This is the edited video of the 9th interview of the series “A Coffee With…”. On this occasion my guest was the Taiwanese-American orchestra conductor Mei-Ann Chen. The original “Coffee with…” took place on Friday June 26th 2020 on my Facebook wall. It was simultaneously transmitted on Music Without Quarantine.
Mei-Ann Chen has been living in the United States since 1989. She was born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. As a child she learnt how to play the violin, the piano and also taught herself how to play the trumpet. However, from a very early stage, she always knew she wanted to become an orchestra conductor. Mei-Ann learnt some conducting skills from Henri Mazer. After an audition in the basement of a hotel, the conductor Benjamin Zander granted her a scholarship and gave her the opportunity to move to the United States, where she continued with her musical studies to become a conductor. It was in Madrid, where she had her unofficial debut conducting a movement of the 5th Symphony by Gustav Mahler (an anecdote she explains on the video; don’t miss that out!). Currently she is the principal of the Chicago Sinfonietta and the principal guest conductor of the Grosses Orchester Graz.
During our virtual coffee, we speak about the early years of Mei-Ann as a student and how everything went on until she became an orchestra conductor. For me it was a really interesting “conversation over coffee”. I can tell Mei-Ann is a woman full of energy, really, really enthusiastic, tremendously hard-working and a great leader. Some of the names she mentions on the video are: Henry Mazer, Benjamin Zander, Yo-Yo Ma, Marylou Speaker Churchill, Eric Rosenblith, James Buswell, Reena Esmail, Jeassy Montgomery and many more… Do you want to get to know Mei-Ann Chen? Just watch the video. If you don’t know her yet, you’ll make a great discovery. Honestly! And if you know her already, I’m sure this conversation will be a discovery for you as well!
This is the edited video of the 8th interview of the series “A Coffee With…”. On this occasion my guest was the American musicologist & cornetto player Bruce Dickey. The original “Coffee with…” took place on Thursday June 25th 2020 on my Facebook wall. It was simultaneously transmitted on Music Without Quarantine.
Bruce Dickey has been living in Italy for over 40 years now. He was born in Indiana in 1949. He has worked with numerous renowned musicians, ensembles, orchestras and conductors. He is the founder of Concerto Palatino and The Breathtaking Collective along with the soprano Hana Blažíková. He also plays with the Artemisia Consort founded by his wife and long life companion, the mezzo-soprano Candace Smith.
On this video, we speak about the early years of Bruce Dickey as a student and how he started playing music, first as a cornett player, then as a trumpeter, a recorder player and, finally, as one of the greatest cornetto players in the world. Bruce Dickey was teaching at Schola Cantorum Basiliensis for 40 years. We also speak about some of his projects: On the breath of angels, Nature’s secret whispering (music in the times of Johannes Kepler) or the LAMP Renassaince Academies(a teaching project at the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance in Nova Scotia, Canada). If you wish to check Bruce’s extensive discography, please visit his web page: Bruce Dickey’s Discography.
This is the edited video of the 7th interview of the series “A Coffee With…” This time, my guest was the Romanian music & artist manager Andreea Butucariu. The original “A Coffee With…” session took place via Zoom and was posted unedited on the Facebook wall of Music Without Quarantine.
Andreea Butucariu was born in Romania where she started her musical studies. Then her family moved to Canada. There she continued to study violin and became a profesional violinist. Very early in her career as a violinist, she decided to dedicate herself to the music management. She is the director of the agency EAS Musikmanagement and the label music EaSonus. Among the artists she currently represents you can find the pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja, the violinist Tai Murray or the pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout.
My intention with these “virtual coffees” is to create an environment where people get to know a bit more about the artists and professionals I have my coffee with.
This is the edited video of the fifth interview of the series “A Coffee With…” This time, my guest was the American bass singer, lutenist and early music specialist Joel Frederiksen. The original “A Coffee With…” session took place on Wednesday June 17th 2020 on my Facebook wall. It was simultaneously transmitted on Music Without Quarantine. That live interview is just a bit longer, because it includes waiting moments until we could start with our “virtual coffee”. If you wish, you can see the original interview HERE.
Joel Frederiksen was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota (USA) in 1959. In this conversation over coffee, Joel and I speak about his music projects of the past with the Waverly Consort and the Boston Camerata, about his discography and projects with the Ensemble Phoenix Munich. Among his many recordings, we speak about Orpheus, I am (2004), The Elfin Knight (2007), O felice morire (2008), Rose of Sharon (2011), Requiem for a Pink Moon (2012), which is a homage to singer-songwriter Nick Drake, Oswald von Wolkenstein (2013), with Sabine Lutzenberger and Bernd Fröhlich, Tell Me True Love (2016), Bis an der Welt ihr Ende (2017), with Per-Sonat, Marc Lewon and Baptiste Romain and Un niño nos es naçido (2018).
This is the edited video of the fourth interview of the series “A Coffee With…” This time, my guest was the British composer, journalist, blogger and lecturer Robert Hugill. The original “A Coffee With…” session took place on Wednesday June 10th 2020 on my Facebook wall. It was simultaneously transmitted on Music Without Quarantine. That live interview is a bit longer, because it includes waiting moments until we could start with our “virtual coffee”. If you wish, you can see the original interview HERE.
Robert Hugill was born in Cleethorpes (UK) in 1955. Mainly a self-taught musician, Robert has spent over 30 decades singing and conducting choirs. He writes music reviews for several newspapers and music magazines. He also runs a highly regarded internet blog on music: Planet Hugill. In this conversation over coffee, Robert and I speak about his origins, about the choral tradition, about opera and his music writing, not only as a critic but as a composer as well. So far, Robert has premiered four operas: Garrett, When a Man Knows, The Genesis of Frankenstein, and The Gardeners. Among his CDs, I recommend to listen to The Testament of Dr Cranmer and Quickening.
Previous guests of the “A Coffee With…” series were the conductor Marco Antonio García de Paz, the music critic Arturo Reverter and the accordionist Iñaki Alberdi. Robert is the first guest of this series whom I don’t know in person and I take this “virtual coffee” as an attempt to discover who Robert Hugill is and what he does…
This is a bonus interview of the series “Music connects People” on “Music Without Quarantine”, a project which has lasted for two months and a half while the 2020 COVID-19 confinement in many countries in the world. This is a very special one. The pianist I’m talking to is the youngest of all the artists participating in this project. By the time we recorded this interview, Varvara Kutuzova was 16 years old. I don’t speak Russian, and Varvara started learning English recently. However, I decided to go on with the interview because she is a very talented musician. May it remain as a document for the future and, who knows, maybe in 10 or 20 years time, when Varvara looks back, she’ll get a good memory of her first interview in English.
This is the edited video of the 9th interview of the series “A Coffee With…”. On this occasion my guest was the Taiwanese-American orchestra conductor Mei-Ann Chen. The original “Coffee with…” took place on Friday June 26th 2020 on my Facebook wall. It was simultaneously transmitted on Music Without Quarantine.
This is the edited video of the 7th interview of the series “A Coffee With…” This time, my guest was the Romanian music & artist manager 
This is the edited video of the fifth interview of the series “A Coffee With…” This time, my guest was the American bass singer, lutenist and early music specialist 
This is the edited video of the fourth interview of the series “A Coffee With…” This time, my guest was the British composer, journalist, blogger and lecturer