Meet Nicole - our first collaborative pianist on the podcast! She is not your average pianist 💅 and has built a career at the intersection of artistry, innovation, and service. An active performer, educator, and arts administrator, she is deeply committed to expanding the reach of collaborative piano through performance, teaching, and community engagement. This convo is filled w incredible insights into the ups and downs of a collab career and the unique skill sets that collab pianists must cultivate on their road to success. Her passion for connecting with audiences and her focus on uplifting and encouraging each and every musician she plays with shines through as she shares her story. Currently based in Macon, Georgia, Nicole is on a mission to advocate for her collab community and cultivate meaningful relationships with her artistic partners. She shares what skills and values truly matter and how we can refocus on the beautiful opportunity we have to connect with the world around us as musicians.

You can follow Nicole @nicocoleying

www.nicoleying.com

✨ Stay connected with Pianists Not Practicing:

Instagram — @ChloeWestonPianist

YouTube — @ChloeWestonPianist

🎶 Intro/Outro Music: Ankur Mukhopadhyay — @ankurrmm

🎙️ Produced by: phMediaStudio, LLC

We’re back with Mark to recap the premiere of his piano concerto RUMINATIONS just hours after walking offstage! If you haven’t heard episode 5 yet go ahead and check that out to hear all about the creation of this project and how it came to be!

In this episode, we chat about the big premiere, the experience of performing music by living composers vs music of the established canon, performing a piano concerto with no conductor (👀) and the joy of playing music by your friends with your friends! 💕

You can watch the premiere of RUMINATIONS here!:

https://youtu.be/Fpd4wQXRJjU?si=FZ3Fay0tPriEfyZY

Thank you to Graham Lessard, audio engineer and Vicki Van Chau & Philip Bowen, videographers, for capturing the premiere so beautifully in our recording!

This is such a meaningful, dream-come-true project for us that would not be possible without support from the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Calgary Arts Development and the City of Calgary and the collaboration with the incredible artists of Kensington Sinfonia and the Calgary Philharmonic listed here:

Violin

Genevieve Micheletti

Eric Auerbach

Isaac Willocks

Erin Burkholder

Diane Lane

Sora Kim

Viola

Liza Scriggins Lowry

Patricia Higgins

Ethan Mung

Cello

Andrea Case

Kathleen de Caen

Takumi Rodgers

Bass

Matthew Heller

Flute

Emily Pernambucq

Clarinet

Cedric Blary

Horn

Peter Clark

Trumpet

Adam Zinatelli

Percussion

Chris Sies

You can follow Mark @mark.limacher on instagram

✨ Stay connected with Pianists Not Practicing:

Instagram — @ChloeWestonPianist

YouTube — @ChloeWestonPianist

🎶 Intro/Outro Music: Ankur Mukhopadhyay — @ankurrmm

🎙️ Produced by: phMediaStudio, LLC

Meet Mark Limacher - Canadian composer, pianist, arranger/orchestrator extraordinaire - who just happens to be a bonafide genius and one of my favourite people. We caught up with Mark hours before we premiered his piano concerto that I commissioned - RUMINATIONS - in Calgary with the Kensington Sinfonia this June. Mark shares with us his compositional process, what it means to bring a concerto to life that reflects our time - we talk Puccini, Messiaen and Mompou and dive into how this incredible concerto came to be. In typical Mark fashion, we of course even stray into Marxist psychoanalytic philosophy and the state of the world and how us as artists making music fits into our society and how much we both love Gen Micheletti! 🎻 Mark is a one-of-a-kind human who I can’t wait for you to meet!

You can watch the premiere of RUMINATIONS here!:

https://youtu.be/Fpd4wQXRJjU?si=FZ3Fay0tPriEfyZY

Thank you to Graham Lessard, audio engineer and Vicki Van Chau & Philip Bowen, videographers, for capturing the premiere so beautifully in our recording!

This is such a meaningful, dream-come-true project for us that would not be possible without support from the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Calgary Arts Development and the City of Calgary and the collaboration with the incredible artists of Kensington Sinfonia and the Calgary Philharmonic listed here:

Violin

Genevieve Micheletti

Eric Auerbach

Isaac Willocks

Erin Burkholder

Diane Lane

Sora Kim

Viola

Liza Scriggins Lowry

Patricia Higgins

Ethan Mung

Cello

Andrea Case

Kathleen de Caen

Takumi Rodgers

Bass

Matthew Heller

Flute

Emily Pernambucq

Clarinet

Cedric Blary

Horn

Peter Clark

Trumpet

Adam Zinatelli

Percussion

Chris Sies

You can follow Mark @mark.limacher on instagram

✨ Stay connected with Pianists Not Practicing:

Instagram — @ChloeWestonPianist

YouTube — @ChloeWestonPianist

🎶 Intro/Outro Music: Ankur Mukhopadhyay — @ankurrmm

🎙️ Produced by: phMediaStudio, LLC

PIANISTS NOT PRACTICING… in Vienna… with NATHALIE MATTHYS

Meet the multi-talented, creative queen NATHALIE MATTHYS who’s multi-faceted career includes performing, arranging and composing works both in the world of jazz and the world of classical - from singing jazz standards with a jazz combo to performing classical chamber music and piano concerti with orchestras. You may know her online as @n.musician on youtube where she shares weekly tips for all things music - and is always inspiring and encouraging musicians to share their light with the world. We caught up with Nathalie in Vienna, and she shared with us her powerful story perseverance, how to advocate for your dreams as an artist, her journey to a fullbright scholarship to study in the US, her experience with injury and how she takes care of her body and what keeps her aligned and inspired on her musical path ✨

“Everything you want is on the other side of fear” 🔥

You can follow Nathalie

on instagram @n.musician

and YouTube @NMusician

https://nathaliematthys.com

✨ Stay connected with Pianists Not Practicing:

Instagram — @ChloeWestonPianist

YouTube — @ChloeWestonPianist

🎶 Intro/Outro Music: Ankur Mukhopadhyay — @ankurrmm

🎙️ Produced by: phMediaStudio, LLC

Welcome to a masterclass with the incredibly inspiring and uplifting Michelle Lynne! ☀️

She is an absolute ray of sunshine who is most often gallivanting across Europe performing beautiful candlelight concerts, curating thoughtful chamber music concerts through her series Opus 16, or empowering classical musicians to overcome fear and go after the career of their dreams through her coaching company the fearless artist mastermind 💪

We dive into her origin story, her multi-faceted performing career, we reflect on our time studying together at porto pianofest this summer and we also get into the amazing tools that she shares through the fearless artist mastermind - her coaching company for musicians that she founded alongside Deanna Petre.

Tune into get all the goods on branding, maintaining your energy while navigating a wild freelance schedule, and the one thing that pianists need to remember as they curate their career ⚡️

Follow Michelle @thisismichellelynne

Follow TFA @thefearlessartistmastermind

And listen to her new single out now on Spotify: Michelle Lynne

✨ Stay connected with Pianists Not Practicing:

Instagram — @ChloeWestonPianist

YouTube — @ChloeWestonPianist

🎶 Intro/Outro Music: Ankur Mukhopadhyay — @ankurrmm

🎙️ Produced by: phMediaStudio, LLC

Welcome to real talk w Clare Longendyke 🥊

Meet the powerhouse American pianist, Clare Longendyke - she says vulnerability is her superpower and we are here for it! In this convo, Clare shares so many golden nuggets of wisdom on how to truly make a performance career happen - fundraising, the power of research, networking and asking for help, how to create a successful album launch, how to invite audiences into our classical music world - oh, and of course, all while having a baby - we covered it all, baby!

You can meet Clare here: https://www.instagram.com/clarelongendyke.piano?igsh=Z3RvM2d1NWFjd2pz

And listen to her debut album here: ...of dreams unveiled by Clare Longendyke on Apple Music Classical

And Watch her play Schumann Arabeske here: https://youtu.be/QzSKZorxeNs?si=HffoUfRTaCYMZmvL

Featuring Clare’s performance of Olga by Amy Williams from Piano Portraits: Track: Olga – Clare Longendyke https://classical.music.apple.com/ca/album/1760279427?i=1760279429&l=en-CA

www.clarelongendyke.com

✨ Stay connected with Pianists Not Practicing:

Instagram — @ChloeWestonPianist

YouTube — @ChloeWestonPianist

🎶 Intro/Outro Music: Ankur Mukhopadhyay — @ankurrmm

🎙️ Produced by: phMediaStudio, LLC

You may know her as @theopenscore on Instagram and YouTube. Her name is Michelle Lau. She is a multi-passionate, multi-talented artist. She can perform. She can teach. She's a videographer. She's an editor. She's a social media strategist. I've always been inspired by her and her mindset of just try it - just try creating what you want and see what happens!

Michelle has created multiple YouTube channels, different teaching platforms, new and unique performance experiences for audiences, and I really love that she's our first interview because she is truly the epitome of the creative chameleon. In this convo we talk practice, creativity, portfolio careers, mindset, physical training outside of piano, focusing on self-worth versus external worth on socials - so much. She encourages us to just act on our creative ideas and expand your creative endeavours without fear. She shares what she learned as she overcame injury, and how volleyball may just solve all of your problems…

✨ Stay connected with Pianists Not Practicing:

Instagram — @ChloeWestonPianist

YouTube — @ChloeWestonPianist

🎶 Intro/Outro Music: Ankur Mukhopadhyay — @ankurrmm

🎙️ Produced by: phMediaStudio, LLC

Welcome to Pianists Not Practicing — A biweekly show that catches classical pianists out in the wild - outside of the practice room (!!) - and spills all the juicy details about their lives. We dive into candid, unfiltered conversations with pianists at all stages of their careers—from seasoned pros to fresh-faced grads. OK fine, we’ll talk about practicing — let’s be real — but we’ll also get into everything else: the creative process, career twists and turns, mindset, body care, and all the behind-the-scenes realities of being a musician.

So, whether you’re looking for inspiration, solidarity, or you just wanna hang out in the practice room hallway, talk shit, and avoid practice with us — you’re in the right place. We’re all in this together.

Hosted by Canadian classical pianist, Chloe Weston

You can keep up with Pianists Not Practicing on Instagram @ChloeWestonPianist and YouTube @ChloeWestonPianist

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Intro/outro music by Ankur Mukhopadhyay @ankurrmm

Produced by phMediaStudio, LLC