On today's episode, I interview Elizabeth McNutt, flutist, concert curator, and founder of Sounds Modern. Sounds Modern partners with a local modern art museum to present concerts which pair contemporary music with contemporary art allowing for conversation between the artistic disciplines to bring a greater depth of understanding and appreciation to the public.

Topics in this episode include:

• The value of early exposure to new music
• Bringing musicians into the visual art world and visual artists into the music world
• Partnering with an art museum
• Reinterpreting art through a musical lens
• Crowdsourcing knowledge to find new pieces because Google does NOT, in fact, know everything
• Pros and Cons of doing free concerts
• Pros and Cons of daytime concerts
• The value of new music concerts

The most innovative and least predictable concert music series in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Sounds Modern has been exploring links between contemporary music and visual art for over a decade. Sounds Modern reaches beyond the traditional context of classical music, collaborating with modern art presenters and other non-traditional venues to share adventurous new music with adventurous new audiences. Conceived and directed by virtuoso flutist Elizabeth McNutt in collaboration with The Modern Art Museum of Forth Worth, Sounds Modern adds a sonic dimension to the ideas presented in the galleries, and brings the artwork to life in the concert hall.

Websites:

Sounds Modern

Elizabeth McNutt

My guest on today's episode is singer-songwriter, Meghan Pulles. After training as an operatic vocalist, she realized her heart was pulling her towards songwriting. Now, she is creating music which she calls "emo-positive" that brings listeners through the darkness into light. Meghan believes that, by being vulnerable, artists can guide their listeners to hope and healing.

Topics in this episode include:

• Overcoming failure
• The need to do what lights you up and be connected to the art form
• Fighting the voices in your head that tell you to stay in one box
• Emo-positive music
• Making music that is vulnerable and from the heart
• The power of connection in small venues
• Project management
• Working with producers remotely
• Growing into more roles and taking ownership of your project

Meghan Pulles reigns as an emo-positive Nashville-based genre-defying singer-songwriter and artist with an ability to beautifully blend pastoral melodies with nostalgia. With a staunch devotion to musical healing, her compositions are all about the emotions and feelings they evoke in her listeners. Ranging from drenching folk to melodic pop and indie styles, her work is reminiscent of the musical richness of Regina Spektor and softness of Joni Mitchell.

Meghan recently released her debut album ear baby which she co-produced with Harper James who is known for his indie band, Eighty Ninety, and his solo project, Middle Youth. She recently signed with Aurally Records powered by Symphonic Distribution.

Meghan Pulles is at work on her sophomore record which will be out in 2026.

"Meghan Pulles clearly has an amazing gift of uplifting people through her music and if hers is the last voice I ever heard, I'd be sure I was on my way to heaven." - Pop Fad Blog

Facebook.com/meghanpulles

Instagram.com/meghanpullsmusic

tiktok.com/@meghanpullsmusic

My guest on Episode 24 is Brian KM, a composer and French-hornist living in Australia. He tours with a program he created which he calls a "show, not a recital" combining French horn with live electronics and incorporating classical music, daft-punk, poetry, and loop making. Along the way, he also began researching the use of AI in relation to art and wrote an AI Code of Ethics for Artists and Creatives. We talk about it all in this fascinating conversation!

Topics in this episode include:

• Playing French horn with live electronics
• Combining classical music, daft-punk, poetry, and loop-making
• "It's not a recital, it's a show!"
• A business model of touring
• Pitching shows and residencies
• All the different aspects of knowledge and experience you can share
• The need to regulate AI
• AI Code of Ethics for Artists
• Consumers should support artists who reflect their values
• If we remain aware, we might be able to influence how AI is used

Website: www.briankm.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imbriankm

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imbriankm/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZcH6XSHMwtomzlm7tPBqCA

AI Code of Ethics for Artists: https://www.briankm.com/ai.html

My guest on today's episode is Emily Park, the artistic director and principal conductor of the InterPlay Orchestra, a musical ensembles in the Washington D.C. area that exists to give individuals with various intellectual, developmental, or physical disabilities the opportunity to learn and perform music. The ensemble is not only vital to the individuals who participate and their families, but also to the greater community as InterPlay Orchestra demonstrates that those with differing abilities still have something to offer the community and bring to the table. Our conversation is full of nuggets of wisdom about music and relationships and the importance of finding joy, connection, and a shared humanity.

This episode is part of the 2025 Podcasthon which features podcasts by women and also serves as a fundraiser for the non-profits featured in each episode. In these days when efforts to promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are being defunded, it is more important than ever that individuals and companies step up to fund these endeavors. InterPlay Orchestra is essential to the lives of the individuals involved, and I invite you to consider donating to this amazing ensemble. A link to the InterPlay Orchestra website is below.

Websites:

InterPlay Orchestra

Emily Park

Instagram:

InterPlay Orchestra

Facebook:

InterPlay Orchestra

Emily Park

On today's episode, I continue my conversation with Joshua Nichols. Though we disagree on hot topics like diversity, equity and inclusion and the impact they have on classical music, we have a respectful conversation about broader issues like the need to listen deeply, how to determine what good art is, and how we cannot know now what music of today will stand the test of time.

Topics in this episode include:

• The need to use new methods of teaching to avoid stifling learning outcomes
• Listening deeply
• Good music allows us to hear something new every time we listen
• How we decide what good music is, even when it is brand new
• The Sculpture's Gaze
• Unity and integrity in music and art
• How art speaks to (is in conversation with) other art
• Making the best art you can
• We don't know what current art will stand the test of time

Dr. Joshua Daniel Nichols is a composer, organist, pianist, and teacher

Currently based in Tucson, AZ, JOshua earned a D.M.A. from the University of Arizona's Fred Fox School of Music in Composition, studying with Professor Daniel Asia. He holds two M.M. degrees, one in Composition (Floridat Atlantic University, studied with Dr. Kevin Wilt) and one in Organ Performance (Mississippi College, studied with Dr. Robert Knupp.) He received his B.A. in Organ Performance (studied with Ms. Carol Durham) from Belhaven University. He is Artistic Fellow and Director of Technology at the Center for American Culture and Ideas.

As a composer, Josh's compositions have been featured and sought after around the United States. He has been commissioned to write ballet and dance music, as well as chamber percussion, and chamber orchestra. Critically acclaimed, he released an album of Summit Records titled, "Metropolis: The Piano Music of Joshua Nichols" featuring his major piano works to date. Josh draws on an eclectic musical background in film, commercial, and concert music, as well as classical forms and harmonic structures. Recent notable compositions include: Metropolis, Variations on Hatikvah, the Dover Sonata, and What Tongue Can Tell? His music is exciting, palatable for both regular concert goesr and academics alike, and deeply expressive.

As organist, Josh has emphasized his role in church music both as an accompanist of congregational song and service musician to elevate the service and liturgy. He not only prepares solo repertoire, but also is an active clinician in church music, improvisation, harmonization, and directing choirs.

As pianist, Josh continues to play as an instrumental and vocal accompanist, as well as in musical theater. He is also a clinician in piano improvisation, harmonization, and vocal coaching.

Joshua's website: www.joshdnichols.com

The Center for American Culture and Ideas: https://thecaci.org/

This episode is part one of my conversation with Joshua Nichols, an artistic fellow at the Center for American Culture and Ideas. Get ready for a deeply phiolosophical discussion about the pragmatic versus the beautiful, the nature of transcedence, the democratization of art, whether culture should be curated - and by whom, and who decides what is good. Sometimes Josh and I see eye to eye, and sometimes we don't. I'd love tfor you to share your thoughts on this episode!

*Since this episode aired, I have learned more about MuseScore's updates, and it is apparently better than I thought, so please disregard my disparaging comments.

Visit the episode page on our website to get full show notes.

Dawn Walters is a mezzo-soprano and composer working and living in East Yorkshire, England. She shares how composing and performing art song builds community. She did this through participation in the Leeds Lieder Festival in addition to being a teaching artist with the Maritime Primary Outreach Program. We also chit-chat about what it's like to return to school as an older student and some of the challenges we've faced as moms trying to build music careers.

Topics in this episode include:

• Leeds Lieder Festival
• How poets, composers, and performers can collaborate to bring attention to important topics
• Maritime Primary Outreach teaching artist
• How to think about expanding a small project into something much larger
• Serving underprivileged communities
• Serving an organization by customizing a project to match its mission
• Why children need access to music and other arts
• Going back to school as an older student
• The need for consistency & resilience, plodding on and keeping your nose to the grindstone

An alto soloist and small ensemble singer, Dawn Walters currently performs with Robert Hollingworth's The 24, as well as singing weekly services as part of a professional quartet in the York Oratory, and as an Alto Lay Clerk with Sheffield Cathedral Choir. She is an awarded and published choral composer who also sets Shakespeare songs and sonnets, which have been performed across the UK and in Europe, and broadcast on BBC radio. Dawn is also a deputy lay clerkfor several cathedrals, including York Minster and Bradford Cathedral, and performs with vocal ensemble Allegoria.

You can find Dawn at: dawnwalters.wordpress.com

For this episode, I interviewed Jan Mittelstaedt, the director of the composition project In Good Hands, which is sponsored by the Cascadia Composers group out of Portland, Oregon, part of the National Association of Composers USA. Unfortunately, there was a problem with Jan's original sound which I did not notice until I was working on the production of this episode. The sound quality did not meet my standards, so I decided to go a different route with this episode. I made a transcript of my interview with Jan, which you can find at The Musicking Community website, or on our Substack page. In the rest of the episode, I will share why I personally find the In Good Hands project to be so important, which will involve some storytelling about my own musical history.

http://themusickingcommunity.com/2024/12/30/episode-19-the-in-good-hands-project/