Pilot

In this debut episode, host Katrina Stroud introduces the inspiration behind the show — stories and advice from classical music professionals.

Katrina shares what led her to create the podcast, her own journey in classical music, and what listeners can expect in future episodes. Each conversation will take you behind the scenes with esteemed professionals musicians as they share the real stories behind their careers. Through honest and heartfelt interviews, you'll hear about the triumphs, setbacks, and turning points that shape a life in classical music.

Whether you’re a music student, a seasoned musician, or simply curious about the stories of the industry leaders, this is your invitation to step backstage and discover the people behind the performances.

Transcript

Hey, everyone, welcome to the Backstage Classical Career Conversations podcast. I'm your host, Katrina Stroud, and I'm a classical violinist who started playing at the age of three. I graduated from the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercy University with my bachelor's in violin performance and I'm pursuing my master's in music at the University of Michigan.

This podcast is for musicians, especially those aspiring for a professional career in music or just those looking for an inside look into the classical music world. In this series, I invite esteemed classical musicians onto the show and interview them to tell their stories and give advice to share with others and preserve their legacies. I started this podcast because during my time at the center, I studied with violinist Amy Schwarz-Mareti, Robert McDuffie and David Kim, along with chamber coaches Annie Fullard of the Cavani Quartet and Lawrence Dutton of the Emerson Quartet.

Every time each of these esteemed professional musicians would tell me or my colleagues stories from their careers, I'd always think to myself, wow, this really needs to be written down or recorded somewhere. These stories include Robert McDuffie playing the Barber Violin Concerto for Samuel Barber in his New York apartment, or Lawrence Dutton working with artists like Cellist Rostropovich or recording his albums with his quartet that won nine Grammys. So when it came time for me to come up with a project for my entrepreneurship class, which is a part of the McDuffie Center curriculum, I wanted to create a podcast that interviews my teachers and other famous musicians to ask them about their careers and to share their stories with the world.

One thing led to a next and here we are. This podcast was created to tell the stories of some of the greatest classical musicians today, and to show the world that every person's journey is unique and there's not one right way to do things in order to be successful, other than practicing, of course. 

As for my own story, I was adopted from China at the age of one and raised in Austin, Texas by a family of doctors and nurses. I started playing the violin when I was three, as I said before, and I actually really hated practicing the violin all the way up until the start of high school. It wasn't until I started studying with Pasha Sabouri, a teacher in Austin at the time, that I developed my love for classical music and started to enjoy playing the violin for myself. When it was time for me to attend college, I was planning on double majoring in music and pre-med, until I heard that I had gotten into the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings.

It was at that point I made the decision to fully invest myself in music and see where it took me, as pre-med was something I could always go back to, but the opportunity to study vigorously at a conservatory style school with a free tuition scholarship nonetheless was a once in a lifetime opportunity. During my second year at the school, my quartet, the Turquoise Quartet with members Hayoung Choi, Carlos Walker, and Juliana Moroz entered into chamber competitions and placed second in the St. Paul String Quartet competition and became quarter finalists in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. This is all thanks to our chamber coaches and long nights with Annie Fullard.

This was a huge turning point for me because for the first time, I recognized music as something I could see myself doing for the rest of my life and felt a deep passion for music and performing with my friends and colleagues. Since then, I have been to the Aspen Music Festival twice, studying with Robert Lipsett, was a substitute musician with the New World Symphony in Miami, Florida, and I performed in festivals in Napa Valley, California, Rome, Italy, Michigan, Ohio, and Texas. I've also performed in ensembles twice in Carnegie Hall and have performed in concert series in Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, and Connecticut.

Thank you so much for joining me on Backstage Classical Career Conversations, and be sure to subscribe and leave a review so that others can discover these inspiring musical journeys. If you want to hear more and stay updated, follow us on Instagram and tune into our new episodes which drop each month. I'm Katrina Stroud and it was great to see you here.

Until next time, stay inspired and listen to the stories of others.