from the cosiness of Hattie's new-ish house and perfect podcasting room. We have a candid conversation about the recent arts cuts and the precarity of freelancing, plus Becca's recent feelings of audition burnout, and how we've both experienced and dealt with (or not dealt with...) performance anxiety in the past.

Join us as we break down the barriers and continue to talk about the things musicians don't talk about.

(originally recorded for Voices Radio)

Click here for transcript

If you've been affected by any of the issues mentioned in this episode, head to our Resources page for further signposting and support.

Support us

Want to support us on a regular basis? Consider joining our Patreon for £3 a month: https://www.patreon.com/tmdta

Got a few pennies to spare? Buy us a Kofi! https://ko-fi.com/thingsmusiciansdonttalkabout

Feeling extra generous? Help us raise funds for the podcast: https://www.gofundme.com/f/things-musicians-dont-talk-about

Follow us on all the socials: @tmdtapodcast

Edited by Rebecca Toal

Music by Katy Ehrlich

Hosts: Hattie Butterworth & Rebecca Toal

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Where do musicians go for support in a crisis? For many years Help Musicians UK has been the main source of advocacy, funding and research for musicians facing crises of health and finances in the UK.

In response to the increase in need for mental health support post pandemic, last autumn Help Musicians launched its subsidiary charity, Music Minds Matter to focus in on the mental health provision for musicians.

Today we speak to Head of the charity, Joe Hastings, about its launch, his own journey, the main patterns he is witnessing among musicians, supporting them in mental health challenges and the future goals of Music Minds Matter.

"Whatever you’re going through right now, you can contact Music Minds Matter on 0808 802 8008"

Click here for transcript

Find TMDTA on all the socials at @tmdtapodcast

Our website is: www.thingsmusiciansdonttalkabout.com

Help us raise funds for the pod here

Support us on Patreon for £3 a month and get access to extra episodes and content!

Or buy us a Kofi

Music and editing by Katy Ehrlich

Recorded at the Help Musicians offices, London

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we are coming with a fascinating episode with Ingela Onstad, who is a psychotherapist and performance coach, as well as a professional soprano.

Both Rebecca and I have been interested in getting to know a musician who is also trained as a psychotherapist and were curious to understand how she deals with boundaries in her job. We explore all of this, asking for Ingela’s insight into diversifying her musician life, becoming more than ‘just’ a singer and helping people through a therapeutic lens.

Fiind Ingela on Instagram @courageousartistry

Her website is here

Click here for transcript

Find TMDTA on all the socials at @tmdtapodcast

Our website is: www.thingsmusiciansdonttalkabout.com

Support us on Patreon for £3 a month and get access to extra episodes and content!

Or buy us a Kofi

It's over and out from us for the year, and wishing you all an incredibly soul-warming holiday and New Year!

Love Becca, Katy and Hattie xx

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

***This episode deals covers topics including eating disorders, mental illness and the Holocaust. Kate talks about them incredibly respectfully and not in graphic details, but for listeners that would rather sit this one out, we understand***

It's our last episode of 2022 and this time, we're speaking to the exceptional Dr. Kate Kennedy, broadcaster, academic, cellist and writer, who specialises in combining biography, words and music. She is also the Co-Director of the Oxford Centre for Life-writing and a research fellow at the University of Oxford.

We talk to her from the crypt of St. Clement Danes (with somebody's wedding going on above our heads), discussing her own experiences in life and in music, and about her current work on her book, Cello, an autobiography of the instrument itself and its musicians. We were particularly interested in her biography of war poet and musician, Ivor Gurney, speaking about his own struggles with mental illness and confinement to an asylum in later life. (Dweller in Shadows: A Life of Ivor Gurney, Princeton Press, 2021)

We're incredibly grateful to Kate for her eloquence and candidness about her own encounters with injury and struggles during her teenage years and early adulthood. It truly is a pleasure to listen to her, and interviewing her was such an enriching experience, and we cannot wait to read her future works.

Follow Kate on Twitter

Kate's website

Click here for transcript

Find TMDTA on all the socials at @tmdtapodcast

Our website is: www.thingsmusiciansdonttalkabout.com

Support us on Patreon for £3 a month and get access to extra episodes and content!

Or buy us a Kofi

It's over and out from us for the year, and wishing you all an incredibly soul-warming holiday and New Year!

Love Becca, Katy and Hattie xx

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we are coming from a North London living room with our wonderful friends from Three In A Bar Podcast. Verity Simmons (cello) and Seb Philpott (trumpet) join us for a 2-part series of collaborative podcasting and incredible company.

We talk about how podcasting has altered their lives, who writes the emails, their careers and experiences as freelancers and the Three In A Bar podcast genesis from in the pit of Funny Girl the Musical. We also learn about their most traumatic performance memories, and take to Classic FM's quizzes to discover Seb's cross-genre knowledge and the age of Verity's soul.

Keep your eyes peeled to the Three In A Bar podcast channel for part 2 out next week!

Follow Three In A Bar on Instagram and Twitter @threeinabar

Visit their website here!

Click here for transcript

The episode was edited by Katy Ehrlich.

Things Musicians Don't Talk About website: https://www.thingsmusiciansdonttalkabout.com

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Introducing our producer, the wonderful flautist Katy Ehrlich. We are so excited to introduce Katy to you all and for you to hear the journey of her incredible life, and role in the pod, through county youth orchestra to Manchester University and then to the Royal Academy of Music for masters. Katy's journey uncovers a lot of the difficulties with music college environments and we discuss how hard it can be to be honest about your personal life and limitations whilst studying.

Katy also took us through the traumas of orchestra lists and the humiliation of not seeing your name. Her steps towards music editing for TV and film are so exciting and we loved learning more about her goals and insights into the sector. We also just have a hilarious chat!

We can't begin to imagine how such an honest and beautiful soul came to be our producer and we are beyond grateful to Katy for all she does and is!

Click here for transcript

Things Musicians Don't Talk About website: https://www.thingsmusiciansdonttalkabout.com

Sign up to our Patreon!

TMDTA Twitter

Facebook

Instagram

If you would like to support our work, why not buy us a Kofi?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

‘It’s easy to slip into a mode of being 

where you think your life is happening to you and 

you’re stuck…you think you have to carry on xyz 

trajectory because that’s how it’s been for so long…’ 

This week’s guest is the soprano Betty Makharinsky who spoke to me (Hattie) during a day of rehearsals for the charity and organisation she co-founded, Vache Baroque Festival ✨

Betty and I spoke about her difficulties with the music college system after leaving Oxford and how going too soon affected her development and confidence as a singer. She also speaks with so much wisdom about her love of teaching and the importance of the workshops run in schools by the Vache Baroque Festival. 

It was amazing to hear about Betty’s excitement for her future as a singer and having the confidence to commit to exploring everything she can with her voice and opportunities it may bring. 

Her love for singing is so infectious and wise and I think Betty put her mindset best when she said ‘- More and more I think it’s important to do everything in your life full-heartedly’

Thank you Betty for bringing such honesty and 

inspiration 🙏

Click here for transcript

Follow Vache Baroque on Instagram @vachebaroquefest

Things Musicians Don't Talk About website: https://www.thingsmusiciansdonttalkabout.com

Sign up to our Patreon!

TMDTA Twitter

Facebook

Instagram

If you would like to support our work, why not buy us a Kofi?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.