Season 4 Episode 8: Carlos Franzetti & Allison Brewster Franzetti -- Grammy/Latin Grammy Winners

Happy December!

And welcome back to another episode of The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song— here tradition meets innovation. We bridge the timeless beauty of the piano with the dynamic pulse of today's world. I am your host, Yukimi Song. It's that time of the year when we're all buzzing with excitement, surrounded by friends and family, soaking in the holiday vibes. I hope you're feeling the festive spirit no matter where you are tuning into this episode. By the way, this is The Piano Pod's last episode of the year 2023. What a fantastic year I've had as a host of the show, connecting with you and with incredible guests through this magical medium of podcast. And I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you for tuning in to The Piano Pod throughout 2023. Your support has been the greatest encouragement that has fueled my passion for sharing the world of piano with you. Whether you are a dedicated listener or a casual viewer of The Piano Pod, your presence has made this journey truly remarkable. It's been an incredible and meaningful year for me, and I couldn't have done it without you. So thank you. As we are ending the year 2023, I want to assure you that The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song is only getting started. So stay tuned for the year 2024, where we have an exciting lineup of guests ready to share their thoughts, ideas, and expertise. And I am thrilled to bring you more inspiring conversations, captivating performances, and behind the scenes into the world of classical music. Okay, So to end the year 2023 on a positive note, I want to bring you a love story. It's the story of two incredible souls who not only found love for one another but also shared a deep passion for music. You know those couples that just radiate power and success, and we call them power couples? And we've got our own power couple in our industry. They are Grammy and Latin Grammy Award winners and nominees, Carlos Franzetti and Allison Brewster Franzetti. Carlos and Allison are partners in life and music, making beautiful melodies together, and I mean it literally. So let me first introduce Mr. Carlos Franzetti, composer, arranger of 5 Latin Grammy Awards and a Grammy Award, a musical virtuoso of unparalleled versatility. His talent spans classical symphonies, big band jazz, Latin American rhythms, and captivating film scores. His compositions have graced stages globally, from the Boston Pops to Prague, uniting hearts worldwide. In jazz, he collaborated with celebrities like Arturo Sandoval, crafting unforgettable recordings. Mr. Franzetti's artistic imprint shines through in beloved films such as The Mambo Kings, enriching the narrative tapestry of cinema. His ongoing creative journey delights enthusiasts with recent hits like Legacy and Minotaur in the Labyrinth. Born in Buenos Aires, Mr. Franzetti's musical journey began at 6, studying at prestigious schools like Juilliard. He pursued his dreams, becoming a global citizen through music. His compositions bridge cultures, uniting audiences through his extraordinary music and recordings. Now let me introduce pianist Allison Brewster Franzetti. A renowned artist celebrated for her exceptional musicality. She's received accolades from prestigious organizations like the Latin Grammy and Grammy Awards. Ms. Franzetti's career spans solo performances at iconic venues like Carnegie Hall, collaborations with renowned artists, and orchestral engagements with groups like the Brooklyn Harmonic. As a prolific recording artist, Her latest solo project, Pianista, earned a Silver Award from the Global Music Awards. Ms. Franzetti's influence goes beyond performance. She's an acclaimed author, composer, and editor, contributing to notable publications and collaborating with esteemed musicians. Her educational background includes degrees from the Manhattan School and Juilliard. In academia, she holds positions at Kean University, Rutgers University, and various music festivals. Ms. Franzetti's diverse talents and contributions to classical music and the arts have earned her recognitions from foundations and societies, cementing her status as a distinguished pianist and a globally respected artist. Before we dive into this special episode featuring Allison and Carlos, a warm welcome to all newcomers joining The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song with Yukimi Song. Today, I am a classical pianist and educator based in New York City, the creator and executive producer of this show. Whether you are fully immersed in a piano career, deeply engaged in a classical music scene, or simply drawn to the beauty of the piano melodies, this podcast grants you an exclusive pass into the captivating world of the piano. To all our loyal TPP fans and listeners, Just a quick reminder to rate and review the show on your favorite podcasting platform because your ratings and review will play a crucial role in helping others discover this podcast. So grab your hot cocoa and brace yourself for the inspiration that awaits from Carlos and Allison's incredible journey. Welcome to the final episode of 2023.

Please enjoy the show.

You are listening to The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song where we to the brightest minds in the industry about how they are bringing the piano into the 21st century.

Welcome to The Piano Pod, Allison and Carlos. Thank you so much for being here.

Well, we're delighted to be here. Thank you so much for inviting us.

Yeah, for having us.

Well, thank you. So you were both introduced to me by Donna Wang Friedman, who is a producer, concert pianist, and she was actually on The Piano Pod as a guest in Season 2. And then I think Donna is your really close friend.

She's been my friend for many, many years, and I'm a huge admirer of her work and all the accolades she's getting for Never Fade Away. Very exciting to see what she created and all the recognition she's really truly deserving to get for such an extraordinary project.

Absolutely. Absolutely. So a quick shout out to Donna. Thank you. And if you are listening, I love the morning of the interview session, you usually after I make my coffee and I start my day because I get to listen to the music of the guest of that day that I'm about to interview. And then this morning I've been listening to your— both of your music throughout the morning. And so in my YouTube playlist, I had started out with a Passacollier, but the two-piano version, which led— right, I also— I realized that there's an actual version in the CD album, one of the CD albums you have, but This was particularly the two-piano version both of you are playing, and then which led me to Circle the Alaval.

Yes, Circle the Alaval. Ah, that's a fun video with a small orchestra chamber, a few strings and a couple of woodwinds, flute and clarinet, and of course Alison playing piano and Carl's playing piano. And we also have this Argentine— well, actually it's a German instrument, the bandoneon. But adapted for Argentine tango. And like the guitar, it was recorded, what, 10, 12 years ago?

It was 2012. It was right before Hurricane Sandy, actually. And we flew back from Buenos Aires right after Hurricane Sandy. We were able to see the devastation of the area from the air. And then, of course, had a lot of trouble getting home from Kennedy Airport at the time, but managed it. Because so many roads were closed here.

Right. But the gas stations weren't giving gas either.

But the video itself, that was a really, really fun project. All the music was composed by Carlos. During the— with the recording, we had forgotten a baton, and so we used a straw to conduct when we were switching off. So, but you can't tell that it's a straw in the video. That's actually what it was. Really?

Wow. But I also noticed Alison, you were conducting too. So you took turns, like, you know, while Carlos was playing the piano, Alison conducted, and then vice versa. And I really enjoyed the video. And at one point, it was like 45 minutes of sort of like a documentary where you performed, but also there was like a talk in between. So I also watched the video clip of your performance of Lamento, which is the orchestral work by you, Carlos, and of course The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song with Alison.

Actually, it was composed a couple of days before we went to a recording session in Prague, and I came out with this tune, this very simple tune, and Alison said, "Wait, what is that?" I said, "Well, you know, it's something that, you know, came out, and I, you know, I'm gonna write it down." And I started writing it, but we were leaving in 2 days, so I wrote kind of half of it, you know, with orchestration and then we left. We went to Prague and recorded. And the contractor, fixer they call us over there, of the orchestra, a very good friend of ours, James Fitzpatrick, said, by the way, you know, tomorrow instead of having half a session, you have the whole morning. So record whatever you want. And I said, well, you know, I have this piece, but I left it in the computer. I mean, it's, and I think that I had emailed it to Alison's computer.

You had. I was able to access the file. Carlos and the Dixieland also had finale.

Right. So then I went and finished the orchestration and we recorded it the next day. I mean, she sight read and it's a very simple piece, but it was nice to do it. On the spur of the moment and said, wow, this is not going to die or live in a drawer. And we were happy to record it.

Right. So Carlos finished it in Finale. I extracted all the parts. The fixer printed all the parts and put them together. And the next day we just went and did it.

Oh my goodness.

Wow.

Yeah. But I noticed that there were one or two CD albums that you performed with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.

Yeah, yeah, the City of Prague Philharmonic. Actually, we did a lot of work. You know, I was called to do some arrangements for a very good jazz saxophonist about 20 years ago, and they said, uh, the recording will be in Prague. I said, well, you know, wonderful. We had been there before with Allison doing some of the projects. So I then I discovered this wonderful orchestra, and, and I became very good friends with this person, James Fitzpatrick, who was the producer and contractor. And then I had other projects and I mentioned this orchestra. So I was going to Prague like twice a year recording there and I became very fond. It's a beautiful city. So did Alison. I mean, we did many albums of ourselves and then of other people as well, singers and musicians, saxophonists Oh, wow.

We have to talk more about your compositional genres and styles, Carlos, because your style ranges from, you know, pure classical music to jazz, obviously, to Argentine tango. But before that, I really want to talk about you as a couple. So you each demonstrate really individual achievements, and then together with your collaboration, you leave such a huge impact in our industry and society. And then through your strong partnership, you have inspired so many musicians and music lovers around the world. So, you know, people call you a colla duo, like you, it's a power couple, right?

And then just like it, actually, we have been referred to that way, which we find really fascinating because we really just do what we do and we don't put a label on us. Like other people would do at all.

And the good thing is that, I must say, I mean, she's the pianist, she's the concert pianist. I am not. I am a composer. But we both do things. I mean, she had composed a great number of music and tunes and for shows and things and orchestrate and, as you said, conduct the City of Brachylo Monique when I was playing. And on the side, I, you know, I did my classical training on piano and study and whatever. I did the basic repertoire, but my love was in composition. So we share things, but we don't get to the point of competing. You know, like yesterday, all of a sudden I was there like, I said, why don't you play the Brahms Intermezzo that I love so much? And, and, you know, which one is that?

Opus 118, No. 2, the A major.

Beautiful, beautiful piece. And she played it. She said, well, I'm gonna download the music on her iPad and started playing, and it was just like a perfect performance, which I can't do.

Yeah, so, uh, but I don't improvise like you. Well, but so there you go.

That's what I mean about that. We come kind of, we It's not that we compensate each other.

We complement.

We complement.

That's the word you're looking for.

You know, and as I said, we never got into a competition. You know, look, I mean, you know, the way— place your hand.

And that's really true. I mean, it's— we've been extraordinarily fortunate that way. We're very, very respectful of each other's work, very separately, as well as everything that we've done together. And we started out knowing each other professionally first. So, you know, people have asked us over the years, well, aren't you prejudiced because you're married? And I said, well, frankly, no, because the first months that I knew Carlos was strictly a professional relationship. And so I think—

Alison had a trio. I'm sorry for interrupting.

It's okay.

Go ahead.

A chamber trio of saxophone, piano, and cello. Instead of violin, cello, piano. And the one of the, two of the people, I mean, like my music or one of them, you know, the cellist, and approached me and asked me to write for them for this trio called Urban Birds. I said, fine, I would love to. And so they came to my house and they commissioned me this music. I always said on the second visit, Alison gave me a check.

It's actually true.

Because, you know, they pay for the, I mean, We pay for the arrangement.

This is what you did. Here, here I'm paying you for it.

And then they played it, and then I brought some music for them, and they played some other music, and then we started seeing each other. I mean, but this happened like 6 months after that. So, and since then Alison has performed a lot of my music. I've written a lot of music for Alison. I had a piano concerto at that time, but then I got a commission from the Philharmonic of Buenos Aires. To write a piece. And I said, well, you know, I'd like to write a piece, a new piano concerto. What about if Alison plays it? He said, fine. So we did it at the Teatro Colón in Argentina. And then I got some of the music that I, you know, I wrote for you. I mean, from, for the album Alman.

You've written all sorts of music for me.

A lot of music. A lot. And this suite, you know, the suite for The Minotaur. For 3 pianos. But Alison was— initially it was going to be played by 3 pianists and then COVID and the problem of getting people together and one of the pianists lived in, in Europe, the other one was someplace else and we could never get not even a rehearsal. And 3 pianos, you need a place with 3 pianos. So we went over and over this and finally we decided to record it ourselves. Overdubbing, and Alison did it at the Skywalker Studio in San Francisco— San Rafael, actually.

So that recording we had done December of 2021, and that's what came out in March, and that's the record called Pianista, and that's on Navona Records, which is part of Parma Recordings. Yeah, so I basically— so I overdubbed, and when I was learning the other parts, because I was originally playing piano too, which is really the motor behind the whole thing in many ways. I had to learn the other parts. So I was practicing to a click, which is how I also recorded to a click track, which made it of course much easier. So I would record one part and then I could hear the part I already recorded with click when I recorded the next part. And so the little editing that had to be done was done right then and there. As I recorded each part so that when, when we finished all the recording, the suite was already edited. All we had to do when we got back here was to have it mixed and mastered. And the other pieces that I recorded required very little editing. So it was a pretty quick process to be able to turn it around from the raw recording to actually the finished product.

Wow, that's amazing. That's the album Pianista, which was released this March, March 2023, and you already received an award, a silver award for outstanding achievement from the Global Music Awards, correct?

Correct.

Well, congratulations. And so I was wondering about the 3 piano parts. It's like, how in the world did it happen? But it was the dubbing, putting the recording together.

It was always done for the people who done— I mean, you record one track and then on a multi-track recording room in the past, now on computers or whatever, you record the second track as if you were listening to the first track played by another person, another pianist, and then you add the third and final track. So it is multi-tracking. We will be doing this live but with 3 pianists when in February 11th at Clavier House in New York.

And so What I did for the other pianists is I took MIDI files at the tempo which I actually recorded everything, and I made music minus one, right? So that they can hear the parts that they're not playing and practice their part with it so they know how things work ahead of time, which is going to save us an awful lot of rehearsal headache. I did that myself also, that I would even record myself playing to click, play a part, and then practice with that too. So I got used to what the process was actually going to be when we recorded it. So I was really prepared at the time.

Wow. So, uh, the— at the Klavierhaus, you'll be performing, but actual performance, you will perform with the—

I'll have two other pianists, two other pianists, young women who have both studied with me, are going to play piano 2 and 3. Respectively. And the other music, actually Carlos is going to play with me on the 3 pieces that are online, the Pasacalla, the Tango Fatal, and Argentum. And then there's a suite by Amanda Harburg, who's an excellent composer, 2-piano suite that I'm doing. And then there's 1-piano Four Hands by Alan Shawn, whose music I recently performed at the Beddington and a piece of his that I'm going to do with one of the other pianists. So, that's what's like, you know, one piano, two piano, three piano is basically the idea of the concert.

Oh, wonderful. That is exciting. I have to be there. Yes, I'll be definitely.

Okay. We'll let you know.

No, great. Thank you. Wow. But three piano is a very unique idea. You know, usually it's two, and so I was wondering how this would work, but it sounds like—

It was a commission from somebody from San Francisco. The person, the name is Ted Viviani, and he had commissioned me before a two-piano concerto.

Not for me.

Which I wrote, yeah, for two other pianists. And it was recorded in Prague, as a matter of fact. And he was commissioning other composers to do music for two pianos. And then all of a sudden he came with this idea of three pianos. I said, "With orchestra?" "No, no, just the 3 pianos." I said, "Fine." You know, and it's challenging. It's very challenging to write that. Obviously, there's a lot of counterpoint involved, and there are not too many pieces for 3 pianos. And I mean, there are pieces written for 4 pianos like Le Nos, but that's, you know, that's Stravinsky.

Carlos, so you also produced and released your album this year. It's called Legacy, correct?

In Legacy is a compendium of different 30 years of music that I wanted to put together thinking about what I consider to be most, not important, but the music that I preferred of all the hundreds of pieces that I have composed. And this includes a full symphony, my first symphony, and also pieces from Piano Concerto Number 2 that I wrote for Alison. A piece for violin and orchestra which I wrote right after September 11th. It's an homage to, you know, to the victims. And also an intermezzo from my opera Corpus Evita, which is an opera that I recorded also in San Francisco and it was performed there and now it's opening again next year in February in in Palo Alto, California.

And Carlos got a Grammy nomination for the composition of that opera.

Oh, wow.

I lost to William Balkan, which he deserved to win. I mean, he wrote beautiful music, so I'm not sorry, sorry about it.

Both of you are such incredible musicians. Like, you know, both are nominated for Grammy, Latin Grammy both, and Carlos, you won 5 awards 6 Grammys.

Yeah, 2 in composition, 2 in tango, and 1 with an album that I did a duet with a fabulous jazz bass player, Eddie Gomez.

And the Grammy was producing, um, that was Ruben's, uh, Ruben Blades.

Yeah, Ruben Blades. So, and yeah, yeah, I get— I, I was very fortunate to Wow.

And then, Alison, you are also nominated.

Yeah, I've been nominated twice for Grammys and three for Latins. And my name is on one of his wins. Carlos won for composition. It was a piece that I recorded, but I'm not the winner because the piece won, not the recording itself.

In my book, you are.

Aw, that's so sweet.

Yeah, it's so sweet. Just about 30 years married.

And yeah, I'm still—

Yes, that's so cute. Wow. But this is a huge thing. You know, any musician would dream, especially classical musicians, would have this sort of— just to be even nominated, it's a huge deal. I know I wanted to talk more about you as a couple, but we'll get back to it. But How did you start your musical journey? I mean, to get to the Grammy nominee, Grammy Award winner, I mean, where was, where is the start for you?

I mean, I've been doing music, I'm, you know, I never hide my age. I'm 75. I was born in 1948 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and music was always something that I wanted to be, musician. I mean, from the the time that I started playing piano at 6, and later on I got more and more involved in music to the dismay of my parents who, they wanted me to be a doctor or whatever, architect, and but music prevailed and I was a professional musician when I was 18, playing, writing my first arrangements and then I—

Actually it was earlier than that.

Well, yeah, you can say, well, when you're 10 or 11, but I mean—

Well, but he had his own television show.

You cannot tell me— It wasn't mine. I I used to sing.

Really?

Yes, and that's one of the reasons I became an arranger because I was in a show, a big orchestra and everything, and I needed arrangements every week. And I had to pay from my own pocket. So I was spending a lot of my money in arrangements and I couldn't repeat the same songs on the second show or the third, whatever. So I said, well, how difficult can this be? So I started and said, well, I'm going to write an arrangement. And I wrote the very simple arrangement for strings and woodwind, and it went fine. And all the singers from the show said, who wrote that chart for you? I said, I did. Look, can you write for me? I said, sure. And then I started writing for other people, and I found that's what I wanted to do. I didn't want to be a singer. I didn't want to be a pianist. I to be a composer arranger. And by the time I was 21, I left Argentina, I went to Mexico, uh, where I also studied. In, in Mexico, I started with a very good composer, Humberto Hernández Medrano, and I lived there for 3 years. And that was really my school because I was writing all kinds of arrangements, from classical to mariachi to Latin music, and my dream was to be in New York, to be in, you know, in the United States, to live in New York and to play in New York. And by 1974, I had been here as a tourist. By 1974, I moved here. Very happy with it.

Now, so, you know, Carlos, as a composer, you compose for orchestra, classical style, jazz, and Argentine tango. So where was the beginning? Did you start as a classical musician, classical training?

Well, the classical training helped tremendously because I, I had the know-how of writing for orchestra, you know, the instrumentation, the range of instruments and things like that. But when I first came to New York, I mean, I wasn't going to get an offer to, uh, to write symphonies or anything like that, so I had to play with whatever was available. I could play piano, I could write. So I started playing for Latin bands, for salsa bands. That was the New York, the big productions of Latin music by Fania Records with people like Tito Puente and Celia Cruz and Ruben Blades and Willie Colon. And I started learning those styles of, you know, what they call the montunos and things like that. So I started writing and playing, and then eventually I started playing and writing for other people. Then I started writing music for commercials, for TV and radio, what they call jingles, which is very lucrative and kind of a secret world because you have some of the best musicians in the world playing there for you. Nobody knows who's playing on a clay roll or whatever I mention any of the products that I was writing for. But you have people, the concertmaster from the New York Philharmonic, and you have some of the best. I mean, at that time, Mike Brecker, Randy Brecker, Lou Solov, and the— I mean, all the best musicians in the world were playing in, in, uh, you know, in those orchestras to do the jingles. And I, I think I did that for about 25, 26 years. Unless you're in the business, unless you're part of this commercial advertising world, you don't know who's doing what because it, you know, I mean, they played on TV. You say, well, you know, this is a nice, nice jingle or this is horrible, whatever. You never know who wrote it, who's playing there and who's singing. So, um, as I said, this is, this was a very lucrative career, but also kind of a secret. And it gave me time to write other types of music that I wanted to write. It also gave me access to other musicians who were fine musicians. I said, would you like to play this? Would you like to record it? Yeah, absolutely. So, and that's why I said that my commercial in record career started later than that. And that's why the Grammys and all that.

For some things that's true, but then—

No, because I was, you know, basically involved in writing music for commercials.

Well, yeah, but what he's not telling you is there's a record of his that has become this super cult classic. That's— this is a really cool story and it's your story. So you better know. Graffiti is your story. You get to tell it.

Well, briefly, uh, it's a recording that I did in 1977. It was called Graffiti. I did it in one day and, um, the record was never released properly. Nothing happened with this recording. I totally forgot about it. I gave one copy to my mother and, you know, friends.

But understand what's on it is that it's all stuff that— yeah, all my music, and plus he's playing on it and he's singing on it, and he's got these amazing musicians on it. And at the time, it was really a groundbreaking kind of musical event. But to do what—

yeah, 20 years after that, I got a call from London, and they wanted to put one of the tracks of Graffiti on a compilation. And I said, fine, you know, I mean, how do you know this tune? Oh well, you know, we heard it in a disco. I gave them the rights, they put it out. And 10 years after that, I got a call from, from Germany. They wanted to put out the whole album. Last year, another call from England. They, they put out the album in, in England. But the thing is that at one point with Google and everything, I started looking for graffiti and I found my album going in an auction for $500.

Oh wow.

And I said, well, I don't even have an album. I don't think I want to spend $500 on an old album. It became kind of a hit on, in the discos.

Yeah, in London, this particular track called Coco Funk.

Coco Funk. And as a result of that, last year, no, this year, This year? We went to— last year I was in London. I, you know, I saw the people and I did an interview for the BBC with Giles Peterson. Last year I thought I was going to be there 10 minutes. I was there for 2 hours. And this year they invited me. We went back to England. This time we sailed on the Queen Mary 2 and I was invited to this record release party where they had my albums as well and to sign some copies. I said, "Fine, maybe sign one copy, whatever." No, I was there, there was a lot of people bringing me not only that album but also other albums that I have done.

First pressings though, understand. The original pressings of all these records, some of which we don't have either.

Right, right.

And all these people are like, "Hosanna, hosanna." We're, we're so excited to meet you. You are a legend to us. It was really fun to watch that. It really was. DJs from all over the UK converged on this bookstore in the East End of London. I mean, it was such a gasp to see The Piano Pod.

So that kind of answers your question. It was an accumulation of things during the years and then As I said, when I quit the business of doing music for shampoos and airlines, I started writing more music and releasing more music. And I was lucky to be on a label like Sunnyside Records and also Chesky Records, where Allison also recorded. Some of those products were out, and I was amazed when I first got my first nomination. We were in Argentina with Allison doing concerts in Chaco.

Yeah, we were in the, right, which is the north of Argentina.

The north of Argentina, you know, it was It was a festival and we were going to play, but we did play and—

Anyway, and I had submitted this recording. I submitted it. Carl was like, forget it. He's like, forget it. And I was like, I have a feeling I'm submitting it.

It was Tango Fatal. And we were in a hotel. I got a phone call from a friend and said, oh, you got a Grammy nomination.

You got a—

I said, what? What do you mean? He's in the papers. So I bought the newspaper and there I was. And thanks to her. And we forgot about it. I mean, you know, we went, we did our concert, we came back, we decided to go to the ceremony. And the ceremony was going to be on September 11th, 2001. We got there the day before. We flew the day before.

And I originally had planned to fly the day of and Carlos was like, no, "Um, you're coming with me the day before." So I did.

Well, the worst that could happen, I mean, you know, just imagine, but I mean, you could have been stranded. Anyway, everything was canceled, of course, you know, and this is on a Tuesday, and on Friday we rented a car and drove back from Los Angeles to New Jersey.

We couldn't get any other way. We tried to get on trains to Chicago, buses to Chicago, anywhere. We couldn't get anything. And so I started calling rental car companies. We got one of the last cars out, in fact, that we could get. And yeah, we drove home.

Oh my goodness, what a story.

But, and then, and then 3 months after that, they call me on the phone, the president of the Recording Academy, and said, uh, we would like you to come to Los Angeles. There's going to be a this presentation of the Grammys that we couldn't do, and it's going to be in December. And then I said, well, I don't know if I want to fly. I don't know if I want to go 3,000 miles to Los Angeles. And this person said, no, I understand, but you have to understand why I call you. And then a couple of days after that, I, you know, it was in the newspapers that I had won my first Latin Grammy. That was a Latin Grammy for tango. No, and then the other ones came. I was a name there that people would look at when they see, you know, the list of— and some people, I think some people just voted for out of sympathy for me or whatever. Some people like what we heard.

I don't think so.

I don't think so.

I think when you have somebody, you know, and have won a Grammy or an award or whatever, you know, and you're not too sure about certain categories. You know, being in classical music, you don't expect 10,000 people to vote for you. You know, more like a fraction of that. So it happens also in jazz and other categories that are not so— it's not pop or Latin or anything like that, rock. It's more selective. And so, but I, you know, I got very lucky.

No, you deserved it.

Yeah. But you know, you have the 5 awards to or 6 awards to prove that that's not out of sympathy that you got the votes.

So, no, no, people would, but I think, I'd like to think that the vast majority voted because of the, you know, the music.

Of course. Yes. Incredible. Now then, Allison, so how about you? When, how did you discover the love for music and then get to where you are right now, especially, you know, you have such interesting experiences, you know, the Grammy Awards classical music tribute to Earl Wilde and Lang Lang at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA. And yeah, many other things. But where was the beginning?

I don't remember. I kid you not. I am told that when I was 2, my parents got their first piano. It was a spinet. Now my grandmother taught piano. Locally for like 55 years. And I evidently started really figuring out how to play the piano. I didn't do the baby bang, bang, bang. I actually figured out how to play. What I can tell you is that I can remember by the time I was 4, I could play whatever I wanted. If I heard it, I could figure out how to play it. I could play it in whatever key. I can make it major. I could make it minor. If I heard stuff, I could sing it. I have perfect pitch. English, so I could sing it. So I could sing all sorts of scores of Broadway shows because that's a lot of what was played in my house, and Harry Belafonte records and stuff like that. So when I was 6, my mother and my grandmother took me for a consultation to Juilliard because my grandmother said I was beyond anything that she could teach, and I got assigned a Juilliard Pre-College teacher at the time. Started actually at Juilliard when I was either 8 or 9. And then when Juilliard moved, I ended up at Manhattan School of Music. So I then did pre-college there, got my bachelor's at Manhattan, my master's at Juilliard, and then way later I got my doctorate at Rutgers. So, but that was, and I had not planned on that. But I was already teaching at Kean University and a whole bunch of people from completely different parts of my life who had nothing to do with each other said, "So when are you going to get a doctorate?" And when you hear enough of that, you start thinking, hmm. So I looked into various programs and Rutgers was really happy to have me. And I was an older candidate for a doctorate, which is not unusual at Rutgers at all. So I finished my doctorate when our daughter finished high school. It was like, uh, I, at the same time. So I kind of sailed through. I was very fortunate. 2 years and 7 months from the time I started in the classroom, my doctorate, I finished all my exams and I was done.

Oh my goodness.

Yeah, I really blazed my way through that one. And while I was also not only teaching at Kean, but I was teaching at Rutgers, I was an active performer and our daughter was also in the midst of college after applications.

Oh wow.

And my dad passed in the midst of all that too. No, no, wrong. He died right after I finished. So it was, it was quite a time. And my doctorate was based on a Polish composer named Mieczysław Weinberg. A lot of his music at the time that I did was not published yet. It now all is. And so I was the first person to record a lot of that music too. So there's a 4-record set that Naxos put out, and then they combined it into one complete set that they released in 2015. And I had very little time to learn all of it. So initially I'd done 2 records worth, then I was offered first crack at all these archives. And so I got in touch with Naxos and said, are you willing to suspend my deadlines? Because I have now lucked out I have access to all this music. If you're willing to play ball with me, you will have it too. And that's pretty much what happened. So 4 records worth of music basically recorded in about a 5-day period, but not all at the same time. So some of it was recorded in 2009 and some of it was recorded in 2010. And then the rest happened from there.

And which albums did you received the nomination?

Okay, so the first one was— no, uh, that was later. The very first record I received a nomination for was Latin— the Latin Grammys for Tango, the year after Carlos won. I didn't, but that was a record called Tango Bar, and Tango Bar, I wasn't even originally supposed to play on it.

I was supposed— he was, but I got called to do something else. And then I said, well, you were adjudicating for the SKY. Right. Alison should play this. And I produced, kind of produced after it was recorded because I would go to the sessions when they would finish it and basically be the driver back to New Jersey.

But I was actually the one who then put things in order and any edits that got done and stuff, I actually was the one to do that.

So anyway, that was the first one.

So that was the first one was when we were were nominated together for the Grammys, and that was Poeta de Árbol.

That was for best—

it was crossover, and Carlos was nominated for an arrangement of a piece that actually I mostly wrote, right, which was— I hadn't composed for a while, and Carlos kind of was like, would you write something for this? And to cure him, I wrote most of this particular tango that then he got nominated for the arrangement, which is simply gorgeous. Then I was nominated for a solo record that was on Naxos. That was for—

That was a fabulous recording.

That was 20 Century Piano Sonatas. So I was nominated for that. I lost to Garrett Olson. I thought I was going to lose to Marc-André Hamelin. And I remember thinking at the time that I'm so honored to whom I'm going to lose to because I knew I wouldn't win given the—

Well, you never know.

You never know, but I was pretty sure I wasn't gonna win, but I was very excited to be nominated.

Tell us about the repertoire that you played on The Piano Pod.

So the repertoire on that was the Berg Sonata, then these pieces by Schoenberg, which at the time were not being performed, and they were very early pieces from 1894. Then the Hindemith Second Piano Sonata. But then I did the complete Carl Amadeus Sonata, 25 April— 24, whatever, 27 April 1945. The whole sonata had not been recorded at that point. Parts of it had been. So it's actually— although there are 4 movements, the last movement has 2 different versions. One of the most difficult pieces I have ever, ever attempted to do. And Carlos actually told me about this composer because Carlos was familiar with his symphonies, which are not done in this country.

Mm-hmm. Hartmann.

But they're fabulous pieces. So Hartmann was German, and he did not allow his music to be performed during the war. And this particular piece was based on seeing prisoners march to Dachau at the very end of the war, and that's why it's called "27 April 1945." That's what it's about.

Oh, I see.

So it was extraordinary getting to actually do this record, which we did at Skywalker.

And before the ceremony, you played for Lang Lang and Earl Wilde. In a while. I mean, it was a tribute to both of them and to the music of Rachmaninoff, the transcriptions of Rachmaninoff that Earl Wilde had done.

So I was asked to do "Oh, Cease Thy Singing," the Earl Wilde transcription.

And I have to say that Lang Lang was very, very impressed and complimentary of you and your playing.

Wow.

She won't say that, but I was there.

He was very nice. He really was nice. So was Earl Wild, who I'd known from my Juilliard days, although I had not studied with him. And so Earl at this point was blind and wasn't performing in public anymore, but he did. He played a fantasy impromptu that was just beautiful. It was really beautiful and very touching to hear him play at that point. So then after that, I was nominated for a Latin Grammy for Alma Piano Music of Argentina. And then we were nominated together, uh, for a record called Buenos Aires Noir. And so those are the nominations. I think I've thought of all of them. So those are mine. Kiss I lost track of. There's so many. Yeah, Carlos was nominated a grand total between the two, I think, 16 times. Yeah, something like that.

Oh my goodness.

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Yeah, you both have individually has this, this incredible career, but then now let's talk about you together. You know, you are basically finishing sentences to each other.

So cute. We look like an old couple, right?

So sweet. That's so sweet. Now, you maybe mentioned already, but what was was like a sort of a defining moment you realized you wanted to build a not only the life but also career together? Or is it— did it happen like sort of because you started your relationship as a professional relationship, so maybe that was a natural thing?

We, we continue that, and, you know, we don't have to be Laurel and Hardy. We don't work together all the time, but, but it's wonderful to work, uh, you know, together. So sometimes I have Like, I have a project now to this suite, this 3-piano suite. I want to orchestrate that for 1 piano and orchestra. So it will be available for Alison and other pianists to play it without having to go and get 2 other pianists, you know. And it's something that I just finished composing a piece and something that I will do during the winter to to orchestrate this and to create a suite for piano and orchestra. And obviously Alison will be the first one. She'll have the first refusal.

Yeah, so yeah, working together for us is really very organic, and it was—

we have fun working.

Yeah, we really do.

And we have fun traveling together and working together.

So yeah, and you know, the only, the only difficulty I have with Carl's music because sometimes he'll write these 10ths in the left hand and I really can't reach him and he has an 11th and it's just not—

Oh my goodness.

Yeah, he really does.

But no, but I said, no, I understand. You know, you can roll them.

Right. Yeah.

Well, in tango that doesn't work really well. So sometimes occasionally I'll do a revoice thing or ask Carlos, can I do this or can I do this? He's, and he's written some really challenging stuff. His piano concerti are are very challenging to play but super rewarding.

And it's beautiful. I enjoyed listening to it. Yeah, really. So then, Carlos, when you compose music for the piano, does Alison's influence shape your creative process?

Can you—

Yeah, actually, I learned a great deal from, uh, you know, I mean, I could write a piece that will be played, you know, but, but she would give me some certain points about, you know, do this this way. I think is you know, revoice this or whatever, not only because of her hand, but because in the practical sense of writing something that is much more playable for other pianists. But I ask her, I mean, you know, I just finished a symphony. I wanted to write a fourth symphony and I just finished it, you know, like a couple of days ago. And I, you know, I call Alison and say, so what do you think of this? Oh yeah, I like it. I think you're close. I think you're You know, I kind of, because at this point I am so immersed in the music, I work sometimes 6, 8 hours a day, and at one point I lose the concept of, you know, being objective and not so subjective to, well, I like it, but I mean, is this resignation that I accept this thing? I have to play for somebody else. Who better than Allison? So I do this and I can see her reactions. Toward the music. Like yesterday I told her, you know, the last movement of this symphony, you know what it's based on? Give me 3 composers. She said Shostakovich, Mahler. I said no, Rossini.

And I went, what? And then he showed me what, and he says, literally. And I went, okay, I, I see that.

But, but you liked it, right?

I did, I did. And in fact, you know, Carlos had worked on several different versions of a particular section, right? Right. That he's been working on it, working on it, working on it. And he played a version for me last night. He said, that's the one. You know, I just knew immediately. I went, that's the one. And, and I could tell also that he felt the same way.

I agonized over the ending, one of difficult things to do is to stop the piece, to bring it to a conclusion. And, you know, I found it so difficult after 4 movements, and I did it in kind of a chronological order. So I kept the last movement, this kind of Rossini, for the end. And I found that it was so difficult. I could end the piece, but the ending wasn't going to be what the piece required. Not that particular movement, but the other 3 movements, you know. So I have to think from the beginning of it to the end. It's 45 minutes long. It's a long symphony. And I said, well, I can't, you know, I can develop this and develop and keep going and going and going. And then at the end, eventually this has to, you know, it cannot just stop, you know. So I was trying to, and not toying with the idea, well, it has to be a brilliant ending like a Star Wars. Kind of things. And it made me stop for a week, right? I mean, basically, and kind of retreat and start thinking the music away from the medium, away from the piano. I don't use the piano to compose, but I use a keyboard because I enter the notes to the computer with a keyboard. But it's good sometimes to take distance. You know, and say, well, this is not going anywhere. And then the music comes back to you and it keeps you awake at night and then you start deciding to write in things.

When I do compose, which is only for very select kinds of things that I do, I'll turn to Carlos for advice, especially if I have to do an arrangement of something. So a few months ago, I co-wrote a song that came out very differently than the lyricist thought it was going to. And it turned out really, really well. So he asked me, could I do an arrangement, add winds and harp and strings to it? So I did. I turned to Carlos a couple of times and said, what do you think would work here in a particular spot? And he said, well, try this, try this, try this, which I did.

And then she played it for me.

Then I played the full arrangement and he, when I was done with it, he said, "It sounds like me." And I said, "It sounds like, it looks like I wrote it." Which he didn't at all.

He didn't.

But I mean the voicing and everything.

It was just a couple of suggestions he'd made, but he said, "It sounds like I wrote it." And I said, "Well, I take that as an extreme compliment because I don't think of myself myself that way. And yet, I used to, you know, in teaching, I would have to rewrite pieces for students all the time.

Whether it's good or bad, it sounds like I wrote it. I don't want to say that. If I write it, it's, you know, it's Bach.

No, no, I took it as an extreme compliment. Yeah, and there is some other, a couple of times where Carlos entrusted me to write a couple of arrangements for things for projects in fact, where people had no idea that I'd done it. But it was because I know how he writes, so I, you know, and so, but he would make suggestions about how to voice certain things that I hadn't thought of, that I just went, oh, that texture is just way cooler than what I thought to do.

And then all of a sudden she decides to call me and said, let's play, let's, let's do this thing. And then I have to go back to—

so now he's gonna have to practice, to practice.

Wow. So you both are the good influence and good impact for one another. That's, that's—

Oh, I, oh, I absolutely, that's for sure. We really do bring out the best in each other constantly. And it's really great to have that kind of support. This weekend I will be playing some of Carlos's music out at Penn State University with Bart Feller, the flutist friend, the principal flute of New Jersey Symphony. We have a concert at Penn State University on Sunday. And then Laurel Zucker, the flutist, Carlos wrote sonata for her that we are going to be recording next summer and a couple of other pieces that you have heard that we're also recording next summer. And amongst other people, you know, a whole bunch of your music's getting done various places right now.

Well, you have so many more fun projects and concerts And hopefully more recordings to come.

Hopefully. I mean, the world of recording is kind of convoluted and the streaming, you know, all this is a result of COVID because when COVID started, like people wouldn't leave their homes. And so they had to entertain themselves with streaming movies and music and things like that, which the, that market, all those platforms grew tremendously.

People don't own CD players anymore.

They don't.

Like in your car, you don't have a CD player anymore.

No.

So I don't know really what the future will be for recordings unless people decided, like, you know, in films, platforms that films that they produce, they're not available in theaters, but they are available in platforms. So I don't know whether it's going to be the case with music too. People would, well, whatever, somebody like Madonna or Lady Gaga, new recording available on so-and-so, uh, you know, sound platforms. So it might be the future because I don't, you know, well, it's, it's, it's the way it is, you know.

I mean, and the thing with streaming, of course, for most of us mere mortals, you don't make any money from it. So if you're Taylor Swift, you do, who of course set Yet another record on Spotify yesterday, All the Power to Her. I mean, she's brilliant.

Yeah, but even then she had to fight for it because she had to remaster her original because she wasn't making much money.

Right, right. So it's a really tricky business here. Then Carlos, you mentioned a little bit about COVID So for the last 3 years affected us so in so many, so many ways. Like, you know, the way we communicate is now different.

Tremendously. As you mentioned, the way we listen, the way we just to enjoy art, enjoy a little film is not the same as before.

So tell me—

I think the attention spans are not the same either.

I live here. I mean, I work here. And so COVID didn't affect me in that sense. I was writing music and it was the same thing. I would go out and do some groceries. With a mask. But then eventually I got COVID and Allison got COVID.

Except I barely noticed that I had it, honestly. I was so not sick.

I sailed through that without any— I mean, I did some blood work and my doctor told me, by the way, you have antibodies, you develop antibodies, you have COVID. Later on, I had this episode that I thought that I had, you know, a brain, a HCV, and it was the puerile hematoma. I had to go, I had surgeries, I had 3 surgeries because it would, you know, I mean, which is bleeding on the dura to the brain and which compresses the brain and kind of, so, and the doctor said, I said, well, you know what happened? I didn't hit my head or anything like that. He said, this is a COVID result. Oh my goodness.

Well, I had brought that up actually to the surgeon at one point. When he was about, when he was having procedure number 2, which is the craniotomy. And I said, you know, Carlos has antibodies in his system. And I said, there is this research talking about all the things that can happen to the vascular system.

Well, at the beginning they thought COVID only affects your lungs and this and that's it. I mean, now they know that it affects your heart, your kidneys, and you know, your brain.

It can affect all sorts of things.

So, it manifests in different ways, and this was what hit me. And it was, you know, kind of dramatic to have brain surgeries. I have a titanium plate.

It was very dramatic.

And, oh my goodness. But I survived that.

And he's fine. I mean, he's really fine.

I couldn't even tell, like, you have such a huge Yeah, well, I have a lot of hair. Yeah, well, not just the look, but yeah, you wouldn't tell.

You know, the funny, well, the funny thing is that later on I was looking at the Subdermal Hematomas and this and rate of survival and said, well, 20% of the people survive. I said, am I reading this right? You know, then I said, well, you know, I am one of the lucky ones.

But then you're still, you're still writing music.

You're still—

oh yes, yes. And I recorded the album right after, like a year later, 6 months. I wanted to do an album, a jazz album, which is the last thing I did for Sunnyside Records. And it's called In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning, which is a beautiful song. And I, I tried to get songs from the the era of the Second World War when like "We'll Meet Again," "Memories of You," things that call about distance and longing and loss. And because I think that we went through a period like that. I mean, we lost a lot of very good friends. So many friends. And so did everybody. I mean, so it was a way of, you know, when during the war, the GI would go without, you know, knowing what would happen to them and their families and their loved ones. And all the songs, "Time Remembered" and "How Deep Is the Ocean," all those songs reverberated 70 years after that. It made so much sense to record them. So I went and recorded this album.

In May of 2021.

Oh, you're— what's the title of the record?

In the Wee Small Hours. In the Wee Small Hours. You know, I can— we can make it, send it to you.

And that's with David Fink on bass and Billy Drummond on drums. It's a real dream trio.

Wonderful, wonderful.

Beautiful, beautiful trio.

Oh my goodness. That's— I think I— it's on— Spotify as well, right?

It's on Sunny Side Records.

Okay. I called the owner and producer, François Salacain, and you're a hero. You're putting out CDs at this time. I mean, you know, you're either a hero or a martyr, but you know, it's amazing. I congratulate you. And, you know, he, he keeps doing it. That's fantastic.

Yep. So there, yeah. So in terms of the industry, there are certain labels who are still putting out a lot of stuff like Parma is doing, um, and some others that are actually putting out some really wonderful product, uh, and so we're very fortunate. Of course, Legacy, we put it out ourselves on our label, um, because we really felt that we could best represent what that record was and what it is, what it stands for. So, um, but we've been really more fortunate than many people. People when it comes to recording, who we've gotten to work with. Um, I have several upcoming projects that are going to have various homes, um, that I'll be collaborating with a wide range of people right now. And again, I'm very fortunate to be able to say that, that, um, I keep having these opportunities. I also just finished doing Jurassic Park with New Jersey Symphony.

Oh my goodness.

Yeah, yeah. And unfortunately I was behind the screen so I couldn't see it, but the audience— those things are fun to do, I have to say. Um, when you get to play live to film like that, that your audiences have such a great time.

And the scores are difficult.

They are, they're hard. They're hard. Yeah, on this particular one I was doing the synth parts, so not only was I having to change patches constantly, which I was actually doing with my foot, I had to keep adjusting the volume depending on which patch I was on because they were very unevenly matched. So it's like if I had a Celeste patch to play and I had a lot of them, I had to put the volume all the way up. The second I would have to play something else, I'd have to bring it back. And I was constantly guessing depending on what venue we were in, was my volume actually correct? There was no way for me to know. And so I just had to go with what I heard and trust the sound guys in the house to handle all the rest of it. So it was constantly adjusting here, playing here, adjusting here, adjusting with— it's kind of how it goes when you do those.

But it seems like you both have such a varied career. Like, you know, you're not just one thing, right? Like, Alison, you have this experience with the film and as well, and then also Carlos, you wrote for commercials, but also you are Latin Grammy Award winner and write jazz, this and that.

And so And after film too.

Yeah, that's true. That's true. So is that the maybe secret to the longevity of your career? Sort of like diversifying your career, you know what I mean? Not just to focus on one thing.

Well, there is eclecticism in a sense, but it's also that I, you know, being a commercial professional musician, I had to accept to do Being an arranger is an extension of being a composer, you know, you learn to orchestrate and to arrange other people's music. And I was called to do, as I said, from the times of Mexico doing mariachi music to Latin to rock to some movies, and then later in New York, the salsa phenomenon of the '70s and then R&B and jazz and other types of music, I think, and tango. I don't think that I have skipped any genre of music. I mean, I've done mostly, you know, they call me and said, we need you to do this arrangement of Spanish songs by José Nin, but we need to, you know, you to adapt this for a wind quintet, or we need— so you do all kinds of different things. I would say that the only thing I don't do is heavy rock because there's no, you know, there's no place for me to, you know, to write, right, in techno, pop, or things like that. But, you know, other than that, I've done everything.

I think that's about it.

Yeah.

I think the other thing, and I know you were going to bring this up, is that you have to be willing to adjust to the times. And the world that we originally were brought up in has nothing to do the world we're in. It really has changed that radically in so many ways. And so, you know, just the fact that we're having this conversation, a few years ago, we wouldn't have done it.

No.

Right? We didn't have that proliferation. So like one of the things that I got involved with during COVID was I contacted my best friend of the past 40 years who's a techie amongst other things and a producer. And when I saw that orchestras were starting to shut down, I realized that this was a long-haul situation. It was not going to be for a couple of weeks. I knew it immediately. I contacted my best friend and said, there's got to be a way for orchestras to be able to continue. And we had actually— he with his tech guys and me filling him in on orchestral leads and stuff like that. We had devised a system where orchestras could be in the same building at the time, right, but in different parts of the building, right, and following all the protocols because we knew what all the protocols were from the various unions, right, setting up the cameras, the microphones, the kind of high-speed access you needed et cetera, being able to have a conductor yet in another location in the building and then being able to have orchestras actually play together. And it turned out—

dealing with latency too.

And dealing with latency too. Now, it turned out we were way ahead of our time. Various orchestras took a really good look at it and were really considering it. And then they started looking at the possible price tag and going, can't do it. But what that led us to was the Orchestra of the Americas and the Orchestra Academy, and that what— and we became part of their advisory board. And what the Academy is doing is really fascinating because they are hybrid at this point. But during COVID everything was online. So they were doing all these incredible workshops from the orchestral level of various repertoire, working with various conductors, renowned conductors from around the world, and then having modules for the respective instruments with these, again, world-renowned musicians taking them through. Not only were they working on repertoire things, but they're working on strategies for the 21st century how to market yourself, how to work with entrepreneurial things, you name it, they're covering it. And they are also developing actual degrees in it.

Wow.

So they have these fellows that work with them in these various ways, including that they have this whole piano contingent with Gabriela Montero, which is— she's incredible. I mean, what she's doing is incredible. And so you have all these cohorts from around the world who are participating in this. And so every 3 months, we at the advisory board, we meet, we see what they're doing, what they're developing, and give feedback on it. My area has been working with them on syllabi and stuff like that and looking at what they're actually offering How are they communicating it? Is this really, you know, what they're looking to do is really quite groundbreaking in so many ways and very exciting. And so being part of something like that is really fascinating, having come from the very academic musical world that they're looking to compete with at this point. But because their point of view is constantly looking at the future and what needs to happen to keep music viable, not just now but for the future.

Yes.

And reaching also, in many cases, some very underserved communities around the world, right? So it's really— it's, it's quite fascinating to see what people are doing, why they're doing it, and the need for it. And so I really do believe that schools like Berkeley have been on top of this stuff for years in terms of where the business is going and why the business is going a certain way. And the kinds of degrees that they offer are not just necessarily performing or teaching degrees. They have a whole system of careers related to music that you could be part of and train for. And why do you do it? That take into account all these various developments that have happened. And this is where a lot of the more traditional music conservatories or universities don't necessarily do this, and they need to be doing it.

Wow. So this is a—

yeah, I have a little bit of an opinion about it. You think?

Oh yeah. But it's incredible that you do I have this, but what did you notice? Did you notice that from your students, observing from your students or from your audience that something is missing and then needs to take an action right now?

Oh, it was all of the above. It's been all of it. And that, you know, in looking sometimes at who's attending concerts and who are we reaching or who are we really missing? What's happened to music education? Now in New Jersey, we're more fortunate. Than a lot of places in terms of the wealth of opportunities that are available here for kids to be able to study, to play with different kinds of orchestras or singing choirs or whatever it is. We have a lot of it, you know. New York City is not that kind of fortunate, not like we are. But even so, still adapting for what this musical world is and is going to be. Does take a lot of foresight. On the other hand, if you're a performer, you still have to be able to perform. So a lot of the stuff that you still have to do is still— that didn't change in terms of the excellence that you have to have in terms of how you go about playing your instrument or singing or composing or arranging. That's all still the same. You've still gotta have those skill sets, but what you do with them is what has changed so completely in so many ways. So that the opportunities like Carlos was in jingles for so many years, well, that world doesn't exist now.

Of course.

So what do you do? And so, so that's where he's had all these other opportunities and people who approached him over the years to do this, to do this, to do this, to do this. And some of that has been frankly by reputation, you know, that people know our work. And so we are fortunate in that sense that people come to us constantly to do this thing or do this thing or do this thing. But you know, if you're really young and starting out, your socials have got to be really good, whether you want them or not. And yes, it's oversaturated and yes, it, you know, people are going to put what they want you to see. That's true. Okay, fair enough. But whether we like it or not, that is reality. People are going to look at that often before they're ever going to look at your website. Definitely have your product up on YouTube or, you know, or wherever it is and that you keep having and to self-promote.

Thank you. You know, in the end, we want to grab audience attention and invite them over to the actual concert hall and listen to the real classical music or real jazz band, whatever that is, great music, right? But to do that these days, especially these days, it takes a few extra steps for us to really reach out.

And I think that it will be back to that. I mean, I think that people are getting cabin fever and, uh, you know, like too much of internet, too much of this, of concerts. And I even played some, some concerts here for, you know, on, on Zoom, through Zoom, and, and so did Dallas. And I think, but I think it's, you know, it had to do with like getting together with other people, going to a concert or going to a jazz club or whatever is something that we need to, you know, it's as gregarious as we are, we, you know, we have to be with other people. We can't be like only doing it, you know, selectively and at home. You know, the internet is a fantastic medium. It's wonderful. But then, you know, there are certain things that you appreciate more being live there, like a concert, rather than watching a a video of a concert.

I mean, Carlos was telling me we had done The Empire Strikes Back last spring, and our daughter was here from Las Vegas, and I was able to get them comps to go. I was playing piano on that one, and they said it was an extraordinary experience to be in that audience because it was simultaneously synchronized, simultaneously the movie without the soundtrack, just the dialogue.

And the soundtrack was coming from the podium, from the, from us, from the, from the concert hall. And they were—

and the place was packed.

And it was amazing. I mean, it was packed. It was incredible. I mean, I, I've never been to one of those concerts, you know, when they do a movie and, you know, they play the score synchronized or, you know, they conducted to the movie. The conductor, Constantine Kitsopoulos, did marvelous work. And so did the whole orchestra because you have 2 hours of music without stopping, you know, demanding music.

But wasn't it like this, like Charlie Chaplin's time, there was an actual orchestra, you know, playing?

Right. Everything to the orchestra. The conductor knows the timing. He doesn't have a click track or anything like that. I mean, he's doing it to movie. The way they did it in Hollywood a long time ago, you know, the Elmer Bernsteins and the, you know, the, you know, the Herrmanns. And he did a fantastic job and so did all the musicians. The orchestra sounded fabulous.

And some of the other ones, and I have to say I'm really supportive of this, is the video game concerts with orchestra. I've done a bunch of those. And I tell you, first of all, your audiences know the music even if we don't play the games and we don't know it. They do. And so they're, you know, and they're always packed and they're always excited to be there. And I have to say that so much of that music is great. It's great. And it's really exciting to play it. And that's the truth. And it brings people to the, you know, it brings people to the concert halls. And so I say, I think I think that doing these kinds of events to bring people to the concert halls is great. And also what I've seen people, I've seen people come back to hear more classical kind of concerts as a result of having this live experience and saying, "This is great." And so some, so that's why really seriously, I'm all for it.

Thank you for saying that. I mean, I didn't have to even guide you for this conversation. You said it all. Thank you. Beautiful.

Oh, we always have plenty to say. That will never be an issue.

In the end, why do you think classical music matters? Why music education matters?

I feel that we live thanks to music. I mean, we are subject to music from the little, you know, the little songs and, you know, kindergarten, the rhymes, you know, the wedding marches, you know, up to the end with the funeral march. I mean, we are there with music all our lives, but classical music matters because it's something that narrates a time, narrates a state of mind of what was Baroque, what was Rococo, what was classical, what was Impressionism, what was the Jazz Age, '20s, and what is today the music. I mean, you know, you couldn't have minimalistic music in 1900. You have to have it later on. And the same thing is you can't have impressionistic music at the times of Bach. It happened because it was a whole movement of painting, of literature, of music. So it's a time, and that's what culture does. Culture is history. And so is music. Music is, is our history.

Right. Exactly. I used to teach general ed music at Kean. It was one of the many areas that I taught and kids would have to take this class, right? They had to take a GE and they would take music. So, and they would come in convinced they didn't know anything. They're going to hate it. Uh, they'd be terrified. So I would start with pieces that I knew they'd already know. Up, right? So you start playing the opening of Beethoven's Fifth, and at the time it was, uh, rodeo, um, was being used, beef, it's what's for dinner, right? Uh, stuff like that. And, uh, like, Claire de Lune and other things. And I would start with pieces like this and go, okay, how many of you recognize this piece even if you don't know what it's called? And all the hands would go up, right? And I picked a whole bunch of And I said, so you already know something about classical music. So you still scared of this class? And people would chill out immediately with that because they'd realize they had been exposed to this their whole lives, though they didn't necessarily know what it was exactly they were being exposed to. So that was thing one that I would do. The other thing, and Carlos says, I agree. What I would say is, at a time when a piece of music is being composed and performed, here's what's going on at that time. So here's a question I want you to think about: do you think that music is a reflection of some of those things, or is it telling you what's coming, or is it maybe some of both? Right? And so we would cover various periods of music that way and genres of music that way. And I've always reminded people, at the time that this was being composed, this was new. So this didn't exist before. Put yourself in that kind of frame of mind as you listen to it. By the time we got to, you know, around 1920-something, I said, you have several different kinds of musical events happening. Here's why this is all happening. And at the same time that you have classical music happening, you already have jazz developing. You've already had ragtime developing. You've had the cakewalk. You've had all these different things that are happening, right?

A couple of years ago, I played in Italy, a jazz concert, and Addison came with me and I talked to Addison before and then to the organizers of the concert. That Alison was presenting before my jazz concert with the trio, kind of a lecture of the influence of blues in classical music. And not only in, you know, the obvious of George Gershwin, but also on Ravel Piano Concerto in G. And the violin sonata. And the violin sonata. And then on Stravinsky and so many. And she would play the effect and, you know, after playing the blue notes, showing what Ravel did with, you know, The Piano Concerto in G and then with Mio and other composers that you chose. And it was very interesting because we always see the opposite, you know, the influence of classical music in jazz. You know, people like Bill Evans and so many others who benefit from Debussy and Ravel. But not the other way around. And she did it in Italian, very interesting. She did it in Italian.

Boy, did I have to work at that because I don't speak Italian. Oh my goodness.

She wrote everything.

I wrote everything and it was evidently people understood me quite well. And when I would make mistakes, I'd start to laugh and so would everyone else because we all knew I messed up. And I'd make fun of myself and it was fine. I then expanded it to the influence of jazz and blues and classical music and then incorporated all sorts of different composers, whether they're male, female, or whatever their orientation from different parts of the world and how that really expanded. So one of the composers that I found really interesting was Dana Suisse. Now, Dana Suisse, Died in the '80s, I believe. And she was, during her lifetime, she was referred to as the female Gershwin. She was a composer, she was a pianist, she was a singer. She wrote all kinds of wonderful music that disappeared for a while, but quite a few pianists are doing her stuff, including Sarah Davis Buchner and Lisa Moore. So I'm hardly the only one that's doing it.

Example of influence of jazz in musicians and classical composers is Kapustin, when you record it, obviously beautifully written, but totally thinking toward jazz.

And everything, and his stuff is completely written out.

Oh yes.

It may sound like you're improvising, but it's all written, everything. And so yeah, that was a perfect example of that. And one of the composers that I had included in the original lecture was several different examples of the work that he did. And so it's— so this is also where the fact that I also live with Carlos, who's a phenomenal jazz pianist, has been really helpful to me when I do some of these cross-genre type of presentations that I do.

We have so much to talk about, but sadly it's time for us to go. But before we go, just quickly, what's the next phase for you?

The symphony, I'm in the process of orchestrating certain parts, but I mean, it's almost done. After that, we go on a cruise next week. We're gonna go to, from Los Angeles to the Mexican Riviera, Los Cabos and Ensenada, and all that. I mean, just, we love to sail and this time we're doing it with our daughter.

Oh, great.

Then I'm coming back to this other project, the Minotaur Suite, to orchestrate that. As far as other things, as I said, yes, we have some concerts together, February, the opera in San Francisco, which I don't know if I'm going to go, but there are several things there and the year begins, the '24 will begin, there are always going to be new, new challenges, right?

Yep. And I have a lot of recording projects.

Oh my goodness.

So one with Maureen Hurd Haas, who is the associate director of music at Rutgers, and she's doing a project of Irish music. Then Laurel Zucker, we're going to be recording Carlos's music. There's another flutist, Norly Garcia, that we're doing a French project, and that's going to be in Florida, I think, in early January. There's a violist, Brett Dubner, that I'm going to be recording with again. I don't have dates on that yet, but I know we're doing that.

This thing in San Antonio might happen.

Right. San Antonio, that we're waiting to hear on some stuff in San Antonio. Boy, and I think I've left some out. Then of course the concert with Carlos's Sweet and Troubled Way, and I will be doing Nutcracker.

Wow.

So I am the Sugar Plum Fairy every year, which I enjoy doing. I really do. I really enjoy playing that piece every year. I do.

I look forward to it.

And a whole bunch of other concerts that will be coming. Plus I have a huge studio that I teach. So I'm at Blair Academy. I also have private students. So I have something like 28 students. I don't see them all in a given week, but you know what that's like.

You teach.

Oh yes, yes.

So you know what that is. And so when I do see everyone in a week, it's 28 lessons. But, but it varies from the week depending on who is available when. I mean, I have certain students that I teach every week, of course, so that's probably about 20 of them that I teach every week.

That's a lot of students.

And you're—

It's a lot, but I enjoy it.

It's been a wonderful conversation, Carlos and Allison, both of you. So to— for my audience, if you want to find out more about Carlos, you can go to his website at carlosfranzetti.com.

And if you want to find more about Allison, you can go to Allison Brewster franzetti.com.

And both of you are on Facebook, Instagram, all the good stuff, correct?

We're all there. There's stuff on Spotify, Apple Music, and there's a video on YouTube.

YouTube.

You—

we're on— where you want to find us, we're findable.

Great. That's so fantastic. So this has been a great conversation. Before I let you go, we have one more thing to do. It's the rapid-fire questions where I get to ask silly questions, but actually these questions are tricky, so be aware. So you don't have to explain anything. I will just ask you something. Just answer them with the shortest responses as possible. Okay? Okay.

Yeah.

Who goes first?

Uh, you know, you can just both answer them simultaneously. It's just— let's improvise. This is where improvisational skill is required. Weird, and I'm sure you'll find out. All right, so first one: What is your comfort food?

Strawberries. I'm so surprised I said that.

How do you like your coffee?

Uh, black with milk. Espresso with milk.

Great. Cats or dogs?

Dog.

What skill have you always wanted to learn but haven't had the chance to?

Tennis.

Uh, basketball, I guess.

Okay. What is your word or words to live by?

Love.

Work.

What is the most important quality you look for in other people?

Fidelity.

Honesty.

Name 3 people who you— who inspire you, living or dead.

Stravinsky, Ravel, Beethoven.

My husband, Ravel, and Bach. Great.

Name one piece in your current playlist.

Mati's Your Mother in the mid.

Icarus from Minotaur in the Labyrinth.

The last question, fill in the blank: music is blank.

Life.

Food for the soul.

Beautiful. That's it. Congratulations. You've passed. So thank you. So this concludes this episode of The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song with Alison and Carlos. Thank you, Alison and Carlos, for joining my show today and sharing your beautiful stories and insights and expertise. You can learn more about Alison and her amazing work through her website and also Carlos through his website, and all the links are listed in the show Thank you to my wonderful audience and fans for tuning in today.

If you enjoyed today's episode, please rate and review it on your favorite podcasting platform, and be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel if you're watching this episode from YouTube.

Follow The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song on social media to get the latest piano news via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Hope you all have a safe and happy holidays with your loved ones wherever you where you are tuning from. I will see you in the year 2024 for the next episode of The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song with Yukimi Song with Carlos Alvarado.

Thank you.

Bye everyone. Happy holidays. Thank you, Carlos and Allison. Thank you.

Happy holidays, everybody.