Season 4 Episode 19: Connecting Contemporary Audiences – Megan Ihnen, Mezzo-Soprano &...

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Welcome back to another episode of The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song. Today we're excited to welcome Megan Egan, celebrated mezzo-soprano and executive director of the Live Music Project. Megan is a dedicated advocate for contemporary composers and a sought-after coach for musicians and composers alike. In her role at the Live Music Project, she channels her passion for transformative power of music into initiatives that make the classical music landscape more vibrant and accessible to all. Megan loves to share her expertise and research in creative placemaking and audience engagement. With precision and foresight, she navigates the complexities of the cultural sphere, forging partnerships and collaborations that transcend traditional boundaries, enriching communities and enhancing the societal impact of the arts. Today's conversation will focus on the Live Music Project. While Megan will provide more details, here is a brief overview. The Live Music Project is a nonprofit organization that tirelessly connects classical musicians with broader audiences., ensuring that live music is accessible to everyone regardless of their resources. It aims to enhance access to classical music and strengthen arts communities through innovative initiatives and programs. Through its community-driven calendar, The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song has become a central hub for thousands of orchestras, ensembles, choirs, and independent musicians to share their events and reach new listeners. We're about to learn how classical musicians can leverage the LMP's digital platform to enhance their presence and engage with communities. We will also explore the LMP's impact and reach within the music industry and among global communities of music enthusiasts. Additionally, we'll discuss how it connects classical musicians with wider audiences and delve into the topic of audience engagement, a subject that has intrigued Piano Pod listeners from the start. So stick with us till the end as we gain insights from an expert in the field of audience engagement. Before getting started with this special episode, I want to welcome all of our first-timers to The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song with Yukimi Song. I am a classical pianist and educator from New York City. Whether diving deep into a piano career, working professionally in the classical music scene, or simply having a passion for piano tunes, this podcast is your backstage pass to the fascinating piano world. To our incredible TPP fans and loyal listeners, welcome back. Your continued support means the world to us. If you enjoy today's episode, please take a moment to rate and review the show on your favorite podcasting platform. Your feedback helps others discover the joy of The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song. Now, without further ado, I am thrilled to introduce Megan Egan and kick off our conversation. So sit back and relax and please enjoy the show. You are listening to The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song, where we talk to the brightest minds in the industry about how they are bringing the piano into the 21st century. So welcome to The Piano Pod, Megan.

Thank you so much for having me. It's really a pleasure.

Thank you. I'm so thrilled to have you with us today and thank you for joining us. And so you are, I believe, today calling in from New Orleans, right?

Yes. So I live, live here in, as they say, the city that care forgot. That's the kind of little tagline for New Orleans. But I, I love living in New Orleans and it's such a great place to be based as a musician.

Oh, I bet. Oh, you know, um, when I was in college, I lived a few hours from New Orleans, so on the weekend I used to, yeah, go there. This is— I'm old, so I'm old, so this is pre-Katrina era of New Orleans. Yeah, yeah, very special time.

Absolutely, such a special time. Yes, I'm so glad that we have that in, in common. I didn't realize that you had lived so close.

Oh yes. Oh yes. I used to drive and then take the I-10 and just, just, oh, lovely drive. I loved it so much. Yeah. Anyway, so, you know, I've been listening to your recordings on Spotify. What interesting recordings that you do. It's so fascinating. And then also your fellow podcaster. So I was listening to your podcast called Studio Class. Yes, yeah, they come in, it's in bits, and also some of the interviews are long and quite intriguing and very interesting, very practical too. So yeah, I encourage my audience to tune in to Megan's podcast, and we're going to talk more about that later. But we'll, you know, delve deeper into your dual roles as an artist and entrepreneur later in our conversation, but I'd like to begin by discussing your role as the executive director of the Live Music Project. So what is the Live Music Project and who is it designed for?

Oh, sure. Well, I like to think of Live Music Project, or LMP, as a classical music advocacy and the tech for good organization. So that means that we are specifically supporting the classical music field, and that can be early, early ancient music through experimental contemporary classical music, everything in between. So we try to think of classical music but in a very open context. And the tech for good aspect is that we have a volunteer software development team, so we actually create the technology tools that we use to support the field. So that includes our national-international concert calendar and our audience development tool called Spontaneous Free Tickets.

Wow, okay. So then can you share specific data about its impact, such as like the number of users per year or however works? And also, you know, how many countries are you, you're reaching out to?

So we began in 2014 and, and started in Seattle, and so we really consider Seattle as our home base and Through the pandemic, we actually— that is when we went international seemingly overnight because everything moved online. And we had actually been planning. We, our tech team, our dev team, and all of our volunteers and our community had been helping us build the new website, the new concert calendar that we are using currently. And that actually dovetailed really nicely. If there's anything to be said as like silver linings is that it dovetailed with the fact that pandemic kind of pushed us all online. And so the live music project became this national, international resource seemingly overnight through everything going online. But then we were able to follow through with the fact that we had made the website and launched it during this time where things were starting to come back in person, and we were able to kind of really support our communities through, through that. So we are mostly in the United States. That's kind of the, the main area in which we operate. And we also have staff and, and volunteer teams that work to help us gain more comprehensiveness in certain cities. So we call these our focus cities, and currently our focus cities are Seattle, Portland, Oregon, New York City, Baltimore, DC, and Atlanta. And when we're thinking about that, it means that anyone is free and welcome to use Live Music Project's tools. It's that with smaller, you know, smaller volunteer teams, smaller staff sizes, we wanna be really thoughtful about how we can support specific geographic regions. And kind of grow that over time. So we've, we've done research and the way that we thought about those focus cities was that there wasn't necessarily a resource at the time that was similar to what Live Music Project was doing, connecting listeners to live classical music experiences the way that we do with our technology tools. So it doesn't mean that those geographic regions are more important or less important. It means that we saw that, that need for a tool such as what we had, and we were able to kind of get started in those spaces and hopefully grow and grow and grow as, as we hope to do, right? But that takes time and that takes energy and resources and people. So that's kind of what we're excited about growing into.

Great.

Now, so You also asked me about like how many people are using, and I forgot to answer that. So I wanted to just say that part of the fact of us going, of increasing the scope and increasing the geographic regions that we focus on also means that we've been able to welcome more and more users. So we currently have about over 120,000 unique annual users. And that feels really gratifying to us because that's a pretty large number when it comes to the scale of classical music in our communities. And when I'm thinking about demographics and who's checking this out, it means, yes, we have 120,000 users, but even more specifically, we have the highest number of our users is in that 25 to 34-year-old age range. So it makes me feel like just seeing that data tells me that there are people of all age ranges that are interested in going to classical music. But we want to make sure that we're providing tools for people to discover it in their communities, to know more about what's going on around them. And this is one of, one of the ways that Live Music Project tries to show up and be advocates for our community. And look at the data on both sides is like, is to be able to see, oh, we actually have lots of people from various age demographics and racial background and, and geographic area. We have so many different people, diverse audiences using the site to connect with classical music experiences in their area. That I love that ability to just see data to back up that we actually do have people who are wanting to experience this. They do want to check this out. They do want to support classical music in their area. And we are providing more pathways for them to do so.

So can you elaborate on the mission? Maybe you already mentioned, but the Live Music Project, or maybe like You know, you are not the creator of this community. You are— No. Okay. But what was that, do you think, was missing from the industry that inspired this founder to launch this project?

I am so grateful to our founder, Shia Lyon, who is actually our current director of product and an amazing board member. She's still so actively involved with this organization. This would not exist in any way, shape, or form without Shia's vision for this. And I'm just really thrilled to be really the second executive director in this organization to, to help provide more momentum and take this farther into the future and be a steward for what she's created while, while I'm here, while I'm doing this. And, and I, I love Shia's origin story with Live Music Project in so many ways. And so I'm going to give a little bit of it and Uh, so Shia had moved from New York to Seattle, and in the process she really was looking for— wanting to go to hear, you know, concerts, wanting to hear certain pieces of music. She often talks about wanting to search out Brahms' Double Concerto. She really, really loves that piece and wanted to hear it. And as someone who had worked in creating community through technology in all of these different capacities. She, she noticed her need and was— she's searching online Seattle plus Brahms double and, and she's finding, you know, a performance on the other side of the world or she's finding a performance that happened 5 years ago. She's finding— and she was like, there's no way for me to search concerts that are coming up in my local area buy a piece that I want to hear or a composer that I've been wanting to hear or buy an instrument that I've been wanting to hear. And she's like, we should be able to do this. We have the technology to do this. This, this community deserves this. And she also realized at that point in time that in Seattle we had something, you know, north of 30 community orchestras happening at the same time. And because she was looking, she found this information. But outside of that, she would have— she realized that that information wouldn't have crossed her field of vision, you know, wouldn't have come across her desk in a way that she could have acted on it. And because she wasn't, you know, already connected to someone in the ensemble, or for example, a lot of arts organizations at the time would post their season concert, their calendar, as like a JPEG on their website, and Google can't read the text that's included on an image unless you put the text in kind of an alt caption or something like that. So it also means that there were a lot of community ensembles, there's a lot of organizations that are making incredible performance opportunities for their, for their musicians and also concert opportunities for listeners, but they couldn't find it because the technology wasn't helping people surface that information. It was kind of getting buried. And so that's really where Live Music Project kind of comes out of, is this, is this desire to connect with all of these incredible organizations, all of these incredible concerts, and just connect the dots with the technology that says like, oh, this exists. But you maybe, you know, we know so many small, small, small arts organizations where, you know, the board members are helping out to promote the concert, or, you know, maybe you have someone on staff that, that they're trying to spin all of the plates and marketing can— you can only do so much, right? And that means that they're, they're attempting to put that out there, but Google's not turning around and saying like, we're gonna put this on the front page of the search results. And I think that that's one of the ways that we actually make a bigger impact, is that because of the way that our technology tools are created is that arts organizations and performers and composers, any budget size of any overall capacity, can put their concert details on Live Music Project and benefit from the SEO of all of our searchable information. So you end up being kind of the trailhead for people to experience, you know, to kind of explore a little bit more in their community.

Wow, that's a, that's a great concept. And so I now want to really check it out. So I will share this. Yes, Green, so maybe can you take us through the website and maybe how, how this concert calendar feature functions?

Yeah, sure, sure, sure.

Okay, so let me see then. This is the home page. This is the front page of the website, right? Yes.

And so when people land on this page, the inner workings of the site kind of sense where you are by your IP address. So it's going to try and show you things that are relevant to you, you know, which area. So if you are, you know, near Atlanta, it's going to pull up those on the home page for you. But we always start with that search bar like front and center because Live Music Project is really about being listener-focused, right? We're really about amplifying listener agency. We want to say, what do you want to hear? Like, what are you wanting to experience and hear more of? Tell us that. And then we are going to work hard to like surface that information for you in a way that makes it so easy. You're not You know, like I said, if you're not 5 pages deep on Google search results trying to find something, it's, it's right here for you. And hopefully making that path from I thought about going to a concert to finding out more information to buying tickets or putting it in my calendar just so easy, so that you're going from, man, I'd really like to go to a concert, to I have it on my calendar. I'm ready to go, you know, in, in just only so many clicks. It's just not taking up the time. You know, our lives are precious. Our time is precious. And I want people to feel like we're there supporting them from— I had this idea to being in person with people experiencing music, live music in this way that feels easy. Like it's just, oh. This, this can be super easy for me.

Now I see at the front page the performances in New York City just because I live in New York City, and then, um, so that's why this, uh, the city shows up, right? Okay.

And then if it picks the wrong spot, you can like click on a dropdown menu and change those, change that area that you are. Yeah.

And you can type in the name of the city. Exactly. Wow. Now, so if I want to say, oh, I want to go to the concert, you know, recently I got to interview a Venezuelan pianist. I mean, he is based in New York City, but so maybe Latin American music.

That might— yeah, we'll see what it pulls up.

Okay, and explore. All right, well, it shows up Quite a lot. Paper reality. Wow. Then you can just choose one. Oh yes. For example, this one, MATA Festival 2024, Evening 2, Changing Voices, Fotografiska. Oh yes, I know exactly where it is. It's a very new museum. They just opened it just before COVID Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Perfect.

As you're noticing that Anyone who's listening, we ended up on a search results page where the title of the concert, you can click on that and it'll take you to more details about that concert. But inside of that you can see, you know, who's performing, where is it, what is the venue, and then some of the repertoire is listed on that first page. That's actually one of the parts of, you know, our proprietary tech that we've built is this ability to tag all of these different elements. So performers, composers, pieces. When you're putting your details in here, it's allowing people to search by all of those different things so that they're finding you and your performances in this way. So you could, you could click on Fotografiska and see more performances at that venue. You can click on the composer and see more performances featuring that composer. You can click on, you know, any of that kind of stuff. And that's really where it might seem like such a small thing, you know, or, or it doesn't, you know, it's not jumping out at you, but that's actually how so many of our brains are interacting with technology. We're used to this in so many other facets of our lives that being able to have this level of detail and connection behind in the data of what you're experiencing on the site is just lightning-fast connections to various things. Oh, if I like this venue, let me look at all of the things that they have coming up so that I, you know, if you happen to live in a place, you know, here in New Orleans, I could walk to a venue down the street. And so something like having, you know, being able to click and see easily what's coming up at this place, you know, is is part of the stuff that I really love. I can also look at— let's see here— when I'm looking at under the calendar dropdown menu at the top, I can click on something like by genre, by interest, and by instrument. Yeah. And search for things like, you know, I've got things like, oh, is there a premiere on this concert? Is this from the Baroque period? Does this feature BIPOC composers. And I, I, those are all ways that we just walk our mission. You know, we just are active in what we're trying to do is really making it as easy as possible to kind of live your interests, live your values in what you're doing and how you're interacting with the classical music scene around you or in, in different places.

Great. Oh, even by the composer. Oh yeah, that's, that's fantastic. Wow, this is so well organized. Now I'm also curious about this spontaneous free tickets. So can you explain?

Yes, definitely. Spontaneous free tickets is this audience development tool that also was born out of Shia's immense care and, and thoughtfulness about the music community that she was living in. And because she had created this tool, the concert calendar, people started sending her tickets, and she was very involved in going to concerts, going to open rehearsals, going to all of these things. And people would send her free tickets to come to their concert, come write about it, or, you know, just be there and connect with people. And at a certain point, she was receiving more tickets than she could possibly go to. And she asked these organizations, would, would it be okay if I turned this around and provided these tickets to other people so that they could experience, you know, they can go and check this out? And they said, of course, you know, we, we really want this to be where people come in and check it out and discover and see if it's for them. And Spontaneous Free Tickets grew out of that process where she would create a, a giveaway drawing and people would sign up and it still exists to this day. We are about to launch a new platform. I'm super excited about this part is that we're launching a new platform that'll allow us to have a lot more connectivity and automation on the back end so that more people can be involved and Spontaneous free tickets can happen in more places so that listeners sign up on the email list and they'll get a giveaway announcement via email, usually the week before, you know, a little, some time before so that they can see if they're available. And they quote unquote throw their, throw their hat in the ring by clicking and saying, you know, I'd like to sign up for this. And they fill out a form that says, you know, do you want 1 or 2 tickets? And, you know, you kind of make a commitment to going if you receive the tickets. And they're placed in the drawing, and the drawing is randomized. So we try to make sure that lots of people are getting as many chances as possible to go to these concerts. When they win the tickets, they're notified, they get connected, you know, and the arts organization is notified. These are the names of the people who have won the tickets. Please make sure that they're on your guest list, make sure that they're on your, your will-call list, and they'll go and they'll pick up their tickets for the concert. They have a great time, and after the concert, the listeners, the winners, receive a survey so that they can express their experience for the performing arts organization. And that feedback is given to the performing arts organization, and it can be anonymous or it can be with your name. So sometimes it allows people who are having their very, very first experience with that, that organization, that venue, that piece, whatever it is, to respond to that and say, you know, this was interesting. Or maybe they had— they're like, I couldn't find the entrance for this, and this would be really helpful if you, if you know, kind of made a sign for this in a little bit better way. And Yukimi, I cannot tell you how important it is for us to gather information from first-time concertgoers or people who are new to us as an organization, because so often arts organizations get into the process of only hearing from their biggest donors or the people who've been around them the longest. And because that, that conversation or that dialogue is more comfortable with people that you've built that relationship with, it can be very difficult for arts organizations to know what is a first-time concertgoer experiencing, you know, what, what could be clearer, what feels more inviting to them, what feels more inclusive to them. And this is I am super passionate about this program, obviously, for these reasons. And I just really love that we have this path for people to win tickets, feel like they're experiencing something really awesome that's been given to them, and they get to feel like, this is great. I feel welcomed and accepted here. I had an interesting and fascinating experience., and I want to provide feedback about that to the arts organization. And I have so many arts organizations that also turn around and they'll use that feedback in their grant applications or their grant reports because it's a way that they're reaching new audiences. And you know as well as I do that, you know, one of those huge aspects of, of our field right now is how do we connect with new listeners, or how do we— new to us listeners, you know, any of those kinds of things. How do we connect with people who maybe don't know about us or wouldn't choose this at first because they're a little— I mean, that cost barrier, even if it's a smaller ticket price, can be just enough for someone to decide, well, I'm not really sure about this concert. I don't know what's going to happen here. So I don't really know what to expect. And even if this is a low ticket price, I still, I don't know if this is for me. And so spontaneous free tickets really acts as that welcoming front door that says, come on in, try it out, see if it is for you.

Wow, this is clever. I mean, it's a win-win for both sides, right? Yeah.

And that's, and that's why it's such a positive and powerful program is because I really think that that boils down to some of the values of Live Music Project and how Shia has envisioned all of these programs when we were first starting is that what is the mutual benefit? How is this good for everyone? How do we make sure that we're increasing the pie rather than smaller and smaller pieces of, you know, of the pie chart for everyone?

So is it easy for any musicians to get involved? I mean, to sign up? How can I sign up?

Sure, sure. So this is also why I'm so grateful for you having me on the podcast is I really want to make sure that performers and composers and people who love the arts and are practitioners are actively involved in creating concerts and having concerts. Know that everything is for free on The Live Music Project. And if you come to the site, if you'd like to put your concerts on there, you can just click on that button in the top right and it says register or sign up and it, and you create an account on Live Music Project totally for free. It's very straightforward. It's easy to do. You just wanna have a login so that we can tie your events to you, you know, so you can act actively edit them and all sorts of stuff. So once you've signed up for an account, then you just click on the button that reads create an event and you're able to add all of your concert details. And I'm so grateful that we have our amazing calendar editor Soren Hamm, who is actively looking over all of those concerts and really, we use technology, but it's that technology plus human kind of eyes on things that make sure that all of the concerts, all of the data on the site is cohesive, is accurate, is making sure that we really have that. So you're not coming to the calendar and being like, oh, what kind of spam thing is this? Like, that it's a calendar that's devoid of spam, which is highly unusual in like so many places. So, so when you're creating an event, it's just, you're putting in your information. We're, we're making sure that all of that is accurate, leading people to the right place. And, and so I just, I'm so glad that we're able to kind of get this information in front of more, more practitioners to say, hey, come use the calendar. Create, create your events here and, and share that, that information, the concert information, and we will help push that to a much larger audience and potential listeners.

Wonderful. Can you share some success stories or any— I'm sure you have a lot of— I, I checked out your website, the website, and there are a lot of wonderful, great reviews. So maybe one or two fun stories or feedback from the community of LMP.

And yeah, I think from the practitioner side, one of the stories that I really love to share is about my friend and colleague who's a professional classical guitarist and had an opportunity to perform in the Pacific Northwest, and he was performing in Seattle. And he also used the concert calendar, the Live Music Project concert calendar, to look at other venues that would be programming things that are similar to what he's doing. And he used that to then also reach out and say, would you please consider booking me as part of this tour? So I really think that that's— there's so many ways that we can use this tool as practitioners to share our concert details and connect with listeners, but then using that to kind of also say, okay, well, what else is happening in this area? What are some of the venues or arts organizations that I'm not as familiar with? And then feeling like you have a better sense of what's happening around you. You know what, what, you know, who else is making music in my community, in my geographic community, and feeling like you're part of that. So I have so many performers that also see their concert looking beautiful and, you know, cleanly formatted and everything right next to Seattle Symphony. And we're all part of our music communities and we're all working towards having this really interconnected and vibrant scene. And so seeing your recital next to, you know, the— I— what else? Thinking about seeing your recital next to Carnegie Hall at the same time is a real reminder that we are all working together in this community. We all are part of a scene together, and every person's event counts. Right? You're always in relationship to the things that are happening around you. So that, you know, my friend creating his tour in, in the Pacific Northwest, and then he also used that by putting his concert details on Live Music Project. I remember him performing at his gig and he saw, you know, smaller audience and he saw some people that he knew and then he saw people that he didn't know at all and He went up to them after the performance and said, how did you find out about this? And they said, oh, well, we saw it on LMP, you know. And so it was such a reminder to him that yes, it's a technology tool. We're behind our screens and all of this stuff, but there's real people involved. There are real people looking for these kinds of things. And if we provide a platform to make it easy, people will act on it and they'll go check things out and they'll try something and they'll meet an artist that they didn't know before. And I just clearly, I love all of that. That's stuff that gets me super fired up.

I understand that the LMP is celebrating its 10th year.

Yes, yes, it's our, it's our 10th birthday this year.

Congratulations! Wow. So how, how has the original vision behind this initiative evolved over the years. I'm sure, you know, 2020 affected us in so many ways, and then, you know, we don't necessarily have to focus on negativity, but in, you know, if you look at the positivity, everybody is now on digital, like people, yeah, more people are becoming familiar with gadgets and you know, online meeting and so on.

So you, you just reminded me that because of pandemic, we, we were much more aware obviously of all of the digital and virtual ways that we're making music and connecting that way as well as the in-person format. And for anyone who is making music on, you know, Discord or Twitch or any, you know, any of these various platforms where you are building community, and you're performing, Live Music Project is there to support you in that too. It's not just in person. We have both kind of virtual. You can put your concert details, however you want to think about it, your performance details on the concert calendar and say, you know, this is happening and it's a virtual experience. So come join me over on Twitch and watch this, you know, watch me premiere these pieces, you know, or however you're doing it. And, and so one of the ways I think there's, there's just so many ways that L&P has grown from that, that first initial idea. But the, the fact of the matter is, is that it was always meant to become bigger and bigger, but just easier and easier for people to find out about things. And so that's really the, the beautiful part is that, that the calendar over time when it first started, it was on WordPress and there were some elements that made it kind of clunky in the background, which is why we built an entire calendar, you know, from scratch that, that does all of these things that we want it to do, is that we put in the time and energy and resources as volunteers, as staff, as people who care about their music community to say, what does the community need? Oh, well, they need listeners to be able to find things based on their interests. Okay, well, let's make something so you can search by your interests or find out about things in a really smooth and efficient way. And so I, I think that we were going to talk about that too, is just that, that sense of we're always creating tools based on what our community, both the practitioners and the listeners, are telling us that they need. And it's not saying, oh, well, here we made this and we're going to put this on you, use this thing. It's saying, well, this is what people wanted and they, they couldn't find through other platforms or other tools. And this is specifically for this community so that people can highlight their information, they can amplify what they're doing and really connect with other people who are looking for How can musicians and organizations get involved?

I know I can sign up and create an account and then start putting events and even like program, and I think there are sections where you can also put keyword, for example, by composer or genre and so on. But what else?

So one of the things that I love is if you're interested in in the tools that we have for Live Music Project being more comprehensive or available in, in your geographic region, that I'd love for people to feel like they can join us as a community advocate and that can look like whatever fits into your life. And I think that we want that for our focus cities, as I mentioned. But this can also be if you've been thinking about, wow, why don't we have a calendar for Cheyenne, Wyoming, in the way, you know, where we can all have our concerts there. You do. I have a tool that does that, but I do need more people to get involved and to say, we're going to use this resource, we're going to actively use tools that are made for us as a community so that we can connect with people. But I deeply, deeply appreciate anyone who jumps on board those like those early adopters are key. I like, and that always, always comes from people who are musicians currently or have been, have been practitioners in the past and they love it and they want to see, they want to see the breadth and depth of their music community around them. And so they're willing to jump in and say, sure, I'll add some more concerts. To the calendar. I'll help out, you know, with making sure that we're covering as many venues in my area as possible. And like I said, those early adopters are the people who make the kind of like that momentum happen with Live Music Project. And we, we definitely couldn't do it without our volunteers and our community advocates. Kind of all around the country and beyond. So if you want to see this in your area and you come to the concert calendar and you see, oh, this isn't— we don't really have a ton of things on here yet for my specific area, don't despair, don't leave forever. Say like, oh, well, I can start adding and maybe I can tell my friends about it. And really that's the community advocate role. So I really encourage anyone who cares about supporting their music community to get involved with us in a volunteer capacity. It can be something that really fits your schedule. It doesn't have to be this huge time commitment because I know as creative folks, we are always strapped for time. But we can make choices about, oh, I can give an hour to this. You know, every 2 weeks or once a month or something like that, and, and actually make a huge difference.

Of course. And then also, uh, how can general audience participate in this?

Well, I think that the best way to kind of stay in touch with this is also to sign up for our email list. And if you're living in one of our focus cities right now, that means that you'll get if you're living in one of our focus cities, you'll get a specifically geographic concert listings email once a week. So they go on on Thursdays, and it's just a way that's going to remind you, like, oh, I can just— it's going to show up in my inbox. I can look at it. I can see what's happening around me. What, what looks interesting to me? Oh, maybe I'm going to go to that, or, or congratulate my friend who's doing that concert, or any of that kind of stuff. And then that way it's just kind of there for you in a way that comes to you. It's not, it's not a super big lift, but I would love to see listeners feel like, okay, I'm going to sign up for this email list and then just regularly interact with the site and feel like, oh, I didn't realize that that was happening around me, or I'm going to go check out this, this concert, or I'm going to go tell somebody about this resource. And that's it. It's not, it's not, you know, it's not a huge like barrier. I just want people to feel like they know about Live Music Project and it's there for them to support their needs, both as a listener and as a practitioner.

Amazing. Now, I also want to know some of the key partnerships or maybe collaborations that your organization has formed and maybe how these relationships have benefited the project?

Sure. So I think that we think of all of the people who are putting concerts on the calendar as our music, like our community musical partners and people who are using spontaneous free tickets. So we have a lot of really wonderful relationships with all of these different arts organizations, especially in our focus communities. We have, you know, we have a dialogue, we have a relationship there. And so not only that, but then we also partner with various arts organizations or advocacy organizations so that we can make sure that their, their constituents, their partners know about this as a resource. One of the things that we started doing before pandemic, and I'm really interested in picking this back up, is that we were doing a lot of meetings. In fact, Shia was doing a lot of meetings with various community organizations of all different types where they're working so hard to help people feel, feel welcomed and actualized in their communities. And we would reach out and just say, hey, this exists, this resource exists. If there's any way that we can use this to like support the people who are either working for this organization or the people who are benefiting from this organization, We just wanna make sure that we've connected those dots. So much of what, what I see is that people are doing really amazing work, but be even in a connected and digital age, we feel isolated from each other. We feel like we're just putting something out into the void. Nobody really sees what we're doing. And I think one of the things that makes LMP really special is that bias towards reaching out and saying, hey, I want to— I just want to make sure that we're connected. If there's a way that we can support each other in what we're doing, even if that's knowledge sharing or resource sharing or any of that kind of stuff, that, that's, that's one of our core values, is, is being that, that organization that reaches out and says, hey, let's let's talk, let's see where, where do we overlap so that we can support each other in the work that we're trying to do. Wow.

Now, you know, um, before I started this podcast, I was sort of desperate about audience engagement in the more perspective from the music educator. I teach a lot of piano lessons, and, uh, you know, more and more I reach out to the community. I felt like I was just on my own, you know what I mean? And even the people's awareness of this beautiful high art, classical music, but, you know, classical music meaning it's just, it's a really vast range of repertoire, you know, or genre within the right one big umbrella, right? But then as much as I was educating my students and they have very much access to because I live in New York City, but then they just don't know where to look. So I felt like there was a, like a huge disconnect between us professionals, music professionals, and then the general public. That's one of the reasons I started this. Like I was, I'm trying to connect the dots and then I'm trying to, you know, listen to fellow musicians. Hey, you know, where, how can we connect the dots. What sort of effort should I make, right? Yeah. Did you feel that? Did you feel that as you were starting? All the time.

And I, I want to make sure that I'm expressing this the way that I mean to, which is, I think, as, as individual performers, and we're used to doing so much on our own, and, and the way that the the field has evolved is that, you know, now, now we wear so many hats too. It's, you know, we're— we are our entire fundraising and development team, we are our entire PR and booking team, we are the entire administration team, we are entire operations team for all of the things that we do. And also, you know, we spend— we are so committed to providing these, these musical moments at such a high level that, you know, we also spend so much time in the practice room. And so this, this interconnectedness that I'm looking for, this really spoke to me, you know, Live Music Project. And when I started working with them, I felt like, oh, here's, here it is, here's this way that I can help support the people around me in our community by doing more than than, uh, share, you know, sharing their event on social media. And not to say that that's not, um, not a good way of doing it, it's really important. But what I've found, especially over the last, what, 6, 8 years of social media, is that social media becomes more and more siloed to the people that you are connected with, and the algorithm promotes things where it has already has high engagement. So if you are an emerging musician, if you are an emerging arts organization and you are working really hard to build your audience and cultivate your audience and connect with your audience, social media is barely helping you. Like, and it, and it, for, for all of the reasons that we know, and they are a business and they, they need to generate revenue. And so they're going to turn to, you know, organizations and individuals and say, pay us money and we'll advertise for you. We'll bump up your information. We'll put it in front of people. But if you don't pay us money, then we're gonna basically just like hide all of this, right? It's gonna just be only the people who are already very active around you are going to see that information. And Live Music Project just doesn't work that way. Works the opposite way. It just says you don't have to pay us, you know, thousands of dollars to surface the information about your concert. We want, we want to create this environment in which people are seeking this out and they want to go be in person or virtual and, and connect with other listeners and performers. So I, I know that I am obviously a big fan of social media. But the ebbs and flows of how it works can be very difficult for artists and creative folks to navigate and really connect with people when it comes to your performances, right? Your performance itself is probably not generating a lot of like, you know, rage algorithm points. And so like, if you're not, you know, saying something really inflammatory, with your like, hey, here's my concert that's coming up next week, then it's, it's not being shared as widely. And, and we just deserve to create platforms and spaces where you don't have to say anything inflammatory to connect with people who want to hear your music. So that's not to say that— I'm just saying that the algorithm of social media prioritizes high emotional reaction to things. And so that may not always work in conjunction with us trying to encourage people to, you know, come out to concerts. And I think that that's important.

Yeah, we really need a platform just strictly for classical musicians, right? So that's exactly what your organization is providing.

And I always tell people that are interviewing with Live Music Project, you know, our scope is classical music, but not because we think that classical music is somehow, you know, more important than other kinds of music, but the way that our brains connect with information is that, you know, we know we're trying to find something. And so Live Music Project raises their hand and says, you can find this kind of information here. Right? This is what we do. And so it doesn't mean that we shouldn't be supporting all kinds of music. It just means that if you're looking for this, we're specifically, you know, kind of coalescing and collecting and collating this information for you in a way that tries to make it easier and also tries to make it easier for the people who are working and, and, and in, in the field actively, you know. So, so that's, that's really important to me, is that, you know, it's not, it's not about saying like, oh, we— classical music is the, the highest of the arts. Like, that's just not our vibe. And we just want to make sure that people feel like this is super welcoming because classical music fits in your life just as much as any other genre. And we— there's a place for you here. You know, there's— this is a place where we want you to feel welcomed into trying this out or looking and listening for things that really suit you and feel exciting and, and enjoyable in so many ways.

Hey there, TPP family! The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song is now into our fourth season, and it's all thanks to you. Since 2020, you've been with my journey with the TPP, exploring this burning question: How do we make classical music resonate with today's audience in fresh and captivating ways? 4 years in, and the journey has been nothing short of magical. The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song with Yukimi Song with Yukimi Song isn't just a podcast; it's a movement, a space where pianists, composers, and educators brainstorm, debate, and reimagine classical music's place in our fast-paced world. We're together on a mission: to ensure classical music doesn't just survive but thrives in our modern age. But here's the thing— to keep bringing you these insightful biweekly episodes, I need your help. Every bit of support goes into the podcast's essentials, from hosting to high-quality recording tech, and the countless hours behind the scenes. So, do you want to be part of this journey? Click the PayPal link in the show notes or head to thepianopod.com to donate. And as a token of appreciation, I will personally mail you The Piano Pod's snazzy logo sticker. So hit the subscribe button, spread the word, and let's continue our mission and journey as classical musicians. Now let's continue with the show. Before we go any further with this, your, this project, you know, live music project, I want to know who Megan is. So you, as I can see, you are, you're so such a passionate person. And as I was researching about this project and about you, you wear so many hats. I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah. Incredible. So tell us about you. Maybe you're a celebrated mezzo soprano, but maybe how your musical journey started and maybe who or what have been your greatest influences.

Oh, sure. So as a musician, so I'm from the Midwest originally. I grew up in a very musical and dramatic family. We were involved in music and theater and all sorts of stuff. And so that felt very natural and wonderful to me growing up in that in that environment. And as you know, my kind of— the way that I think about my, you know, my professional life really breaks down into kind of three pillars. So we talked about like the arts administration side, that is the role that I have as executive director with the Live Music Project. And there's also the performing side of my life. So I, I'm mezzo soprano. I always liked My little tagline for that is like, I like to say that I'm dedicated to the performing, commissioning, and proliferation of new music. And so I specifically work in, in contemporary classical music and experimental music. And, and I really love that. It just feels like that's, you know, my happy place as a performer. And I love working with composers to bring their sound world to life And, and so that's the kind of performing side of my life. And it doesn't mean that I don't do all sorts of things. I love to perform, you know, all different time periods of music. I, I just specialize in this one. And, and then the third pillar of my professional life is my coaching and teaching. So I, I run a coaching studio for individual performers and composers on how to just feel like they're running their business instead of it running them and feeling burnt out. And we're like an anti-burnout factory over here. I just want to make sure that people are feeling like they know what they're doing and able to do the kind of work that they want to do, be paid for the kind of work that they want to do, and really do that on a replicable basis. Right? So a lot of the things that we work on in coaching is about how to understand your offers, your clients, and your systems so that you can do this in a, in what feels like a manageable way. It just feels like, oh, I know this process. I'm doing this. If I wanted to grow my business or, or have more of these experiences, I know what I would do to make that happen. It doesn't feel like it's by chance. It feels like you have agency in your creatively professional life, you know, professionally creative life. And so I— so that, and then I also teach for the Peabody Institute in their, in their Breakthrough curriculum. I really love that. And I am in New Orleans, so I get to teach remotely for them, which is really, really wonderful. And I—

yeah, what is this? Yeah, Breakthrough curriculum.

Yeah, right. So this, this is Peabody's professional study you know, department program. And the Breakthrough Curriculum is this— I'm just so impressed with them, and that's why I'm involved as, as a faculty member, is because they've really designed their— this required curriculum. So all of the undergrads and all of the graduate students go through the Breakthrough Curriculum, and it's designed to give them access to faculty members who are working professionals all over the United States. They're also working on real-life concerns. So things like building your brand and portfolio. We're just finishing my spring class right now. So that's your Pitch Your Creative Idea, which is about, at its core, helps students understand the, the parts and pieces of a, of a grant application, how to create projects, understand your audience, do a budget, do a timeline. Understand who the stakeholders are, and then they go through many, many rounds of pitching through written proposals, video pitches, live pitches. So they get really confident talking about their creative ideas and asking people to invest in that. And they can actually go up for money, which I just really love, is that Peabody believes so much in this that any of the Peabody students can go up for the, for the, the grant, the Peabody Launch Grant, and they have access to actually getting real funding for their project ideas. And this, yeah, like I said, it can be any of the Peabody students, but it just shows that Peabody really is walking their talk when it comes to, we want you to be thinking creatively about the kinds of projects that you want to make and, and be a part of. And then, and then we're going to put resources behind that so that you can like see this through and really bring that to your community. So I love those things.

I wish I were much younger and being able to go back to college and take this course. Yeah, it sounds amazing. This is exactly the thing that, you know, we struggle to figure, figure it out, right?

Right. As an adult. Yeah, I, I think the reason— well, and I'm gonna, if you don't mind, I'm gonna go back just a little bit further, which is when I was a student, I left, I finished, you know, I finished my master's, completed my master's, and I was thinking, okay, well, I don't, I don't have access to a lot of financial resources, so I'm going to be working full-time, but then I also want to feel like I'm moving my music career forward. And what does that look like? And I started a blog because back in 2009, that's what we did. That's right. And I started writing about these professional experiences, or, or kind of the, the work that goes into creating and maintaining a career in the arts. And that, as you mentioned, that kind of turned into my podcast. So both The, the Siberitic Singer is the, the blog platform. Studio Class is the podcast that kind of came out of me figuring out, okay, well, how do people actually do this? You know, I, I, I need to be able to pay my bills and I also need to be able to have these artistic experiences in my life. I, I want to be a professional musician. So what does that mean? How do you, How do you go beyond just as a composer? How do you go beyond applying for call for scores as a performer? How do you go beyond a cattle call audition where you're showing up, especially as vocalists, like you're showing up with like 3,000 other people on the same day and being like, please pick me. And so, and, and that's part of it. That's obviously part of what we do in our you know, our professional experiences, but there's so much more than that. And, and I felt like I had, I definitely had people that I was talking to about that while I was in school, but not to the extent that we're, you know, teaching it now. And I definitely see more and more institutions around the United States that are actively putting this into their curriculum. And I really appreciate that. So that students, even if they're not ready to act on those things quite yet in their music careers, they know what it's called. They know who to talk to if they have a question about it. They know what makes— I think there's just even so much of like, what makes a business? As we start to think about it, and I don't mean to say that every musician should be out there thinking of themselves as, you know, that everything that they do musically should be business-focused. I'm just saying it's okay to have the knowledge of this so that it feels more efficient in your life and it feels like something that you get to spend more time on the music-making because the business infrastructure of what you're doing as an artist is, is working. It does what it's supposed to do. And yeah, I think that that's, I, I think that's just really important knowledge for us to pass on to each other and, and feel like everybody's experience is so unique and individual. That, that's also why I really love coaching is, is being able to actually talk about somebody's personal goals. What are personal and professional goals? And let's really work towards that. It's not a one-size-fits-all solution. You know, you have to really help people see like, what does your business look like? What does your infrastructure look like so that you're living the life you want to live?

Oh yeah. And every artist is so different, right? Like, you know, people tend to stereotype classical musicians, but we're so different. And then you can really make it your own way of, of livelihood, right? Yeah.

Yeah. Oh man, some of those things that like we were told, like, um, diversify your income streams or make your own opportunities. That's a big one that I come back to time and time again, is that a lot of people told you that, but then they didn't tell you what that means or how to do it or how to help navigate that in what you want to do. And I think that that's so necessary that we move beyond kind of the soundbite quality of that or the platitudes. Make your own opportunities and be like, hey, this is what making your own opportunities actually looks like. We can extrapolate that and apply it to all these different scenarios and really talk about that. So yeah, I know that I'm definitely soapboxing in this conversation.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, please do. This platform is for that. Maybe I should change the title of the podcast to Soapbox for Musicians.

But obviously, that's just how I want to keep showing up for people. I feel like there is no part of being— even though we spend so much time in individual aspects of our musical lives, there's no part of music making that is totally alone. Right, is that the way that most of us want to do it is not just only playing in our own private spaces for ourselves only. Otherwise, we would never need to connect with anybody. And if that's great, I find that most musicians want to make music for other people, and they want to play either their music for people, other people, or they want to play the music of other people for other people, you know. And so we, with that in mind, is that how do we, how do we just get to that point where we're able to all of that work that we're putting in, in the studio, turn that into really supportive and wonderful experiences with other people, right? We're, we're here and we're making sounds for each other in a way that to like delight and comfort and engage and inspire other people. And I just really— that's, you know, that core concept of audience development is I'm making this for you. Let's see if we can come into the same space and have the best possible experience.

Wow, you sound like a really amazing coach. I would love to get a little bit of energy from you because we all need it. Thanks to be more aware now.

I'll talk to you. Yeah, yeah.

Wow. So if my audience members are interested in your coaching, maybe getting a little bit of a taste of what you do, where is a good place to go?

Following me on social media @mezoinen, M-E-Z-Z-O-I-H-N-E-N, @mezoinen. That's like the first place where you can kind of get a sense of, you know, you've heard me here, but if you want a little bit more sense of like the vibe, things that we're going to talk about, or, you know, any of that kind of stuff, following me on, on social. And then I definitely want to make sure that people know that I do this semi-monthly, uh, $5 coaching giveaway. So if you sign up for my email list, and you can just do that on my website, Megan Egan, M-E-G-A-N I-H-N-E-N, at meganeenan.com. If you just sign up for the email list, you'll find out I, you know, send out that, that giveaway. And it's a chance for people to, to try out coaching, especially if the financial part feels like a barrier. That $5 coaching feeling can really be like a, I'm going to give this a try. Let's see if this can work out for me. Um, so I really want people to feel like they have access to trying it without something being an overwhelming financial barrier. Because I know so many of us are, are really figuring, you know, having to be strong in our priorities about where our finances go. And I— that's, that's important to me. So I try to make, I try to make coaching available for, for people at all different kind of income levels.

And also, the great place to start is your podcast. I, even from the very first episode I listened, I learned so much. It's like, oh yeah, very educational. If you are looking to elevate your classical music career, don't miss Studio Class with Megan Egan. Tune in today for actionable entrepreneurship tips and inspiring journeys from successful artists in Masterclass episodes available on your favorite podcasting platform. Anyway, I mean, we can go on and on about this, and you have to come back and then, you know, just solely focusing on this topic next time, right?

Yeah, anytime. This is so enjoyable to talk to you, and I really am just so grateful that you, you allowed me to come talk to, to your community about Live Music Project, about, you know, all these things that I'm super passionate about. And I, yeah, I just really appreciate that. Thank you so much.

Of course. So looking forward, what are some of the goals or new initiatives you hope to introduce at LMP?

Oh yeah, so exciting. I think that as I kind of teased a little bit earlier, one of the biggest ones is going to be spontaneous free tickets. With the new platform, that also means that we can invite so many more people to be involved with it, which means that we can take spontaneous free tickets to multiple communities. It can be available in so many different places. So if anybody's listening and they're, they're excited about having that kind of tool, please, please reach out and let me know if you'd like to pilot spontaneous free tickets in your community. When we launch that. And it, that part feels so exciting. So those with the Live Music Project concert calendar and with Spontaneous Free Tickets, both of those are, you know, these are ongoing programs, but both of them are in these amazing points of growth now. So it's really this exciting time to see both of them. With the concert calendar is really about You know, can we support more, more geographic communities in the United States and beyond? And also Spontaneous Free Tickets, the same thing. Can we support more new listeners? Can we support more arts organizations in various communities, you know, especially around the United States, to, to welcome people into what they're doing? And, and so those are the things that I'm super excited about. I— there's— there are definitely lots of tools and things that we're kind of building in into the long term. And I, you know, I— we're not at a place where I get to like tease those quite yet, but I'm looking forward to when next time when I come back, I'll just say a little something like— so, so I'm, you know, I hope that people will kind of keep an eye out for Live Music Project and And so they can see, like I said, these, these two growing and then also see as we're, as we've unveiled those and continue to make those really useful tools that they can see these other tools that we've been kind of working and building in, in, you know, in the lab, if you will, and then bringing that to, to our community. So that's what I'm excited about. And then musically, I'm just also really excited about I have some exciting performances coming up. I'm in a voice and saxophone duo called MIATP, and we have this kind of abstract narrative show that we do. And I'm really— I always love sharing that in all of these different performance opportunities. So hopefully, you know, anybody who's kind of into that, you know, new music from lots of different influences, Black Meridian is this show that kind of incorporates you know, there's a Sarah Bareilles song and then there's kind of like a, you know, microtonal contemporary classical piece and there's a Vondelweiser piece and there's a prog rock inspired piece. And so if you are the kind of person that likes all those different influences in kind of contemporary classical music or this kind of art music medium, then definitely keep an eye out for that.

Yes. And I know your recordings are so interesting too. So you can, you know, for my audience, if you are interested in listening to Megan's recordings, check out— she has a page on Spotify and also I'm sure other music streaming services as well.

Yeah, check it out. And especially, you know, if you are interested in living composers and the music of living composers, obviously that's something that I'm really passionate about. And I work with so many different composers and they have They all have, you know, music for piano. They all have chamber music things to check out. So even if you're using that to kind of find a new-to-you composer to connect with, I've worked with so many amazing people and they're always wanting to just work with other performers. And so if that's something that your listeners are interested in and maybe they're feeling, you know, they want to, they want to get more involved with contemporary music or they want to work with living composers, you know, come check out my stuff and connect with those composers and see what they have available for your instrument.

What are your thoughts on maintaining the relevance of classical music and ensuring the thriving of the industry in this country? Hmm.

Yes, I think that we are at such an exciting time, but exciting times can also feel very scary and uncertain. And the way that listening to music overall has changed so dramatically in our lifetimes that, that I, I really want to continue to stress to people that classical music isn't going anywhere. It's not dying. There's— I mean, I've lived in large and tiny, tiny communities all over the United States. And, and there's always classical music there, right? And so I want people to be reminded not to lose hope, that there are people that want to hear the music that you're making and why you're making it. And it can be as easy as starting a conversation with somebody and then just welcoming them to check it out. Like you said, you know, yeah, I, I'm like, I, yes, I am that weird extrovert person who at the hotel is like, is talking to, you know, the person behind the desk and getting them to be like, oh, I'll check you out on Spotify. And then they like listen to you like, but we, even if being that extroverted is not your, your style, there are so many ways to, to connect with people and, and just allow them opportunities to, to feel supported and engaged and inspired by your music making. So one of the key points is, is don't lose hope. And when you're feeling burnt out and when you're feeling, you know, dismayed or disheartened about it, is connect with other people who can remind you that what we do is so inspiring and such a gift. And go, go play for 2 people, go play for 10 people, go play for, you know, it's the number of people that you're playing for is not as important as how, how you're connecting through music and, and being there for people through music in your lives. So it's, it's so important for us not to forget that or get too disheartened, you know, in our day-to-day experience. You know, we're always going to have to raise more money. We're always going to have to like communicate with people. We're always going to have to share details about things and inform people and that's going to ebb and flow. So make sure that you're surrounding yourself with people who keep you inspired to keep doing it. And so that's— yeah, I think that that's probably it. The relevance of classical music, I think, is what we make it. Is what you're doing in your music making relevant to you and relevant to the people that you're making it for, then keep going, you know. And if you feel like you're engaging in music that isn't relevant to other people, then ask yourself if you have, you know, if you have a way to influence the decision-making. So many people forget that they can probably join a board, they can probably, you know, like write an email of support or, you know, encouragement or any of that kind of stuff. You— there are so many ways that we can find more agency in what we're doing in classical music and be able to kind of continue to create the world that we want to live in. And if you're not seeing that, keep searching. I promise you that there are people in your community that want to do the things that you want to do. And, and obviously someone who does this classical music advocacy and tech for good is that I know the value of using the technology tools that we have at our disposal to connect with people so that we can like join together. When you're trying to do it all by yourself, it's so hard. It's so hard. So, and we, we can't forget that, you know, It takes a village and we're part of that village. You know, we all have to kind of show up for each other.

Wonderful. Well, thank you. It's been a really great conversation. You inspired me so much. And also I have gained, you know, practical tools, practical knowledge. So for those who are listening and watching this show, please visit livemusicproject.org. And also there is an Instagram account @livemusicproject that you can follow. And so you can check out, you know, other artists' upcoming performances. And also you can also post your performances and events on its website. And also if you are interested in learning more about Megan and Megan's business and so on, go to meganeenan.com, and I will list all the links in the show notes. All right, so this has been really a fun, inspiring conversation, Megan. But before I let you go, we have one more thing to do, which is called The Piano Pod with rapid-fire questions. So this is the part of the show where I get to ask fun questions to each guest. But now here's a little twist. As silly as these questions may sound, your answers may reveal who you truly are.

Oh, yes.

So, but I want you to answer them with the shortest responses as possible. No explanation is necessary. Okay, so let's start with level 1, easy ones. What is your comfort food?

What is my comfort food? My comfort food is pasta and cheese of any kind.

Oh yes, great. Me too. How do you like your coffee in the morning?

Black. Just plain black. And hot.

Are you a cat person or dog person?

A dog person.

Okay. Do you have one or?

I have. He passed away recently and so I miss him very, very much. But, and I have a slight fear of cats. So I'm working on it. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Sunrise or sunset?

Sunset.

Summer or winter?

Summer. I'm a summer solstice baby, so I have to say summer.

So now level 2. What skill have you always wanted to learn but haven't had a chance to?

Oh, um, photography. Oh yeah, yeah, beautiful.

What is your word or words to live by?

Oh, you know, my, my word for this year is effervescent. So that's the one that's kind of guiding light for the, for this year.

And how are you doing so far this year?

Ups and downs.

It's ups and downs, as life is always, you know.

It's just there like to kind of help guide things throughout the day and just be like, okay, all right, great.

All right, what is the most important quality you look for in other people?

I think the one that's the most meaningful to me is self-awareness. I, I really work well with people that can, can see themselves and know what their motivations are and what their values are and all of that kind of stuff. It just, it makes everything, uh, so much more enjoyable and and clear, and you just really feel like you know people that way.

Now, I want you to name 3 people who inspire you, living or dead.

Lorraine Hunt Lieberson is like a singer that passed away, but I, I, she has always been just such an inspiration to me. So that's definitely musically someone that I find really inspiring. My, my mom. I know that's kind of a silly, like, uh, answer, but I really— my mom is just so wonderful and just really inspires me all the time, and as a musician, but also as just the way that she is compassionate and caring with people, and it means a lot to me. And let's see here, I also, I'm a giant nerd for Frederick Law Olmsted, who was a— so the creator, you know, the of Central Park. He's the person— yeah, landscape person, landscape architect. And, and I think that so randomly, those are the people that— and I find a lot of like inspiration from people who get really— are you— they're just really passionate about what they do, and then they also just find all these ways to like welcome people into that thing. So Frederick Law instead is, is passionate about what makes a good public space and like a park. And, you know, how do we feel invigorated from being in this natural environment without, you know, over— overdoing something, but allowing nature to be so special and wonderful. And so I think that that's anyone that I get inspired by has those qualities of, of just kind of getting really interested in something and then also just welcoming people into it.

And a little bit of obsession, right?

Yeah. Yeah. You know, I just get like so, so excited about certain ideas or sounds or, or shapes or timbres or any of that kind of stuff. And, and we just, it's like, it, it's really decorating your life experience in such a way where it's, you know, life can be so hard. And, uh, and when we allow ourselves to stay in alignment, connected to our creativity and seeing that around us, you know, seeing how things are creative and connected and, and all of that just allows us to kind of And I think that that's so important as artists is that we keep that, keep that level of excitement, passion, obsession, you know, focus, that kind of like the hyperfocus on things that we do because it, it illuminates what's, you know, small but profound, you know, and that's, that's a really important quality that we bring to the world as artists. So I want us to kind of stay close to that.

Now 2 more to go. Okay.

Oh, okay.

They are difficult.

Yes. Okay. I'm still rapid fire. Rapid fire.

Name one piece in your current playlist.

Okay. I listen to this artist, is an EDM artist named Grizz, and they came out with a track called Airplane Mode, which is just about like disconnecting from everything and get in, you're having kind of summer feelings. And because we are currently, you know, heading into summer, that's high on my playlist at the moment.

Okay, what's the name of the artist again?

His name is Grizz, G-R-I-Z. So he is on a hiatus at the moment, but definitely check out, you know, anything that he's recorded before and created. And it just feels yeah, Airplane Mode is one of those tracks that makes me feel like, ah, free.

Great. I will check it out. Now, last question. Fill in the blank. Music is blank.

Well, music is sound ordered in time, but also music is connection for me. And I think that that's, you know, So exciting. So yeah, so music is connection. That's what I feel.

Wonderful. Ding ding, you won. This concludes the episode of The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song with Megan Faulkner Brown. Thank you, Megan, for joining my show and sharing such a positive energy and your stories, insights, and expertise. You're amazing. So for The Piano Pod listeners and viewers, please visit livemusicproject.org to get involved with the live music project and visit meganeenan.com to learn more about Megan. Of course, I encourage you to follow them on social media. All the links are listed in the show notes. Thank you to my wonderful audience and fans for tuning in. If you enjoyed today's episode, please rate and review it on whatever podcasting platform you use. Remember to hit the thumbs up button, to subscribe to my YouTube channel, and follow us on social media to get the latest piano news via Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn. I will see you for the next episode of The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song with Yukimi Song with Yukimi Song.

Bye everyone, and thank you, Megan. Thank you. Thank you so much.