Episodes
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This story was written by Megan Westberg for the September-October 2024 issue of Strings magazine and is read by the author.
I get the sense that violinist Ray Chen is still searching for the right answer—the perfect, succinct media-ready response—to a particular question. Funny thing is, it isn’t a question I’ve asked him. In fact, outside the introductory pleasantries, I haven’t asked him anything at all. He’s calling from the airport in Chicago as he waits for a connecting flight to Los Angeles (delayed) and has thus far wryly chuckled at my suggestion that he may be headed for a break after his recent stint as guest artist at Interlochen Arts Camp (not so much—but he did get a fleeting “pocket of time” to leap into a Michigan lake post-concert the night before). Before I launch into a litany of questions about his upcoming release, Player 1; his practice platform, Tonic; and the general comings and goings of the artist known as Ray Chen, he thinks it may be worth mentioning why it is he routinely ventures outside the box, as it were, in terms of the activities that typically occupy a concert violinist. So he poses the first question himself.Support the show
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This story was written by Megan Westberg for the May-June 2024 issue of Strings magazine and is read by the author.
It will have started before you notice it’s happening. You’ll hit play on fiddler Louise Bichan’s title track to her recent release, The Lost Summer (Adhyâropa Records), and you’ll suddenly realize you’re moving. In fact, you’ve been moving since Conor Hearn’s guitar and Bichan’s fiddle first lured you into the tune. The music seems a study in delight. A sparkling, clear-eyed energy sweeps through it nimbly with moments of coy rhythmic playfulness. What fun, you think.
So you might be surprised to discover this tune was written in 2020 (ah, that lost summer) and inspired by Bichan’s distress at being unable to return home to Orkney—a group of islands off the northeast tip of Scotland—where she grew up.Support the show
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This story was written by David Templeton for the May-June 2024 issue of Strings magazine and is read by editor Megan Westberg.
It’s shaping up to be a major milestone year for violinist Philippe Quint. The Russian-born musician turned 50 in March, right around the time he celebrated the 30th anniversary of his professional United States debut. More than 33 years after defecting to the United States from Leningrad, the two-time Grammy nominee has given hundreds of live performances and produced more than 15 albums, including the acclaimed Chaplin’s Smile (2019) and Korngold: Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 (2009).
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This story was written by Thomas May for the May-June 2024 issue of Strings magazine and is read by editor Megan Westberg.
Nature sings in the work of countless composers in the Western classical tradition. The calls and flutterings of birds, spine-tingling thunder, falling raindrops: Vivaldi transformed a repertoire of found sounds from the natural world into some of the most memorable moments in The Four Seasons. But growing awareness that humanity’s relationship with nature has gone astray in the wake of the Industrial Revolution and modern capitalism could already be discerned long before we started becoming accustomed to unrelenting news of environmental catastrophe.Support the show
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This story was written by Megan Westberg for the March-April 2024 issue of Strings magazine and is read by the author.
Venice isn’t a place easily rendered. It is a place where imagination and reality blend, and not always harmoniously, where the past and present sit side by side. And to a certain extent, Kobekina wanted to represent Venice as it is and was, but she wasn’t particularly interested in approaching that idea in a literal way.Support the show
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This story was written by David Templeton for the March-April 2024 issue of Strings magazine and is read by Megan Westberg, Editor.
“I would try to figure out which composer it was all on my own,” Grammy-nominated violinist-composer Curtis Stewart says, speaking from his apartment in New York. “But the real reason I would do that, close my ears when the DJ was talking, is that I’d realized, early on, that knowing ahead of time if I was listening to Tchaikovsky or Bach or whoever would change how I listened to it. It changes the feeling you have. It changes the sense of exploration.”Support the show
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This story was written by Scott Flavin for the March-April 2024 issue of Strings magazine and is read by the author.
How important is your relationship with your grandparents? Has it influenced who you are or your life’s path? What if you hardly knew or never met them?Support the show
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This story was written by Greg Cahill for the March-April 2024 issue of Strings magazine and is read by editor Megan Westberg.
“I love that film and soundtrack music aren’t limited by preconceptions or genres,” says cellist, composer, software developer, and entrepreneur Tina Guo, 38, whose extensive film work includes the 2022 Academy Award–winning soundtrack to Dune. “Anything goes, and experimentation or seeking to always do something new is so wonderful and so exhilarating—depending on the project, anything from classical to electronic to heavy metal to country to new age to tribal to jazz. Literally anything. People used to tell me that I should ‘stick with one genre,’ but this is the perfect playground for me to release all of my creative energy.”Support the show
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This story was written by Megan Westberg for the January-February 2024 issue of Strings magazine and is read by the author.
The first thing you have to understand about the bowed psaltery is that it takes the shape of a triangle. A rather acute isosceles triangle, in fact, strung elegantly with a minimum of 32 strings that sing with bright silvery voices...Support the show
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This story was written by Maddie Denton for the November-December 2023 issue of Strings magazine and is read by the author.
"I’m excited about this tune because I think it’s danceable, which is ultimately my goal anytime I play a fiddle tune."
In the latest submission to our popular On My Music Stand column, fiddler and recording artist Maddie Denton discusses "Jenna McGaugh."Support the show
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This story was written by Megan Westberg and is read by the author.
“I was, of course, like many people, struck by her eloquence, her incredible aura, and also by her poem,” says Vogler. “I started reading more of her poetry and also some articles she wrote, and then at some point, I thought, ‘Wouldn’t she be the most fantastic contemporary answer in poetry to Bach’s music?’”Support the show
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This story was written by Megan Westberg for the November-December 2023 issue of Strings magazine and is read by the author.
From music to video production to marketing to merchandising, the Absinthe project has been a personal, local affair. “One of the goals of Absinthe is that I hope it will inspire other classical musicians to maybe think outside the box, take risks, do something creative that maybe you’re thinking of doing. It’s OK to combine interests. It doesn’t dilute you as a player in any fashion, I think,” Hersh says.Support the show
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This story was written by Megan Westberg for the November-December 2023 issue of Strings magazine and is read by the author.
Through its repertoire choices and general performing ethos, the Kaleidoscope Chamber Ensemble is hoping audiences have a great time. “Joy! Enthusiasm! Pieces that people haven’t heard a million times!” says Urioste of what she’s excited to share. “We hope that young people, people who love clapping between movements and tapping their feet to the beat, people who have never been to a classical concert before, people who have been to countless classical concerts before but want to hear something they maybe haven’t heard before and smile because our energy is contagious will come to share the music with us!”Support the show
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This story was written by Cliff Hall for the November-December 2023 issue of Strings magazine and is read by Megan Westberg, Editor.
Way up in the Northwoods of Wisconsin on the shores of Pickerel Lake is a small cadre of cabins on about 14 acres of bucolic land. Named “Fiddle Sticks,” this compact compound was the birthplace of some of the most valuable American violins ever built. But the output of those violins depended entirely upon how the fish ran.Support the show
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Editor Megan Westberg shares highlights from the latest issue of Strings magazine and gives a behind-the-scenes look at how and why we started this Strings Stories project.
Get your copy of the November-December 2023 issue here. It's available in both print and digital editions. And, to be sure you never miss a new issue, why not subscribe? Strings Stories listeners get a special deal.Support the show
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This story was written by Brian Wise for the September-October 2023 issue of Strings magazine and is read by Megan Westberg, Editor.
Aleksey Igudesman, the violinist half of comedy duo Igudesman & Joo, is no fan of the ritualized behaviors of classical performance. “Let’s be honest—the whole situation is ridiculous,” he says. “If aliens came down and went into the concert hall, they’d see people walking out dressed like penguins. People bow solemnly and don’t speak. All these weird rituals and self-righteous looks. The music they would get—the music is passionate, funny, fun, diverse. But the whole thing around it?”'Support the show
