The Arts Salon

The news of the closure of the American Youth Symphony has sent shockwaves through the music community, especially in Los Angeles. AYS was not just another youth music program; it was a vital stepping stone for many musicians, offering a gateway into the competitive Los Angeles freelance scene. Alumni of AYS have gone on to become prominent figures in the classical music world, shaping the landscape of the industry.

The closure of AYS raises questions about the state of the classical music sector as a whole. Small non-profits like AYS often serve as the canaries in the coal mine, sensing industry challenges before larger institutions. Issues such as audience decline, shrinking patronage, and changing philanthropic priorities have plagued AYS and larger organizations alike.

While the loss of AYS is deeply felt, it also serves as a wake-up call for the classical music community. Moving forward, the industry needs to adapt and innovate, embracing new strategies to ensure its survival and relevance in the 21st century.

I talked to Chris Smith (SDSO) about the discipline required to succeed in the music industry and confronting hard truths.

Aubre Hill is an international dance artist, choreographer, somatic teacher, and event producer. The artistic director of the Qabila Folkdance Company, Lumina Dance Co, and Beyajja Dance Theatre as well as a prolific performer, Aubre is known for her diverse stylings rooted in cultural understand and pushing the boundaries of expectations with innovation. With over twenty years of teaching experience, her classes, private training, and workshops are highly valued for their inclusion, rigor, and well rounded approach. A quintessential artist in everything she does…welcome to the journey!

Aaron Smith is a freelance trumpet player based in Los Angeles, CA. He also writes, arranges, and publishes music through his small business, TrumpetSmith Publishing (ASCAP).

As a freelance artist, Smith performs for live orchestral events, musical theatre, big band, motion pictures, television, and video games which have included ABC, BroadwayHD, Disney+, E3, Fathom Events, the Game Awards, Microsoft, PBS’ Live from Lincoln Center, Riot Games, Spike, Touchstone Pictures, Universal, and Warner Brothers. He has appeared on Dancing with the Stars, Disney’s Encore!, Ellen, the LATE LATE Show, and The Voice. Ensemble appearances include the Hollywood Studio Symphony, John Daversa Progressive Big Band, LA Jazz Society All-Star Big Band, LADY GAGA Big Band, MUSE/IQUE, New West Symphony, the Industry, the OSCARS Governor’s Ball Orchestra, Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, Santa Barbara Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Southeast Symphony, Southwest Chamber Music, Tucson Symphony, and wasteLAnd. In the LA theater world, Smith performs regularly at the Hollywood Pantages, Dolby, and La Mirada Theaters. He was invited as a guest solo artist to the International Trumpet Guild in 2006 and again as a member of the Hollywood Epic Brass in 2016.

Smith enjoys outreach work, private teaching, composing, and arranging. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the California Institute of the Arts and a Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music where he studied with James Thompson. He is also a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy.

Welcome, my name is Nico Bejarano, and this is the Arts Salon. You were just listening to the latest musical project from today’s guests, my friends and mentors, Persian musicians Pirayeh Pourafar and Houman Pourmhedi. This composition was made in support of the protesters in Iran whose chants Women, life, liberty with alternations of death to the dictator have been heard across Iran for many months now.

As is now routine in these cases, there has been a sleuth of unpalatable commentary from so-called foreign-affairs analysts—who have travelled little and know less—attempting to dissect the reasons for the latest protests in Iran. As common sense is so lacking amongst this ilk, let us not lose track of what our eyes see clearly and our ears are hearing thanks to the wonders of mobile phones and the internet. Be cautious now, and remember that in 2021 as the Cuban streets erupted in protests, the Biden administration assured us that despite the chanting Cuba Libre and Patria y Vida we should believe that the people of Cuba were actually protesting the lack of effective vaccination on the Island. I once again share the words of Orwell, “One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool.” Trust your eyes and ears: just as the people of Cuba were not chanting more vaccines, or covid relief, but instead Free Cuba and Nation and Life; Iranians now are being clear in their frustrations by chanting Women, life, Liberty! And Death to the dictator!

Today is a real treat for me, because Gustav is one of my best friends and one of the best people I know. Gustav Melander is regarded as one of Europe’s most talented young trumpet players. Having studied with Bo Nilsson and Prof. Håkan Hardenberger at the Malmö Academy of Music, since graduating, Gustav has gone on to become one of the most in demand players.

Currently the tenured Co-principal Trumpet of the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Gustav also regularly features with other Scandinavian Orchestras such as the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra.

As a soloist, Melander performs regularly and has made notable solo appearances making his debut in 2014 with the Malmö Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra and in December 2016 performed Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra.

Passionate about education, Melander has a number of students and has been a trumpet teacher at the Malmö Academy of Music since 2015.

Today’s guest is my good friend Jerome Burns. For those of you who might not know Jerome, he is that crazy trumpet player that has been posting his insane transcriptions for the trumpet of Meshuggah guitar solos. Jerome is a graduate of the Manhattan School of music where he studied under Mark Gould, and is also a specialist on the music of Karheilnz Stockhausen, having completed the Master’s Degree in Aus Licht under the tutelage of Marco Blaauw in Holland. This episode deals with many subjects most notably “student” mentality and its trappings, and the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen. This episode was recorded over a year ago, so some of the talk might seem dated.

I wanted to have Jerome on because he was successful at something that the vast majority of people in the professional classical music sphere failed to do: create meaningful and unique online musical content during the COVID lockdowns. While even lauded professionals were posting lackluster videos of themselves playing orchestral excerpts and warmups, Jerome delighted us all every Monday with his fiendishly difficult and profound renditions of metal music transcriptions. By doing this, in my mind, he joined the ranks of other artists like Håkan Hardenberger, Wynton Marsalis, Dan Rosenboom, Peter Evans, Stephanie Richards, and a selected few more who offered listeners something worth their attention.

I eagerly await what is next from Jerome, when he finally puts all he has learned in the last two years into a practical setting, you will surely see me purchasing the first ticket.

Jan Swafford's music has been played around the country and abroad by ensembles including the symphonies of St. Louis, Indianapolis, and the Dutch Radio; Boston's new-music groups Musica Viva, Collage, and Dinosaur Annex; and chamber ensembles including the Peabody Trio, the Chamber Orchestra of Tennessee, and the Scott Chamber Players of Indianapolis.

Over the years his music has evolved steadily, but in all its avatars his work is forthrightly expressive, individual in voice, and steadily concerned with lucidity of texture and form. Beneath the surface there are contributions from world music, especially Indian and Balinese, and from jazz and blues. The titles of his works—including Landscape with Traveler, From the Shadow of the Mountain, and The Silence at Yuma Point—reveal a steady inspiration from nature. The composer views his work as a kind of classicism: a concern with clarity and directness, pieces that seem familiar though they are new, that aspire to sound like they wrote themselves.

Also a well-known writer on music, Swafford is author of biographies of Ives, Brahms, and Beethoven. His journalism appears regularly in Slate. He is a long-time program writer and preconcert lecturer for the Boston Symphony and has written program notes and essays for the orchestras of Cleveland, Chicago, San Francisco, and Toronto.

We discuss his article on AI and music The Intelligence of Bodies: https://van-magazine.com/mag/jan-swafford-beethoven-x/

Anthony Plog has had a rich and varied international career in music—as a composer of operas, symphonic music, and chamber works; as an orchestral musician, soloist, and recording artist; and as a brass teacher and coach at some of the great music conservatories internationally and now online to students around the world.

It was a great gift to re-visit my conversation with Tony as I return to bringing my thought to a broader audience. These last months have been spent deep in books, deep in the study of the economics of art, and immersed in the writings of anyone who has asked the question “whither art?”

Today’s guest is Arturo Sandoval. I will read a short bio taken from his website. Arturo Sandoval is one of the most dynamic and vivacious live performers of our time, and has been seen by millions at the Oscars, at the Grammy Awards, and the Billboard Awards. Arturo Sandoval reaches beyond the scope of mere effort. His struggles while in Cuba and since his defection have given him more energy and strength, urging him to accomplish and surpass his childhood dreams. Filled with a virtuoso capability, he desires nothing more than to share his gift with others who feel the same intense adoration for music as he does. One frequently speaks of Arturo Sandoval’s virtuoso technical ability or his specialty in high notes, but he who has seen him on the piano, lyrically improvising a ballad, or has had the opportunity to enjoy the diversity of his music, through his compositions from the most straight-ahead jazz, Latin jazz or classical, knows that Arturo Sandoval is a prominent musician, and one recognizes that Arturo is one of the most brilliant, multifaceted and renowned musicians of our time.

Trent is the owner of the successful retailer Austin Custom Brass, and I could not think of a better way to start 2022 and tell you to prepare for another difficult year, than by having my friend Trent Austin talk about his success in another avenue in the arts. A common narrative we heard during the beginning of this pandemic was that we would soon experience a glorious roaring twenties in our era. The idea was that as the pandemic ended people around the world would be out everywhere spending money and attending events. But I have to tell you this Gatsby dream is not coming anytime soon. As this year sets in, inflation will continue to rise, and the Federal Reserve will end its pandemic support, and last I checked the Federal Government is still talking of more ways to restrict movement and gathering in increasingly meaningless and surreal ways. I am not here to tell you the situation is hopeless, but I am here to say: look around you, there are other ways to put food on the table without even leaving your industry. Furthermore. I will say this: only you can control your life desires and ambitions, and anyone who would judge your need to put food on your table and pay your rent is not a good friend or mentor. We’re not “all in this together,” it’s time for everyone to analyze what is important to them, and not try to fulfill the desires of the principal trumpet of their local orchestras (unless they are paying your rent).

Austin Custom Brass: https://www.austincustombrass.biz/

Today’s guest is my good friend Mauricio Rodriguez. You may remember Mauricio from my three-part conversation about Colombia some months back. He is one of my dearest and oldest friends, and we share a passion for history and reason. He has a background in international relations, and has worked for many NGOs as well as private industry.

This discussion is a lot about the history of Latin America, and particularly the absurd nature of how many people have been taught to look back in time as moralistic crusaders. The reason this is a relevant topic in the arts, is because the perceived injuries that this generation believes they have suffered is fueling a whole group of people with very distorted grievances, making art and questioning institutions in a way that makes little sense in the long arc of history.

Further Reading: https://www.amazon.com/Unpopular-Essays-Routledge-Classics-27/dp/0415473705/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=unpopular+essays+bertrand+russell&qid=1641510426&sprefix=unpopular+essays%2Caps%2C222&sr=8-1 

Belgian trumpeter Jeroen Berwaerts is a paramount musical force with an all-inclusive love for music that knows not how to discriminate. Praised for his outstanding technical capabilities and sensitive musicality, his repertoire encompasses every epoch, from baroque music to contemporary music to jazz. With a flourishing solo career of recitals as well as concerts with the world's leading symphony orchestras, Jeroen Berwaerts still finds time to devote himself to chamber music.

Born in 1975, Jeroen Berwaerts' musical talents had already been awarded with prizes from various competitions such as the Concours Maurice André (1991) and Concours Européen de Jeunes Trompettistes (1992) when he began studies in Karlsruhe with celebrated trumpet-virtuoso Reinhold Friedrich. He was also an award-winner at the Prague Spring International Music Competition in 1997 and won the 2nd grand prize as well as the "Prix Feeling" (a special prize for best interpretation) at the Maurice André Trumpet Competition.

Jeroen Berwaerts' open-mindedness and resplendent playing have brought him invitations to play at internationally acclaimed music festivals, including Ars Musica in Belgium, Takefu International Music Festival and the Rheingau Music Festival, as well as frequently at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival where in 2005 he performed the world premiere of Toshio Hosokawa's Voyage VII for trumpet and ensemble. He has also performed as a soloist with many well-renowned orchestras including the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra, Munich Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Symphony Orchestra, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hanover and the Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen under conductors such as Alan Gilbert and Yakov Kreizberg. Since winning the position of Principal Trumpet of the NDR Radio Symphony Hamburg in 1999, he has been invited to appear on several occasions as soloist with the orchestra.

Following many years as a member of the Canadian Brass, Jeroen Berwaerts now plays with the Stockholm Chamber Brass. Over thirty compositions have been written for the ensemble, which performs mostly original compositions or arrangements of both contemporary and more traditional repertoire.

Amidst his burgeoning trumpet career, Jeroen Berwaerts completed Jazz vocal studies at the Royal Conservatory of Ghent. He has developed several programs for trumpet and piano where he uniquely combines classical, jazz, trumpet and voice.

His first solo CD In the Limelight provides a stunning take on trumpet repertoire of the Romantic period. RCA also released a live-CD featuring the Posthornserenade by Mozart under the baton of Günther Wand. Since 2008, Jeroen Berwaerts has been a Professor of Trumpet at the Hochschule für Musik in Hanover.

Jeroen Berwaerts is Yamaha Artist.

Today’s guest is Joseph Horowitz. Joseph is without a doubt one of the most influential thinkers in classical music in the world. His work should be a staple of any modern musician’s library. I wish to thank him for his time and generosity, it was a pleasure getting to know him during the couple of hours we spent chatting.

In our conversation we discuss his upcoming book Dvorak’s Prophecy and the Vexed Fate of Black Classical Music, as well as the NPR documentary he produced and is linked to in the description of this podcast. I hope you will all listen to it and enjoy his incredible scholarly work. In dealing with this subject, we land in many places, including cultural appropriation, academic work, the orchestral world’s inability to innovate, migration patterns and music, and many more subject. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Joseph Horowitz, and are encouraged to go and find his brilliant work, it will help most re-define their understanding of musical scholarship and passion.

Links: 

https://www.artsjournal.com/uq/2020/12/an-act-of-empathy-a-dvorak-radio-documentary.html

https://the1a.org/segments/new-world-symphony-dvorak/

In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain, and consequently no culture of the earth, no navigation, no use of the commodities that may be imported by sea, no commodious building, no instrument of moving and removing such things as require much force, no knowledge of the face of the earth, no account of time, no arts, no letters, no society; and, which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

(Hobbes, Leviathan, Part I. Ch. XII)

Homo homini lupus

Cuba Libre, is a simple and refreshing cocktail made of rum, cola, and lime. Its name has interesting origins, as the cocktail came into vogue when Cubans were seeking independence from Spain, and a concoction or rum or aguardiente, honey or molasses, and water, gained popularity with the Cuban and American soldiers who battled the last bastion of the weakened Spanish dominion in the Caribbean. This conflict would bring 400 years of Spanish presence in the Americans to a long overdue close. Today, more than 120 years later, Cubans are still not free, and though the yolk is now homegrown, the evisceration of this historically prosperous island should be a cause of pain to anyone with commitment to human liberty and progress.

Todays guest, Joshua Banbury & Kevin Sherwin are on to talk about their recently release EP, Forgotten Folklore. We talk about the project, folk music, performance practice and other subjects. 

Check out the project here: http://kevinsherwin.com/forgotten-folklore/ 

Check out Joshua: https://www.joshuabanbury.com/forgotten-folklore

Today’s guest is Christine Chapman, an eclectic American horn player, and a member of the innovative and explosive Ensemble Musikfabrik. I will read her bio now for those listeners who might not be familiar with her work.

Raised in the coastline woods of western Michigan, Christine Chapman has traveled far and wide to pursue her passion for music. In 1990, after finishing her musical studies at the University of Michigan and Indiana University, she broke out of the rural heartland of America for an orchestra job on the still fresh border between East and West Germany. The desire to gain a bit of work experience before returning to the States has since turned into a quarter of a century of exploration and adventure.

As a member of Ensemble Musikfabrik, Christine Chapman has had the opportunity to collaborate directly with many of today's greatest composers, premiering and performing works by Karlheinz Stockhausen, Wolfgang Rihm, Peter Eötvös, Rebecca Saunders and Georg Friedrich Haas, among others. The experience of performing "outside of the box", such as with the music of Harry Partch, La Monte Young, Sun Ra, or Mouse on Mars, is the main impetus of her work.

"Trying to see through the technicalities of playing to bring out the soul of the music; that is what's so exciting for me.”

Today’s guest is Charlie Schlueter. It was a pleasure getting to know Charlie over this talk. I applied to be his student at NEC after high school, but eventually ended up getting second-hand smoke from his old student Russell Devuyst. I was interested in having him on the podcast for this reason, but also to gain some more insight into the earlier career of my hero, Thomas Stevens.

Charlie and I talk at length about his interests in music making, and some of the growing trends in the trumpet community that have shifted this artistic profession into glorified acrobatics. This is a long conversation so I will keep this introduction short. Charlie and I will likely have a follow-up conversation soon to cover his fantastic new book, which I am currently finishing. I encourage everyone to pick up a copy.

Buy Charlie's Book here: https://www.amazon.com/Indirection-Becoming-Musician-Trumpet-Conceptual/dp/1736229214/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=charles+schlueter&qid=1624422646&sr=8-1

Today’s Guest is Brian McWhorter. I first met Brian many years ago when he first made an appearance on the faculty at Chosen Vale International Trumpet Seminar. He made an impression then, and I was very taken by his thoughtful approach to art making and willingness to question the trajectory of the arts.

Brian has been an invaluable critic of music education and conservatory curricula. This discussion touches on many of these subjects, and while we may disagree on the degree to which the patriarchy is even real, we share a concern for the future of the arts, when its proponents seem to be so intent on removing all creativity from the equation in arts education. I hope this will be the first of many discussions with Brian, whose insights I value so greatly. I hope you enjoy this brief discussion in anticipation of more to come.

Today’s Guest is Ben Neill. I first met Ben when I got the opportunity to perform LaMonte Young’s The Melodic Version of The Second Dream of The High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer from The Four Dreams of China with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for their Fluxus Festival. Ben is a truly unique thinker, and I must admit this conversation is amongst my favorite not just on this podcast, but in my life in general.

As you will hear in this conversation, Ben and I both share a concern for some of the trends in arts and education, which are largely the product of a broad acceptance of Critical Theory and postmodern modes of thought in Western societies. Ben references many texts, but we share a love for Mario Vargas Llosa’s seminal essay Notes on the Death of Culture. For a comprehensive rundown on this why Critical Theory is so dangerous, I recommend you listen to my episode entitled The Case Against Latinx and Critical Theory. Critical Theory poses a real threat to civilization, but most humans continue to show their idiocy in believing that history is over, and that the Dark Ages have no way of returning, and their naïveté is evident in the assumption knowledge is safe from destruction thanks to Wikipedia.

Read More about Ben: https://benneill.com/

Further Reading: 

Vargas Llosa, Notes on the Death of Culture: https://www.amazon.com/Notes-Death-Culture-Spectacle-Society/dp/0374123047/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=mario+vargas+llosa+notes+towards&qid=1621321683&sr=8-1

T.S. Eliot, Notes Towards the Definition of Culture: https://www.amazon.com/Notes-Towards-Definition-Culture-Eliot/dp/0571063136/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=ts+eliot+notes&qid=1621321746&sr=8-2

Dreger, Galileo's Middle Finger: https://www.amazon.com/Galileos-Middle-Finger-Heretics-Activists/dp/0143108115/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3GLKCNA5UUFFS&dchild=1&keywords=galileos+middle+finger&qid=1621321777&sprefix=galileos+middel%2Caps%2C229&sr=8-1

Pluckrose, Lindsay, Cynical Theories: https://www.amazon.com/Cynical-Theories-Scholarship-Everything-Identity_and/dp/1634312023/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=cynical+theories&qid=1621321836&sr=8-1

1,956 Cases of Police Brutality, 313 victims of physical violence by the police, 40 victims of homicide (allegedly committed by the police), 1,003 arbitrary arrests, 418 violente interventions by the public force, 28 victims of injuries to their eyes, 129 cases of firearm shootings by the police, 12 cases of sexual assault by the public force.  

Just what IS and has been happening in Colombia?

1,956 Cases of Police Brutality, 313 victims of physical violence by the police, 40 victims of homicide (allegedly committed by the police), 1,003 arbitrary arrests, 418 violente interventions by the public force, 28 victims of injuries to their eyes, 129 cases of firearm shootings by the police, 12 cases of sexual assault by the public force.  

Just what IS and has been happening in Colombia?

1,956 Cases of Police Brutality, 313 victims of physical violence by the police, 40 victims of homicide (allegedly committed by the police), 1,003 arbitrary arrests, 418 violente interventions by the public force, 28 victims of injuries to their eyes, 129 cases of firearm shootings by the police, 12 cases of sexual assault by the public force.

Just what IS and has been happening in Colombia?

Our conversation today is—if I may be immodest—an accurate display of David’s eclectic biography. We talk about neuroscience and music, artificial intelligence and the future role of the artist, and the creative logic of artists.

David has been fascinating to me since I met him at CalArts, where he was the Dean of the Herb Alpert School of Music and ushered in a particularly bright period at the institution whose graduates are important members of innovative music communities from Los Angeles to Cologne, New York, and Paris. My interest in David has a lot to do with his serendipitous presence and connection to many important musical moments of the Avant Garde of the 20th Century (as he mentions in our talk, he has a personal connection to the Rite of Spring, Cage’s 4’33, and Riley’s In C, and I hope all the listeners will look up Rosenboom’s appearance on Tv with John Lennon and Yoko Ono explaining biofeedback).

I want to thank David for his many years of service to education and his dedication to my alma mater, CalArts. I am also grateful for his involving me in projects performing his music at REDCAT, and helping me delve into his music with the Carillon Quartet. He will be missed and leaves large shoes to fill. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

Today’s guest is Russ Devuyst, former Associate Principal trumpet of the Montreal Symphony, and current head of brass as my alma mater, McGill University. Russ was my undergraduate teacher; he was also my first teacher of such a caliber. Before him, I had never really spent an extended period of time sitting next to someone who could make the trumpet sound that way. The reality is that no matter how many hours I had spent listening to recordings, nothing can prepare you for hearing the real deal next to you. Marco Blaauw once told me that sound memory is in our bones, and that if one spends enough time playing with someone their sound is forever imprinted in our skeletons. While it has been many years since I have had the pleasure of sitting next to Russ, his sound lives very much in me, an always elusive target.

His sound also was a true reflection of his personality for me. Russ was always unafraid, and taught be the value of having an opinion on and off the stage. During my interview with Dave Taylor he said he always told his students to remember “safety last!” Russ embodies this to me in both his playing and his personality. While this has gained him many faint-hearted critics, nobody could ever accuse him of being boring; and much to his critics’ mortification, instrument manufacturers have yet to engineer a personality for anyone with a good credit score.

I’m really excited for today’s guest because he represents the first departure from the small sphere of influence of the music industry. Jose Maria Barrero is currently Assistant Professor of Finance at the Instituto Tecnológico Autonomo de Mexico, in the business school. This is one of the leading higher-education institutions of Mexico. To read more about Jose Maria and discover his work, visit: https://www.jmbarrero.com/ 

Today’s guest is Mike Sachs, principal trumpet of the Cleveland Orchestra. I want to thank Mike for his generosity, and for sitting with me for over 3 hours, despite the fact that we had never met. Mike and I share a common hero, Thomas Stevens. As some recurring listeners may recall, I dedicated this podcast to Stevens when I launched it. I miss Tom, and what he represented. His death has left a void in the trumpet community, which has continued its forward push into a type of teaching that favors technical prowess over musical integrity.

Mike and I speak at length about a number of topics including the importance of leaving school and entering the professional world, the European diaspora and the rise of American orchestras, the importance of history as a catalyst for cultivating enduring musical legacies, and many more subjects.

Today’s guest is Grammy nominee, Kristen Klehr. Kristen has been a friend of mine for some times, as forms part of my monthly dinner party, which had become a recurring event in the months leading up to the pandemic. At these parties I would host a group of Los Angeles musicians to spend an evening socializing away from the gig-economy “hang.” She is one of the hardest working people I have ever met, and also a brilliant entrepreneur.

She hit the ground running when the pandemic first hit, starting the Den Collective’s online platform for musicians even before the official closure of the Los Angeles scene. With her hawk vision, she saw by late February what most musicians would only come to terms with by the summer of 2020. The result is that she has not simple “made the best” out of the pandemic. She has employed musicians, enabled their livelihoods, and built something meaningful and functional, when so many others with colossal credentials are still panicking and hoping people’s hard paid taxes will bail the AFM’s local 47’s insanely mismanaged pension fund.

This is a special conversation to me, as Marco has been an important influence, and mentor for me throughout the last decade. Marco embodies all of the rarest qualities in the trumpet community, and like anything this rare, it makes Marco a huge asset to us all.

Marco taught me how to listen more deeply, to enjoy sound to its fullest, and to be grateful for the moments spent making music. He has also been an important influence to me in having the courage to be outspoken and fierce in defending the arts. In our time together he has always been generous and pulled no punches, often going for the jugular. In enduring his nudging, I have discovered more about myself than I could ever have imagined.

My guest today is Thomas Gansch. This has been so far one of my favorite conversations on The Arts Salon. Thomas is an incredibly generous man, and I was humbled by his openness. This conversation was a joy to listen back to and edit, it helped me bring to words, sentiments I have for years been espousing. We touch on many topics, but I want to briefly highlight the one that is most important to me.

In talking about the classical musical industry, Thomas correctly diagnosed many of its most salient issues. The stagnation art music, like all high arts, has been experiencing since the late 70s is largely the product of an over technification of its creative class. We’ve relinquished the role of the artist to the technocrats whose competence rarely opens the possibilities of human expression. We’ve designed curricula and value systems which doesn’t encourage creative decision making. In a community where everyone talks more about mistakes than achievements, the result is the breeding of self-deprecating performers, and audiences with no emotional investment.

I remember starting my sophomore year at McGill University, and meeting with Ed Carroll who told me there was a killer bass trombonist joining the class. “No Nico, this guy is something else,” said Ed.  By way of coincidence, we were paired up in a dreadful brass quartet, and from the atrociousness, was born one of my most cherished friendships. I look back often, but seldom wish to vividly relive the past; my weekly conversations with Felix, powered by our mutual love for music, coffee, literature, and philosophy, are one of those exceptions. I cherished them so, that I wish I could relive them all.

My guest today is Dave Bilger. Our conversations examines many subjects that are dear to my heart: revolution vs. evolution, the role of the educator, living a cultural life, cancel culture, and many more topics which I’m sure you will enjoy as much as I did. If you’re new to the Arts Salon, this might not be the conversation with Dave Bilger you expect, but probably the one you need to hear.

But before beginning I would like to talk about the events of last week, live in the US Capital, and the subsequent responses I am seeing. If you wish to skip the politics, feel free to do so by moving ahead into the conversation.

The 20th and 21st centuries have been a period of extreme progress in matters of human development. Technologically, we have advanced more in a century than in the previous millennia. Over the last 40 years the distances between nations have become negligible, and democratically rooted systems have taken hold of a majority of the world, where even until the 1950s, only a minority of nations had successfully implemented them for extended periods of time. Superstitions were receding at a commendable rate until the first decade of the 2000s, but the last 10 years have seen a strange regression in the perception of people regarding said progresses. The data clearly tells us one story, one of progress and improvement in nearly every facet of global wellbeing, and yet, the public intuition fueled by unhinged news sources and social media’s reactionary bias, feeds a more tragic outlook. The disparity between perceived reality, and a factual progressive world has led to many moments of unbearable stupidity, which are often shrugged off as “mere overcorrections.” One should not be so blasé about this, as any good doctor will tell you, overcorrections have dire results, and are no mere detail. When an immune system overcorrects it can often have calamitous consequences for a person. An over-zealous response can lead to death, and when not to death to something often more dire than the disease itself. It has been a strange decade leading up to the moment we’re in, and It seems nobody is safe from the tribunals of public opinion. One by one, we have seen important advances brought into question, civil liberties and freedoms decline, as these overcorrections move unopposed. Most people find these easy to ignore, and applaud them as signs of progress they claim to not understand themselves, until the inquisitors arrive at their doorsteps to threaten things they hold dear.