impact.arte: Recent Episodes

View Details

Hola! Bienvenidos a impact.arte podcast.

Tengo el placer de ofrecerles el primer episodio en español de este canal, y nada mas y nada menos que con una notable violinista boliviana, Karin Cuellar Rendón, quien actualmente se encuentra haciendo un doctorado en la Academia Real de Música en Londres.

Karin nos cuenta lo que significa crecer y decidir llevar adelante una carrera artística musical en un país en desarrollo, como es el caso de Bolivia. Los retos, y también las oportunidades. Y especialmente, la ruta por la que la llevaron la convicción, visión de largo plazo, y consecuencia con su razón de ser. Luego escucharán una fascinante descripción de la música y su rol durante la creación de la naciente república de Bolivia, allá durante la primera mitad del siglo 19. Karin nos cuenta sobre sus investigaciones y trabajo actual para traer a la luz un compositor relativamente perdido en las páginas de la historia, al menos en comparación con sus famosos contemporáneos europeos: Pedro Ximenez Abril Tirado.

Les sugiero dar un vistazo a videos disponibles en YouTube con obras de este compositor, ya que además de ser agradable de escuchar, es muy interesante observar la fusión de los estilos clásicos de origen europeo con temas musicales criollos y locales, que seguramente contribuyó posteriormente a la formación de los estilos musicales que ahora definen muchas melodías tradicionales en Bolivia y Perú.

Y claro, por supuesto que también les sugiero dar un vistazo a los videos disponibles en YouTube con interpretaciones realizadas por Karin, asi como algunas entrevistas que le hicieron algunos medios de comunicación.

Bueno, espero disfruten esta conversación! Y antes de despedirme, los invito a enviar cualquier comentario o sugerencia a: impact.arte.podcast@gmail.com. Apreciaré mucho sus ideas para hacer este canal y los futuros episodios aún más útiles e informativos.

Saludos y hasta el próximo episodio!

Marcelo

View Details

Welcome to the second episode of impact.arte!

I am happy to present to you an insightful and thought-provoking conversation with an accomplished and sought after soloist, chamber musician, teacher, and orchestra leader, the Canadian violinist Renée-Paule Gauthier.

Renee has won awards in several competitions, including the exclusive three-year loan of the Taft Stradivari violin in the 2009 edition of the Canada Council for the Arts’ Musical Instrument Bank Competition. She tells us about this amazing experience during this conversation.

Renee is active on Instagram and Facebook (@mindoverfinger), where she regularly posts videos or messages that I consider relevant for anyone, regardless whether artists, students or others. To have an idea of her incredible artistry, I encourage you to check out her amazing performance of Bach’s Adagio from Sonata No. 1 in G Minor BWV 1001 on YouTube (https://youtu.be/5k8PYBOaw7A).

I first came across Renee's work through Instagram, and her profile-name immediately caught my attention: Mind over Finger. I started following her, and soon realized how useful her insights can be to develop a deeper understanding of how our mindset influences the way we perform or show up, in musical performances, or in everything we do.

This brings us to the concept of mindfulness, which Renee explains very well in this conversation.

To complement Renee's insights on this topic, you can find a comprehensive explanation and additional information from the University of Berkeley here: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/mindfulness/definition#what-is, along with references to the benefits provided by the practice and use of mindfulness, according to several specialist research. Super interesting stuff and with the potential to enhance your life and whatever it is you do!

Here are some particularly interesting extracts from this page:

• Mindfulness means maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment, through a gentle, nurturing lens.

• Mindfulness also involves acceptance, meaning that we pay attention to our thoughts and feelings without judging them—without believing, for instance, that there’s a “right” or “wrong” way to think or feel in a given moment. When we practice mindfulness, our thoughts tune into what we’re sensing in the present moment rather than rehashing the past or imagining the future.

According to this web site, many studies seem to have demonstrated the benefits of mindfulness, ranging from physical, such as boosting the immune system and improving quality of sleep, to enhancing the ability to focus and concentrate, and social and interpersonal awareness.

Renee describes very eloquently how to apply and practice mindfulness when learning an instrument, or to enhance an artist's technique and expression. I am sure everybody can benefit from applying Renee's insights in their practice routine, and also other daily activities.

Some additional tips I came across on how to practice mindfulness include:

• Pay close attention to your breathing, especially when you’re feeling intense emotions.
• Notice—really notice—what you’re sensing in a given moment, the sights, sounds, and smells that ordinarily slip by without reaching your conscious awareness.
• Recognize that your thoughts and emotions are fleeting and do not define you, an insight that can free you from negative thought patterns.
• Tune into your body’s physical sensations, from the water hitting your skin in the shower to the way your body rests in your chair.
• Find “micro-moments” of mindfulness throughout the day to reset your focus and sense of purpose.
• Mindful breathing, which involves bringing attention to the physical sensations of the breath as it flows in and out.
• Body scan, where you bring attention to different parts of your body in turn, from head to toe.
• The "raisin exercise", where you slowly use all of your senses, one after another, to observe a raisin in great detail, from the way it feels in your hand to the way its taste bursts on your tongue. This exercise is intended to help you focus on the present moment, and can be tried with different foods.

I hope this provides you with a good background on the main topic of the episode, and that this information sparked your interest to listen the conversation with Renee!

Marcelo

PS: Renee's web page and blog can be found at http://www.reneepaulegauthier.com/. Hasta pronto!

View Details

The Transformative Power of Music

Welcome to the first episode on this channel! This podcast is intended to provide a space for sharing knowledge, ideas and resources for individual and collective empowerment, in and through music and the arts. We will explore different aspects of an artistic journey and experience, from a life-long artistic career to pure enjoyment through appreciation and learning.

While artists will be the core source of such insights, this channel will go beyond and reach out to experts in different fields in a position to provide information that can serve as tools for growth and empowerment.

With this in mind, I am thrilled to start this podcast by talking to Tricia Tunstall. Tricia is an expert in "El Sistema", a system pioneered by Maestro José Antonio Abreu in Venezuela in the seventies. The worlwide El Sistema-inspired movement now includes over 380 separate programs in over 65 countries, with almost one million participating young people.

Tricia has written and co-authored several books, most notably "Changing Lives: Gustavo Dudamel, El Sistema, and the Transformative Power of Music" and "Playing for Their Lives: The Global El Sistema Movement for Social Change Through Music".

Tricia is also involved as Executive Editor in "The World Ensemble" (http://theworldensemble.org/) and "The Ensemble Newsletter" (http://theensemblenewsletters.com/).

If you are a young musician, who is looking for opportunities to grow your career and have a positive impact on other people's lives, I strongly encourage you to visit these resources, and also check out Sistema Connect (https://www.sistemaconnect.org/), for opportunities to connect with Sistema-related initiatives.

Thanks for listening, I hope you enjoy the conversation with Tricia as much as I did, and I look forward to presenting you the next episodes!

Marcelo

PS: Don't forget to subscribe, so you don't miss any new episode!