The Piano Pod Live in Concert — Highlight Reel SHORT 2025

Hello friends, welcome to a new episode of The Piano Pod, and this one is a little different because it comes straight from our very first live event, The Piano Pod Live in Concert, which took place and was recorded on October 4th, 2025 at Stiefel Hall at The New School in collaboration with Mannes Prep. And now, please enjoy this special episode, The Piano Pod Live in Concert: A Bold New Chapter in Classical Music.

My name is Yukimi Song, and I am the host and the creator and executive producer of The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song. It's an award-winning podcast and YouTube show that I started in 2020 that amplifies candid conversations with leading artists. Now today, uh, what we do, uh, is we bring together 4 pianist thought leaders, starting with, uh, Dr. Jihoon Kerska, Eleanor Bindman, Nana Obuo, and Donna Wing Friedman. I have interviewed all four of them in the past, and each artist today embodies creativity, innovation, and a deep commitment to community. Afterwards, we'll sit down— I'll sit down with all four artists on stage, and we'll have an interview session. Afterwards, now you get to participate by asking us questions.

I also noticed something else in cities like Newark, which is that there's actually a lot of money going in for scholarship programs and building, you know, state-of-the-art concert venues, which is all very, very, very important. However, programs like that only reach the top 1%.

So every single day putting this together was, you know, like a roller coaster of emotions. And finally, It was screening at NYU for the world premiere, and I told my husband, I said, "I'm pulling it. I'm not going to have it shown today because I'm not a filmmaker, and why would I think anybody would want to see a film about my family?" And my husband said to me, he said, "This may be your first film, but you've been telling stories all your life." for music.

I just can't find a transcription that I like. They're either too hard or they're too easy or I don't like them. So I looked and I didn't find anything either and I did a little 2-hour thing and then I played that and it was really satisfying to play and that really gave me an understanding that what was missing in the repertoire, especially transcriptions, is our ideas about transcriptions are that they're either virtuosic thereby only playable by 1% of the piano elite, basically, who usually make them for themselves.

Our mission is to change how people experience classical music. We want to make classical music more accessible to as many people as possible. And because I'm a Black person, I want Black people to show up in concert spaces. And, but that doesn't mean I only want Black people to show up at concert spaces, but I'm keenly aware of the fact that I spent my whole life being the only Black person in a classical music hall, and the only Black people in the audience were my relatives.

And what you said about our reference with music really captured me, and I would love it if you would just kind of reflect on how we can make music more credible to people.

For me, I feel like programming needs to hit on a lot of different levels, and it depends on what you have available to you. So, for example, our Juneteenth Festival week, we do a lot of different kinds of performances.

So, you were saying that when you were transcribing the cello concertos, you understood something about Bach.

I want to know what that was.

When I was— I was actually transcribing the cello suites by Bach, And they are essentially very bare bones. It's just, as you can imagine, the cellist usually plays one note at a time, and then there'll be some double, triple stops as chords.

This question is for Dr. Kerska, but potentially for all three of you. So I grew up playing classical music, not piano, but violin. And one thing that I found is that most of the people that I played with, even those at a pretty high level, you know, there came a day when they turned 18 or maybe 21, and they kind of stopped playing. And so I wonder, you know, for you and, you know, maybe all three of you, you know, how do we get people to continue to play?

I think music has to mean something to you.

I think—

I do think, you know, the way classical music has gone, it's become very technical. And it has an— I find it unusual to find a person who will actually have a story going on in their head that is meaningful to them when they're playing a piece. It comes a point when it has to mean something to you. When it means something to you, then you won't stop, you know. But if it's just about competitions and, you know, that's— it's good. You're gonna get tired and you're gonna be so relieved when you don't have to do it anymore.

I hope you enjoyed the recording from The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song with Yukimi Song. The Piano Pod Live in Concert: A Bold New Chapter in Classical Music. So what did you think of blending what The Piano Pod does biweekly— music performance, in-depth interviews— and adding a live audience with a Q&A panel discussion? It was such a joy to see everything come together in one afternoon. To explore more, simply scan the QR code on your screen. It will take you to the live event tab at thepianopod.com where you will find each guest's story and bio. Season 6 of The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song is just getting started under the theme Creativity and Connection, featuring more extraordinary guests and conversations ahead. Thank you for listening, and until next time, keep creating, keep connecting, and keep the music alive.