Conversations with diverse musicians about their careers, personal stories and perspectives with violinist Leah Roseman

I am a professional violinist, a member of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada. I love to connect with violinists all around the world through my YouTube channel ViolinLessonOnline which features performance videos and lots of technique tips. My podcast follows my curiosity about fellow musicians: how did they get to where they are today, what are their currents projects, who do they collaborate with, what are their perspectives on a life in music? I know quite a few fellow musicians listen, and also people who are interested in different kinds of music, or just curious about people in the arts.

I love the podcast format, and I do listen to quite a few podcasts myself. I had started this as a video series in May 2021, but after I released the first episode, with Kirsty Money and her nyckelharpa (if you're wondering what that instrument is, then go listen to Episode 1 Season 1), I got a request to make it into a podcast as well. When I realized that I could easily release these interviews in both formats, I started doing that right away. I didn't have a plan; I kind of fell into it, and then found that I really enjoyed the whole process: the research and the conversations. Since we've all been quite isolated with the pandemic, it was an opportunity to have a special connection with colleagues and also my listeners. In Season 1 Ispoke with quite famous soloists like violinists James Ehnes and Kerson Leong, and also with erhu player Patty Chan and the Iranian composer Hooshyar Khayam about improvisation, the conductor Jack Everly about symphonic pops, carnatic violinist Subhadra Vijaykumar, multi-style violinist Gina Burgess, Klezmer violinist Alicia Svigals, trumpet player Karen Donnelly and so much more, with 20 full episodes, and many bonus episodes which mostly feature myself improvising with the guest. Season 2 has a similar diversity of guests, with many topics covered including personal struggles, the entrepreneurial aspects of the music business, advice on how to practice and how better to tap into creativity.

In Season 1 I released an episode weekly. Season 2 is starting with weekly releases, and then in the middle of the season I will release shorter bonus episodes and then continue with weekly full episode releases. I work long hours in order to be able to do all my projects as well as my regular work. However, because of the pandemic my regular job has been more part-time so I've been able to use that to devote to this project . One week in the summer I did 4 interviews and that was quite tiring, but rewarding!

For me at this point it's a really absorbing and meaningful hobby, but I plan to stay with it long-term, and hope eventually to be able to get some kind of support for this work. Because I am having long-form, meaningful conversations with all kinds of musicians, I am learning every day with this process.

I have only done one interview in person so far; the others have all been done over Zoom. I spend a long time preparing for each episode, usually spread out over several weeks. I use Final Cut Pro for editing, but at the beginning, I didn't do any editing at all. I have invited colleagues with whom I've worked for many years, or other people that I knew only slightly, and there have been a few "cold calls" that have resulted in some great connections. I'm quite interested in presenting a really interesting range of styles of music and personalities.

I have just started some social media (Facebook and Instagram) for the series, and a very small email list for my podcast newsletter. I have a breakdown on listener sources, with many listening on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, directly on my Anchor site, and most of the listeners at this point are the video version on YouTube.

I'm trying to do this in a different way; so far I don't even have an intro, we just start right in with the conversation. Quite a few guests agree to share music during the interview, which is great, and with several guests in Season 1 I actually played violin back-and-forth with them in some improvisations, which was very new to me and also quite new to a few of my guests, but we just went for it (these are mostly bonus episodes) and that's been kind of the spirit of this whole venture so far: just go for it, and follow what interests you. I'm definitely a newbie, and I can't suggest any resources at this point.

My webiste is more about me as a violinist and teacher, but I do link my podcast, and very soon I will be posting transcriptions of the episodes as well. : https://www.violinlesson.online/
My main podcast page is here: https://anchor.fm/leah-roseman
My Facebook page for the podcast: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100072528617887
Instagram for the podcast @conversations_with_musicians
On my website there's a banner with a link to my virtual tip jar, and I also have a Patreon which is focussed on my violin outreach: https://www.patreon.com/ViolinLessonOnline