The Piano Pod, Season 2, Special Edition!

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You're listening to The Piano Pod, where we talk to the brightest minds in the industry about how they are bringing the piano into the 21st century.

Welcome back to The Piano Pod. I am Yukimi Song.

I'm Clara Zhang.

And where is Eric!

Oh my goodness.

All right. Yes, we have, um, we'll make an announcement in a minute, but this is a very special episode of TPP because we have quick and important announcements. And first of all, so here's the news. We're very sad to inform you that Eric stepped down from his post as a co-host and co-producer of the show. And the last episode, episode number 5, was his last appearance as a co-host?

Well, we announced his exit on our social media accounts a few days ago. I'm sure a lot of you have seen, but we just want to tell you, our listeners, in person.

Yes, so let me read you his statement. So, quote, dear TPP fans, it is with a mixture of sadness and excitement that I am announcing my transition from the co-host of The Piano Pod. While I have loved all the stimulating discussions with our very talented group of guests over the past year, I'm scaling back my responsibilities in order to focus on my compositional work, including an intensive project that has taken off after years in the making. I will be moving to more of an advisory role, while Clara and Yukimi Song will select a new co-host and continue to record new episodes with the rest of our excellent Season 2 guest roster. I'm very proud of what we have accomplished together and hope that you, our listeners, found our guests as inspiring as I did. I'm looking forward to seeing The Piano Pod continue to flourish. If you ever want to know what I am up to musically, you can find my updates at erikandermusic.com. I hope to cross paths with you again in the future. End quote. So Clara, what do you think of that? Oh my gosh. Yeah.

I mean, we had such a great year working together with Eric, you know, since the beginning. Launched the show in August 2020.

Feels like a long time ago. Long time ago, right? Oh my gosh. I've aged. I know.

It's like, oh my gosh. And it was just in the middle of pandemic and as a way to adjust to the new musical reality. And yeah, we really worked together 98% probably, um, you know, remotely, and but yet we felt really close as friends and almost colleagues, and but you know, we also almost felt like a family, you know. But we were—

I know, yeah, I, I mean, you know, look at us. I mean, I feel so much closer to you, Clara, because I've known you such a long time, but I have never felt so close to you like that. So Eric, we will miss having you as a co-host, and but we're very Very happy and excited about your new adventure in your career, and we have, uh, you have our full support. Now let's talk about the future, right? So because he is leaving, he has left his post, so we may be looking for a third co-host, permanent co-host, soon. But in the meantime, we'll just experiment with a new format by inviting a guest co-host. We'll explain that a little bit more later. And we have another announcement, exciting announcement. Clara?

Yeah, well, guess what, listeners? We have our 7th social media platform.

Oh my gosh.

Bilibili.

Oh my goodness. And guess what it is? Well, mostly it's towards the Chinese audience in mainland China. As most of you guys know that in mainland China, a lot of the websites are blocked. Facebook, Google, YouTube and such. And so Bilibili is a video sharing platform based in Shanghai. And on this platform, users can submit, view, and add overlaid commentary videos. And video also feature a real-time overlaying subtitle system for interactive playback experience called Bullet Commenting— Comments. But most importantly, for me, my family still lives in mainland and we start a podcast. We have, you know, we really share it everywhere. But here, China is a huge country and people cannot really see it easily. So by opening Bilibili, we are opening a new world.

Wow. That is so exciting. But I know Clara did a lot of work to open this platform. So tell us, what did it take for you to open an account?

I had to pass a 100-question exam. I got 64 points.

Oh gosh, great! Wow! Can you imagine if it was like this on YouTube? Like, you have to answer 100 questions just to open a YouTube account. Can you imagine? Oh my gosh, what sort of questions did you have to answer?

I mean, even from Chinese history, Chinese literature, or poems that I— luckily, I think of myself, I was like, well, you know what? I was probably still good enough a student before I left. So I started some of them, but I had to Google a lot of them. And there are also, but a lot of them are contemporary, like what is on the BBC News from Britain, or what is in this 60-minute documentary, it's all translated into Chinese, but it's really like a world— well, knowledge of the world you have. So it's not just about China, it's about the whole entire world. Or sometimes what was in this documentary when the Northern Star or something about— well, I mean, it was a lot of stuff. Wow.

But can you imagine that they're trying to maintain the quality of the platform by asking these, yeah, somewhat complicated questions. So that's amazing, that's great. So then, are we posting some video clips from the past? Yeah, okay.

So we're starting slow since, unlike YouTube— and by the way, for the audience who would like to use other languages, when you are watching YouTube, you know YouTube automatically has a translation feature so you could do that. So you can watch our show. We know we have a lot of audience from other side of the world, but in this particular Bilibili, I had to insert all the subtitle language by language. Even Chinese has several different type of Chinese by hand. I had to use Google to help a little bit, but yeah, it's kind of fun. And overnight, actually, I shared with my parents and even just with moms from friends that we had over almost 300 views overnight.

Wow, that's awesome. So eventually our goal is to livestream from that Bilibili platform, so stay tuned on that progress via our social media, right?

Yep.

Great, excellent. So now before we get to talk about the next two really exciting episodes, before that I just want to give you guys the listeners the data from Simplecast. Simplecast is the podcast hosting platform that we have been using. It's a really excellent, actually, hosting platform, and they give you the data broken down by the numbers and by the countries from where our audiences are listening from to our show and so forth. So, uh, let's find out which countries are on the top 10 list according to Simplecast. Are we ready?

Oh, I'm excited!

All right, so number 10, Malaysia! Yay, terima kasih! I hope I'm saying thank you correctly. Terima kasih!

Thank our superstar, Rae.

Oh, that's right. Thank you. So now number 9, Spain! Yay, gracias! Thank you! Number 8.

Brazil!

Obrigada! Yay! Number 7.

Iraq! Iraq!

Shukran! Thank you! Thank you so much for listening, Middle East! Yay! Number 6.

Germany!

Dankeschön! Thank you! Number 5.

UK, United Kingdom.

All right, thank you. All right, number 4.

Japan.

Arigato gozaimasu. Number 3.

Canada.

Thank you. Merci.

Thank you.

All right, so before I announce number 2 and number 1, I just wanted to tell you. So up until Canada, it's been like, you know, like Canada is only 3% of the entire audience, right? Then number 2 occupies 26.73% of our audience. Can you imagine?

Audience?

Oh yeah. So the country number 2, Clara, go!

Saudi Arabia! Oh my gosh, shukran! Thank you, we love you so much.

Oh my gosh, I know, right? It's just quite a surprise, um, but thank you so much. I really, really, uh, we are very honored. So then let's announce the country number 1.

It's our United States.

All right, yes, the United States audiences are 43%. So that's, that's excellent. Thank you guys so much for listening and tuning in, and we will do our best to bring the hottest and most interesting topics to you. So let's stay tuned, and then be sure to subscribe and then rate and review our podcast shows, please. All right, so, and then let's take a look at Facebook followers. How many Facebook followers we have?

Wow, we have 617 already. Oh my goodness, I remember we were the first 3 in the first time.

We liked ourselves. Yes, I remember. Yes, but now up to 617, that's amazing. So what about Instagram followers as of today? 482. All right, yes. And so please like us more. Now how about subscribers on YouTube?

We passed 100! Yeah! 123!

Amazing, that's great. Yes, and then now we have a LinkedIn page, uh, which has how many?

272.

And our goal is to get up to what number?

1,000.

Okay, well, actually 500.

Only 500?

Yeah, in order for us to be able to livestream from there. So 500 is a good number. I mean, 1,000 would be like, oh my gosh, what, what else do I have to do? So let's just, let's just stay humble. And yes, 500 is a good number. Yeah, so all the links of this is going to be listed in the comments section, or for this case, description section. So, um, just visit us, um, on those social platform sites, and it would be amazing if you could give us a thumbs up. Let's talk about next two episodes, right?

That's right. What is happening?

So the next episode, which will be broadcasting, I mean published, actually next week, and we invited Mr. Ricardo Hernandez. He is an entertainment and corporate attorney from Nashville, Tennessee, and Ricardo's experience primarily lies in the fields of entertainment intellectual property and corporate law with a broad knowledge base based in the areas of music technology, commercial lending, and mergers and acquisitions, acquisitions, and day-to-day corporate matters. So as we mentioned before, we decided to invite, you know, a guest co-host to replace Eric's spot for a while. For this episode, we have Ms. Aggeliki Sonis. She's a lawyer and a musician and to assist us during the show. And she's actually a very good friend of Clara. So Clara, tell us more about your friend Liki.

Right. So, well, Liki, she's such a beautiful singer and beautiful person. Be generous. And she's a New York-based Greek vocal artist. Primarily focused on marrying Greek traditional music with jazz. We actually collaborated together recently, Yukimi and I, with Angeliki. But Angeliki has been a dear friend. We had a common friend, and she's been in New York. But yeah, this recent collaboration brought us all together, and that was at the time when you Kimmy and I were considering inviting a corporate lawyer that's also in the entertainment business. And we were in a car and it was Liki, and we were like, oh, maybe, and Liki is a lawyer. And she was like, guess what? I have some friends. And this all came together perfectly.

Yes, I am so excited about this. And so actually, I'm so happy that Liki is joining because she could be a perfect person to kind of know what to ask him because there are some things like I, I'm really totally clueless in terms of—

no idea—

yes, legal issues and everything. And she would be perfect because she's a musician and she's a lawyer. So I'm very excited about that. So I just wanted to ask you guys, audience, if you have any questions or any legal issues related to music or maybe even teaching, like teaching music out of your private studios and so forth, please, please feel free to email us as soon as possible because the date of the interview is this Thursday, Thursday morning Eastern Time. So we can bring your questions and issues you shared with us anonymously during the show, during the interview, on your behalf. So our email is thepianopodnyc@gmail.com. Thepianopotnyc@gmail.com, and feel free to email us with questions to Ricardo. All right, then this episode 6 will premiere on YouTube and livestream on Facebook, Twitter, Twitch a week from today, Tuesday, November 23rd at 8:00 PM Eastern. Now let's talk about episode lucky number 7. Who is it, right?

Oh my goodness, We are so lucky to have BlackBok, artist, composer, lover of humans, and the Yamaha artist.

Excellent. I know. So we were introduced to BlackBok and his artistry by Dr. Alexandra Lee, our guest of the previous episode. During her interview, she mentioned about his music, and since then we are so obsessed. Oh my goodness, you should check out his, some of his TikTok videos and Instagram. He's really active on Instagram and then TikTok, and he has done some really funny but also excellent mix like of his music plus the video and everything. Uh, let me just introduce him very quickly. So according to the article that I read, we, um, actually Clara shared with me on the It's the magazine Forbes, Forbes magazine, June 18, 2021, written by Andrea Zarzynski. Quote: New classical pianist/composer BlackBlock, Charles Wilson III, found his calling at age 6 while performing a Mozart piece on a piano in his hometown of Detroit. Since then, the artist has worked with some of the biggest names in music, including Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, and John Mayer. End quote. So Blackbird recently released a new album called Black Book, which was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement. And through his compositions, he illustrates his own emotional experiences and his community's experiences across pivotal moments in American history. Wow. So I know I'm very excited.

I'm so excited.

Yeah. What do you think about his video? Have you seen?

Yeah, so many of them. Oh my gosh. It's funny, you know? I mean, he's such a brilliant pianist.

I know.

I would say he's almost like— he is a rapper, right? But he's like rapping with classical piano, you know?

I know. But, you know, honestly, Clara, I have been telling my students I, the wrong thing. I've been telling them you can play pop, sure. If you want to play, you know, Taylor Swift, go ahead. If you want to play Justin Bieber, sure. But you cannot play hip-hop. I am sorry. I've been telling them, but boy was I wrong. I'm sorry, my students. I was wrong. And Blackbok, Blackbok is amazing. He, what he does on the piano with the hip-hop rhythm and, uh, oh, And he is such a skilled pianist, and you can tell as soon as you see his video, he is a classically trained musician. So Clara, so I was reading the article you shared, and it says that, like, you know, success of Netflix drama Bridgerton, you know, actually really affected, influenced the viewers of listening to more classical music. Can you imagine?

I mean, I love that show, but yeah, yeah, a lot to hear.

Yeah, I was so into the actors, especially the— what's his name— the, the guy, the main character, because he was so hot. I, I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention to too much music. However, I noticed that like I, I heard a pop music played by string instruments, like in a classical music style. So I was like, huh, this is interesting. And actually it's It was arranged and performed by Vitamin Street Quartet from LA. This quartet is actually widely known for its series of tribute albums to rock and pop acts. Huh, interesting, huh? And then, yeah, and obviously Bridgerton had a huge impact on them with streaming up by nearly 225% through the first 4 months of 2021. And then, yeah, so now I— we've been interviewing a lot of guests in the past, and I now noticed that, you know, before pandemic— it's such a cliché saying before pandemic, but it's true— like, I felt like there was a disconnect, there was where the classical music world exists on one side, and as opposed to the other side is pop and hip-hop. And jazz exists somewhere else too. And we just became really comfortable in that bubble, right?

It's almost like a separation, right? But also segregation. It's You know, we're all in our each own dramas, you know.

Absolutely. And honestly, it's true. And especially with this Black Lives Matter happened in late May 2020. Well, the Black Lives Matter movement was already there before, but there was this incident of Mr. George Floyd and just with all that, I think the world is now— we really want to be connected to one another, right? It doesn't— yeah. And so I felt like it was just so timely to be able to interview this person, Black Box. But also, what do you think of this? How this classical music is going to evolve? What do you think that the classical music, as in not music musically in terms of, but listenership, right? Or who is going to listen? What do you think?

Well, to tell you the truth, you know, it's actually from only very recently, I have to say, that I even start to allow myself to, you know, listen to non-classical music. I'm not saying that I didn't allow myself before, but, you know, growing up in Asia, in China especially, that I did study classical music since I was 3. It's almost like I felt it was sort of like an honor. You know, I understood classical music. Most of my friends didn't know what it was, you know, unless they studied. And, but, you know, fast forward, once I came here and I was in Kansas and I don't know, there was like— so I almost was separating myself from the rest of the world because I was a classical musician and then I listened to jazz. I started to love jazz, but it was recently. Yeah, maybe you were right talking about, you know, the recent movements and definitely by going to interview this, you know, Black Box, our new guest coming up soon, I realized music is music.

It's all intergroup.

Interconnected. So, you know, I actually, I do allow my students to play non-classical music once in a while. And, but, you know, I think it's even for us, the classical musicians, I'm very glad to be inspired to start to understand, listen, you know, in the past I only listened to non-classical music maybe when I'm cleaning, you know, but now I actually sometimes start up the day, I listen to it, you know. So I'm still trying to understand all of it, but I think that is the new world we're going to be in, you know.

Well, yeah, and also, isn't that weird? Because this country is— in America, you know, there is the deep, rich history of jazz blues, right? Absolutely. And rich history of rock, pop, and hip-hop. Hip-hop was born in the Bronx. Oh my God. Right, right. So then, so why do we separate? Like, why even as an educator, why do I have to separate from here is— this is music education and you're supposed to be doing that in this classical music tradition. Sometimes you can do pop, but here he is, here he is, classical way. Yeah, sure. I mean, it's not about right or wrong. It is not. And then I love classical music. I'm a classical musician. I relate to classical music more than any other genres. However, however, why can't we just be more like mixed together instead of just separating them? And also even like saying, I allow myself, I allow my students listen to different genre, sounds to me it's so wrong because why, why, what, who am I, right? And because, but it's amazing like When I was a teenager, I loved Michael Jackson more than any other composers I'm supposed to be listening. I was listening to Michael Jackson on the way to my piano lesson, I'm like, and on the way back, you know, in the bus. And I felt so guilty though at that time, like, because I'm supposed to be listening to, you know, Mozart or Bach or whatever, but I preferred— I had this huge Sony cassette Walkman. It was yellow. Yeah, it was yellow, bright yellow. And I put the cassette in and it was such a shock. The first 4— dun dun dun dun— you know, when you listen to Michael Jackson's "Bad." I was like, oh my gosh, this is so sensational. It was just— I remember the sensation. So, but somehow I felt guilty and the guilt actually was carried through throughout my adult life too. Like, every time I listen to pop or— but I love it. I still love listening to, you know, all sorts of pop jazz music. And when I work out, I have to listen to pop. I'm sorry.

Exactly, because we go into analyzing mode when we listen to classical music.

I know, it's hard.

Yeah, exactly. I remember a friend of ours, you know, I mean, I love Michael Jackson. I had black cassette tape, and it was so cool. I remember I tried to learn some English, or even couldn't really understand everything. And then the violinist, he was a great Michael Jackson dancer, so he was always dancing in front of our classroom when the teacher is not around. He got in detention one time or something. Oh, no. So we were like, okay, no more Michael Jackson. It was just funny. But I'm glad actually we like it enough that I'm sure it influenced us in many ways, you know, rhythm studies and all such. Sure.

Anyway, so I am— we are very excited about this new phase of The Piano Pod, and in January we'll have a lot more exciting guests coming up. So we can't tell you as of now, but just wanted to tell you this episode, episode number lucky 7 with Block Bach, will premiere on YouTube and livestream on Facebook, Twitter, Twitch on Tuesday, December 7th at 8 PM Eastern. This concludes this special edition of The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song with Yukimi Song with Yukimi Song. Please give us stars and reviews on whatever podcasting platform you use. If you're watching us on YouTube, remember to hit the thumbs up button and be sure to subscribe to our channel.

You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, BilliBilli Instagram and LinkedIn. The links are in the description below. If you have feedback for us, please leave it in the comments or DM us via social media, or you can always email us at thepianopodnyc@gmail.com.

We will see you next Tuesday, Episode 6, guest Ricardo Hernandez with a guest co-host, Aguiliki Sonis. That's right.

Be sure to tune in and goodbye, everyone.

Bye, everyone.

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Void where prohibited by law. 21+.

Terms and conditions apply.

You're listening to a podcast right now. Driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own podcast is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads just like this. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start your new podcast for free today at RSS.com.