The Fidelio Podcast

Recording engineer and producer, Dirk Fischer, chats about his career with Marie over coffee in St. Truiden, Belgium, where they have just finished recording Brahms Clarinet Sonatas and Trio with historical instruments. Dirk talks about his role in the recording process, and how it is much more artistically crucial than most people think. The sound engineer (or 'Tonmeister', which is the revered German title - literally 'Sound Master') sits apart in an enclosed booth, but is really directing the artists, listening with highly-trained ears, and making many decisions of how the final recording is put together. Some think that the recording process is magic - that a recording can make any musician sound good. And others think that a recording is just like a live concert, played once in real-time. The reality is more of a grey area, although as Dirk says, "if you can't play it, I can't produce it." Dirk has a passion for recording sound - and for collaborating with artists creatively - to produce award-winning recordings. This passion has led him to work with the most prestigious labels early in his career, and eventually to found his own label, Solaire Records. “In many respects, [Solaire Records] is going back to the early days of recording, where labels had a much stronger and all-encompassing identity. We need to have every aspect of a release work together: the artist’s intentions, a long- and short-term concept, a stimulating choice of repertoire and a deep understanding of how the recording translates all of this.” Read more about Dirk Fischer: fischerdirk.com And about Solaire Records: solairerecords.com

Marie sat down with historical cellist, Claire-Lise Démettre, to talk about Romantic-period string playing and techniques. They discuss Claire-Lise's cello and set-up, what it feels like to play gut strings, portamento, different kinds of vibrato – and those special moments that don't require anything from the player, when the music is just beautiful enough on it’s own. You’ll hear excerpts from the Trio recording that begin the episode and are interspersed through the musical conversation. The Brahms Mini-Series corresponds to the recent release of a new CD of the Brahms Works for Clarinet and Piano with Marie Ross (clarinet), Petra Somlai (piano), and Claire-Lise Démettre (cello). It is available on the Centaur Records label (CRC 3760).

This episode is very personal. Marie plays some short examples of various tracks from the new historically informed Brahms recording and talks about the inspirations, stories, experiences, and influences behind each example. Brahms’ inspirations for works often included nature, occasions, and the players for whom he dedicated his music. In this episode, Marie talks about her own personal inspirations for the interpretation and ideas heard on the recording.

The Brahms Mini-Series corresponds to the recent release of a new CD of the Brahms Works for Clarinet and Piano with Marie Ross (clarinet), Petra Somlai (piano), and Claire-Lise Démettre (cello). It was released on the Centaur Records label (CRC 3760) on Nov. 15. In the first episode of her Brahms Mini-Series, Marie introduces some concepts of the historical performance practice of the Romantic era, in particular relating to Brahms' chamber music. She introduces the concept of the mini-series: to reveal of the stories, ideas, and background that you can't include in the liner notes! The new recording is available on Amazon worldwide. It is also in store and online at the New Zealand independent record stores, Marbecks and Flying Out.

Marie shares her experiences doing something she never thought she'd do: organize a composition contest. As an early music specialist, she was venturing into the foreign world of contemporary music while still new to the foreign country of New Zealand. As the University of Auckland prepares to host its third annual "Clarinet Weekend", Marie discusses the composition contest from last year: how it got started and the impact it has had on the New Zealand clarinet community. She talks about the 48 (!!) submissions to the contest last year, and about changes she's made to how the contest will be run this time around. We hear the new compositions for unaccompanied clarinet by first and second prize winners, Joshua Pearson, and Callum Mallett. Marie chats to Joshua about his work, Teine Sa, and how it is influenced by his Samoan heritage and the stories his mother used to tell him.

David Crowell is a member of the Philip Glass Ensemble, playing woodwinds, and is a genre-crossing composer in his own right, leading his own band, Empyrean Atlas. David plays guitars and saxophones in Empyrean Atlas, as well as writing the music, managing the band, and producing their 3 albums. His music has been said to be a mix of classical, jazz, pop, post-punk, African, ambient, and minimalism. David has played all over the world with the Philip Glass Ensemble, and chats to Marie about what it is like to play huge works such as Einstein on the Beach. We talk about how minimalism has influenced his own work, and a wide variety of other influences he has had during his studies at the Eastman School of Music and professional career. We hear four of David's compositions, including: Redwood, by Empyrean Atlas from the album, Empyrean Atlas Waiting in the Rain for Snow, performed by the Now Ensemble Hashimoto for Flute Trio, performed by Andrew Sterman Eye to Eye, by Empyrean Atlas from the album, Empyrean Atlas Hear more at: davidcrowellmusic.com

Posy Knight is a dancer, choreographer, actor, scenic designer, director, and arts educator. She studied dance at Juilliard, and later went on to study scenic design at the University of Connecticut before moving to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she lives now. Marie chats with her about all the threads of her artistic life, how they fit together, and how she uses her creativity to better her local community in Milwaukee. They discuss thinking and the philosophy behind a physical art form such as dance, how an artist can discover unexpected interests, making money in the arts, and Posy describes a few of the productions she has designed the scenery for. Posy Knight is the director of community programming and engagement at Danceworks, which brings the arts to people from all backgrounds in Milwaukee. She talks about her passion for arts education.

This is the second part of Marie's interview with clarinetist, Franklin Cohen. If you haven't heard Part 1 yet, you can start there! This episode is all about intimacy in relationships – between musicians, between a musician and the audience, and even between a musician and the music itself. It’s about growing up, knowing when and how to come into your own and to find your own voice as an artist. Marie chats with Frank about the Munich Competition, Leopold Stokowski, and Frank even gives some practice tips - which he manages to relate back to everything else about life. In this episode you'll hear Frank's recent live performances of the Beethoven Septet, the 2nd movement of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto, and the 2nd movement of the Brahms Clarinet Quintet (all performed at Frank's chamber music festival, ChamberFest Cleveland).

Marie talks with Franklin Cohen, Grammy award winning clarinetist and Principal Clarinet of the Cleveland Orchestra for 39 seasons. They chat about his experience auditioning (twice!) for the Cleveland Orchestra and Lorin Maazel, expressivity on an instrument, how to find your voice as an instrumentalist (or artist), performance anxiety and accepting yourself. We hear some samples of Frank's playing including the second movement of Peter Schickele's Quartet for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano, Messiaen's solo clarinet movement from The Quartet for the End of Time, "The Abyss of the Birds", and the third movement from Mozart's Clarinet Concerto KV 622. These are all live recordings made within the last few years. They can be found in their complete versions on YouTube or on Frank's website at: www.franklincohen.com

Marie talks about her journey moving across the world to New Zealand and from being a full-time performer to also including a teaching position at The University of Auckland. She chats about some of her own teachers and influences, and how it can be possible to teach creativity through music. As well as being the Lecturer of Clarinet at The University of Auckland, Marie also teaches historical clarinet as a secondary instrument to her students. She discusses what modern classical musicians with no ambitions of becoming historical performers can learn from these instruments.

Hip-hop artist and classical violinist, Miki Kekenj, joins the podcast to discuss the Concerto Köln education project, Speak!. For this project, the period-instrument orchestra, Concerto Köln combined to play the Mozart Requiem with the period-instrument youth orchestra, Jugendbarockorchester Rheinland, and the choir of the famous Cologne Cathedral, the Judgendchor am Kölner Dom. As well as playing the complete original piece, in between several movements, they also performed rap versions with classes of 8th grade students, taught and coached by Miki. He arranged the raps himself, while he taught the students to write the rap lyrics themselves. Miki taught these students about Mozart, the song-writing process, and bigger lessons of creativity and how to work together. We also talk about Miki’s musical life, which is split between what many people would think to be two opposite types of music. Miki is the concert master of the Bergische Symphoniker and discusses how he got into hip-hop as a teen, how these two types of music have shaped him into the musician he is today, and how he can use rap to bring a new audience to classical music.

Josh Salsbury was a trombonist in the freelance scene in LA. He had his own ensemble and was starting to play Hollywood blockbuster movie soundtracks when he decided to give up the trombone and pursue his new dream of woodworking. Josh now works full time designing and buliding custom furniture by hand. Josh talks very honestly and openly about his journey, and the inner doubts and struggles he battled with along the way to finally having the realization that being a musician just wasn’t for him. Luckily for Josh, his passion for woodworking fulfilled all the creative aspects of being a musician that he loved, while being a better fit for him as a profession overall. Josh talks about his experiences as a trombonist, and especially the incredible experience of playing the soundtrack for Spiderman 3. He chats with Marie about the LA freelance scene and what it’s like when you finally get called to play the big movie soundtracks. We also talk about Josh’s life now – how he considers making his customized and individual pieces of furniture as a creative art like music, and how interestingly enough, the same challenges he faced as a trombonist carried over into woodworking as well. Josh works as a freelance and independent furniture maker – but he also a member working at the Offerman woodshop, a workshop owned a run by the television actor, Nick Offerman.

In the second part of the interview with award-winning director, Mark Kirkland, he discusses his artistic life outside of his work for The Simpsons. He takes us inside his latest project, a silent film called The Moving Picture Company 1914. Mark wrote, directed, and produced the film (together with his wife, Letty), and shares his experiences of the film making process from the first conception of the idea through the final intricate editing and photography work that went into giving the film its silent era look. Mark is also a clarinetist, and recorded the soundtrack for the film together with composer and pianist, Greg Kellogg. Mark tells the story of how he became inspired to take up the clarinet as a teenager, what it was like to go back to it as an adult student years later - and ultimately how he got talked into recording the largely improvised clarinet part of the silent film soundtrack. Mark played period clarinets from the early jazz era and immersed himself in early jazz recordings to capture the sound of the time. He takes us through each instrument in his arsenal - from metal clarinets to sirens and slide whistles - and shares clips of his playing from the soundtrack. Mark talks about how he envisioned his clarinet playing becoming a part of the film characters. The website of The Moving Picture Company 1914 features further information about the film, photos and desciptions of Mark's cameras that can be seen in the film, and full articles that Mark has written for The American Society of Cinematographers. To see The Moving Picture Company 1914 for free online, send an email to Marie at fideliopodcast (at) marieross (dot) info. She will send you back a link and password to see the film!

In the second part of the interview with award-winning director, Mark Kirkland, he discusses his artistic life outside of his work for The Simpsons. He takes us inside his latest project, a silent film called The Moving Picture Company 1914. Mark wrote, directed, and produced the film (together with his wife, Letty), and shares his experiences of the film making process from the first conception of the idea through the final intricate editing and photography work that went into giving the...

Three-time Emmy award winning animation director for The Simpsons, Mark Kirkland, chats with Marie about all the aspects of his career as an artist: drawing, animation, directing, and comedy. He talks about his beginnings drawing with his father, the famous photographer, Douglas Kirkland. About his time as a student learning from legendary Disney animators who worked on films like Bambi, Snow White, and Fantasia. He talks about the start of his career at Hanna-Barbera and how that prepared him for becoming a director on The Simpsons, not long after the show started, while it was still in its first season. Mark shares a lot of what happens behind the scenes to create an episode of The Simpsons, how he sits in on table reads to create new characters, how he's taken acting classes to bring reality to his animations, how he inspires his team, and how he brought in his own instrument as a model for Lisa's saxophone!

Dubliners 100 is a collection of 15 short stories, just like James Joyce's original short story collection, Dubliners, but each one written by a contemporary Irish wirter. They are not re-written stories or modernizations of the original work, but editor Thomas Morris thought of the idea of making 15 "cover versions" like in pop music. Dubliners 100 was released on the 100th anniversary of the publishing of Joyce's Dubliners. While Joyce wrote about the everyday middle-class people of Dublin, the new stories reflect these people 100 years later and speaks to our time. Marie chats with Thomas Morris, the editor of Dubliners 100 about how he got the idea for the book and how the project got started. He talks about how he chose well-known contemporary Irish authors as well as up and coming emerging writers. Thomas discussed how these creative works of fiction have also become commentary and interpretation of the original Joyce. Authors contributing to the stories in Dubliners 100 are: Patrick McCabe, Mary Morrissy, John Boyne, Donal Ryan, Andrew Fox, Evelyn Conlon, Oona Frawley, John Kelly, Belinda McKeon, Michèle Forbes, Paul Murray, Eimear McBride, Elske Rahill, Sam Coll, Peter Murphy, and including an Introduction by Thomas Morris.

Marie speaks with her colleagues, specialists of historical performance, about their original wind instruments. They tell the stories of their favorite instruments - where and how they got them, and what they had to do to play it again today! German oboist, Peter Wuttke, talks about the English Horn by Carl Theodor Golde that was played in the orchestra in Weimar that Liszt was conducting. He tells us about how he used this instrument for a recording of the Liszt Dante Symphony. Italian clarinetist, Luigi Magistrelli, tells us the incredible story of his set of clarinets that he acquired from the legendary player, Dieter Klöcker, just before his death. We hear all about these instruments, their history, and Luigi's personal experience of playing them and recording his CD of Brahms chamber music with them. Argentinian historical trumpet player, Alejandro Sandler, chats with us about his cornet by Thibouville-Lamy which was owned by a student of Jean-Baptiste Arban. He plays the Carnival of Venice on this cornet and on the modern trumpet so you can hear the difference!

In this episode, Marie and her early music colleagues from the wind section share stories about one of their original historical instruments. These stories are not only about the instruments, but about the players who have found them, restored them, and perform on them today. In many cases, these were instruments that were covered in dust and grime and in various states of disrepair when they were found. To most musicians they would look like trash, or something to be made into a lamp - but to specailists in historical performance who know what to look for, sometimes these instruments are highly coveted. These musicians know how to clean them up and how to play these old instruments again to give them a new life. Marie shares the story of her early 20th century Oskar Oehler clarinet played in the Bayreuth Festspielorchester. Belgian horn player, Jeroen Billiet, talks about his 1847 Van Cauwelaert 3-valve horn with a "Belgian valve system". Adrian Rovatkay, German bassoonist, chats about his 1760 Schlegel early classical bassoon. And Michael Lynn, American historical flute specialist, tells us about his baroque Palanca flute!

Baritone, Peter Kálmán, and Marie Ross chat at the Salzburg Festival in part 2 of their interview. Peter discusses the opera characters that he creates on stage and how he gets his inspiration from real life experiences. Theater and acting in opera is about gestures that make up character traits and the slightest color or how an emotion plays through the voice, and Peter Kalman is a master of these qualities. On stage, Peter is like a fish in water. He got his education and training back stage, watching from the wings, learning by doing, experiencing in theater and in life. You’ll get a chance now to hear him talk about it. To see videos of some of the roles that Peter has created on stage, or to hear clips from his audio recordings, visit his website: peterkalman.com

Internationally renowned baritone, Peter Kálmán, joins the podcast from the Salzburg Festival where he was singing Schubert's opera, Fierrabras, with Ingo Metzmacher and the Vienna Philharmonic. Peter chats with Marie about how he came to opera through his love of acting and the theater. He is the bass-baritone of choice for Cecilia Bartoli – the one she insists on singing next to when she does an opera production or makes a recording. Peter has sung all over the world. He was a member of the Zurich Opera Company, and since then has been singing in all the biggest opera houses and most prestigious festivals – Paris, Vienna, Salzburg – just to name a few. He loves to play character roles – the buffo or the bösewicht – two common operatic characters, the comic relief or the villain. He talks with me about his favorite roles, life in the opera world today, and how he gets inspiration for characters through real life experiences – good or bad – and by simply watching people.