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This podcast continues my conversation with two remarkable and thoughtful musicians. It also explores how the principles of abstract geometry can inform both the composition and performance of violin music and how different cultures and musical traditions can enrich the experience of music and of life itself.

Purnaprajna Bangere is both a brilliant mathematician and a highly-respected violinist trained in the classical violin music of southern India. David Balakrishnan is a violinist, composer, and member of the Turtle Island String Quartet who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2017, David spent several months as an artist-in-residence working with Purna in Lawrence, Kansas, home of the University of Kansas. This interview explores their unique musical collaboration that weaves together the classical violin music traditions of southern India with that of Europe and the United States.   

Bashar Matti was born in Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War and endured the troubled times of the Kuwait-Iraq War and subsequent United States invasion of his country. Through it all he clung to his love of the violin and music and was eventually able to come to the United States where he studied violin with Kathryn Lucktenberg at the University of Oregon. 

Amanda Forsyth is a cellist who was born in South Africa and grew up in Canada. Her father was a composer who inspired her to become a musician. She is married to the violinist Pinchas Zukerman and I interviewed her after a concert she performed with her husband and the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra.

Daniel Rouslin taught violin and music theater at Willamette University for many years. He was teaching there in 1988 when an early 18th century Italian violin was discovered hidden under the floor boards of Waller Hall, the oldest building on the campus of the oldest institution of higher learning west of the Mississippi River. How did violin get there? Who made the violin? What should the school do with such a unique and valuable violin? Dan tells the story of the remarkable discovery and also shares his own story as a musician and music educator. 

Grammy and MacArthur award winner Rhiannon Giddens grew up in North Carolina near the city of Greensboro, which is where I interviewed her in 2015 while she was performing at the National Folk Festival. A founding member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, she was trained as an opera singer before her passion for the banjo, fiddle, and folk songs took hold. She has done much to educate the public, as well as fellow musicians, about the contribution African-American musicians have made to the traditional folk music of United States. 

This is part two of my conversation with violinist John Sherba who is a member of the Kronos Quartet. In this podcast he talks about some of the quartet's innovative musical projects as well as talking about his own violins.

John Sherba is a violinist and member of the legendary Kronos Quartet. I interviewed John several months after the Covid 19 pandemic changed everyone's life. Here he talks about his family and his own musical journey.

Tony Ellis' first professional job as a musician was playing banjo for Bill Monroe, considered by many as the father of bluegrass music. Along with being a gifted banjo player and fiddler, Tony also composes some of the sweetest tunes this side of paradise. And if you need your fiddle adjusted or maybe you're in the market for a new instrument, stop by Tony's shop in Circleville, Ohio. This interview was recorded in 2018 at the Fraley Family Music Festival that is held each year at Carter Caves State Park in the hill country of eastern Kentucky.

This is part two of my conversation with violin maker Marco Imer Piccinotti who lives in the town of San Polo d'Enza in Northern Italy.

Marco Imer Piccinotti is a highly-regarded violin maker living in the town of San Polo d'Enza in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. Paula and I visited Marco at his home where I recorded this interview.

This is part two of my fascinating interview with violinist and music educator Christian Howes. 

Christian Howes is a gifted violinist who grew up in Ohio playing classical music, soloing with the Columbus Symphony at the age of sixteen. But then his life was turned upside down when he was sentenced to served four years in prison. I traveled to Asheville, North Carolina, in 2016 to ask Christ to share his remarkable story with us. This is part one of that conversation.

I recorded this hour-long interview with violin maker Mark Keenan in 2017 when my wife Paula and I traveled to Ireland. Mark's studio is inside the historic Belmont industrial flour mill in Co. Offaly. Mark's grandfather was also a violin maker at the beginning of the twentieth century in Dublin. 

Here is part two on my conversation with old-time musician Jody Stecher that ranges from music theory, what's in tune and what's not in tune when playing different fiddle tunes for instance, to the intricacies of an old ballad about two sisters who fall in love with the same young man with the refrain, "Oh the Dreadful Wind and Rain." Jody also shares his history with different violins he's owned over the years.

Jody Stecher is one of the most highly respected folk musicians in the world today. His knowledge of the genre is encyclopedic and his singing and skill on a variety of traditional string instruments is unrivaled. I interviewed Jody at his home in San Francisco in 2017. This is part one of that conversation.  

While attending the National Folk Festival in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 2015, I had the opportunity to interview fiddler Courtney Granger who was performing at the festival with the Pine Leaf Boys. Sadly, Courtney passed away recently and I wanted to share this interview with others. He was a talented musician and a lovely human being. He will be missed.

Clay Buckner is an old-time and Celtic fiddler living in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. For many years, Clay has been the fiddler for one of my favorite string bands, the Red Clay Ramblers. I recorded this interview at his home after which we spent a pleasant evening playing tunes together.

Michael Certalic is a violinist who lives in Bozeman, Montana, where he heads up the strings program at a local high school. In this podcast, he tells the story of a violin he asked a luthier to make that would contain elements of Montana, a state he dearly loves and that serves as the source of his inspiration as a musician and teacher.

I interviewed James Kelly at the National Folklore Festival in 2015 in Greensboro, North Carolina. Mr. Kelly was born and grew up in Ireland and is now living in the United States. His father was the renowned fiddle and concertina player John Kelly. James talks about growing up in a musical family and how traditional Irish music moved from Ireland to America and back again to Ireland thanks to a series of recordings made in the early years of the twentieth century.