Mei-Ann Chen World Music Foundation Podcast | Season 1, Episode 11 "Conducting is being the music." About this Episode Praised for her dynamic, passionate conducting style, Taiwanese-American conductor Mei-Ann Chen is acclaimed for infusing orchestras with energy, enthusiasm and high-level music-making, galvanizing audiences and communities alike. In our conversation we follow her musical evolution from shy violin player in her birth country, Taiwan, to dynamic, trailblazing, internationally sought-after conductor. Mei-Ann also shares the inspirational interaction with Martin Luther King that inspired the creation of the MacArthur Award-winning, Chicago Sinfonietta, the nations most diverse orchestra, of [...]

Mile of Music Festival World Music Foundation Podcast | Season 1, Episode 10 "Everybody can feel music...." About this Episode Last week, we spoke with Brian & Leila Pertl, and members of the Music Education Team, who have helped design the Mile of Music Festival, especially the cultural education components. This week, we’re speaking with the teaching-musicians themselves to learn about Afro-Cuban Drumming, Mariachi, Ghanaian Drumming, and Native American Flute. We attended a few sessions ourselves during the festival and spoke with these artists afterwards. (Intro Music Plays) John Gardner: Hello, hello, [...]

Mile of Music Festival World Music Foundation Podcast | Season 1, Episode 9 "Music is a birthright." About this Episode We were delighted to discover the Mile Of Music Festival, which curates international music workshops alongside concerts of Americana and Folk music. Several of the Americana acts were imported nationwide and even internationally, but all of the international music is taught by people from within their small Appleton community. So which music is ‘local’?? We attended this 3 day festival, attended the workshops and spoke with the organizers to fully understand the blurring of this [...]

Jess Sah Bi & Peter One World Music Foundation Podcast | Season 1, Episode 8 "It made a different touch on people’s hearts." About this Episode Jess Sah Bi & Peter One, musicians from Côte d'Ivoire in West Africa, recall hearing the harmonies and guitars of Simon and Garfunkel and Cat Stevens for the first time and how that impacted their music from that point onward. In our conversation they take us through the creation of their landmark African-Country-Folk inspired album Our Garden Needs Its Flowers from their initial search for a producer to now [...]

Pamyua World Music Foundation Podcast | Season 1, Episode 7 "We’re doing this to save our lives." About this Episode Pamyua’s musical footprint, spanning two decades and several countries, is a testament to the ongoing vibrancy of Inuit music, the group members, and their unique heritage. Brothers Phillip and Stephen Blanchett speak from the heart on issues of identity, culture and music expressed through Pamyua (pronounced bum-yo-ah) with collaborators Ossie Kairaiuak and Karina Moeller. They are preservers of an amazing musical tradition that is still alive but has historically been marked for extinction and continues [...]

Zeshan Bagewadi World Music Foundation Podcast | Season 1, Episode 6 "It’s all laid out there; it’s your soul." About this Episode Chicago’s own Zeshan B’s fearlessness as an individual translates into music that knows no boundaries and takes from a wider range of influences than we may be used to hearing in one musician’s discography. In 2017 he released Vetted, his debut album, to critical acclaim. He made his national TV debut that same year on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. Since then he’s been touring and preparing for his next release. We [...]