Agile Vocalist
Agile Vocalist is a podcast about sound and the performing arts with a California connection. Explore artist stories and learn music history, get inspired, and learn about how sound and the arts impact our lives. Created and hosted by Rachel Medanic, Agile Vocalist is for the curious, the creative, and for anyone willing to explore the connection between sound and our shared humanity.
Agile Vocalist episodes, liner notes, and additional visual materials also available at: https://www.agilevocalist.com
Episodes
34 episodes
A World of Percussion with Keith Terry
A performance art of rhythm, claps, slaps, stomps and sounds that is a feast for the senses--especially if you're actually doing it--is something Keith Terry calls body music. He describes it as music that can be seen and dance that can be hear...
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Season 4
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Episode 6
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42:43
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What's Your Frequency? Dive in with Vocalist, Destani Wolf
From her current role as a MOTION vocalist and improviser sharing the stage every Monday with Bobby McFerrin in Berkeley to her 3 Grammy nominations Destani Wolf's sound has been on over 40 albums. During the pandemic, this original Cirque du S...
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Season 4
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Episode 5
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38:01
Combining the Performing Arts with Tachíria Flamenco
Mx. Flamenco is a dancer, actor, singer and comedienne who shares her unique blend of performance with the San Francisco Bay and beyond. In this conversation we explore the sounds of flamenco as a dance form and how she brings it together in ...
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Season 4
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Episode 4
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43:26
Part 2 with San Francisco Bay Area Salsa & Latin Musician, Edgardo Cambón
Part two with Edgardo covers the power of music that's connected to dance forms, origins of Edgardo's band, Candela, and his eye-opening process of how he used to create original music as he was waiting tables in a restaurant.If you...
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Season 4
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Episode 3
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40:24
Salsa and Latin Music Powerhouse, a Conversation with Edgardo Cambón
Edgardo Cambón is a Uruguayan-born singer who fell in love with percussion after setting aside guitar and getting early exposure singing as a young boy. As a teacher band leader and Latin music business man now, Edgardo continues to perform. Hi...
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Season 4
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Episode 2
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43:26
The Language that Connects Us With Poet Ali
Poet Ali is a poet, compelling performer, lyricist, performance artist and inspirational speaker whose performances and presentations focus on connection with ourselves and our environments. As a soulosopher and entertainer, he is a inspires us...
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Season 4
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Episode 1
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40:57
Learn How to Unleash Your Agile Vocalist, The Podcast Turns Three!
21 Guests and 27 episodes later, Agile Vocalist has hit its three year mark (which is kind of amazing for a podcast). Thank you to my season 3 guests:Cellista,
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Season 3
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Episode 8
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4:48
The Mysterious Carillon with Simone Browne
The sounds of bells in towers is a common experience to many around the world. But the reality is there is an entire profession devoted to carillons-- actual lever and pedal instruments making the sounds of bells you hear. Carillons exist all o...
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Season 3
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Episode 7
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32:26
Taiko Beat of Collaboration with Janet Koike
Janet Koike is the Founder of Rhythmix Cultural Works in Alameda, California. She is also the Artistic Director of Maze Daiko ensemble. In this episode she shares her journey from textile fashion design to tap dance to playing taiko, the Japane...
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Season 3
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Episode 6
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41:50
Sound Healing with Melissa Felsenstein
Have you ever pondered what it might be like to experience a moment of tranquility amidst the chaos of daily life? Melissa Felsenstein, the founder of Innersounds Meditation, reveals how soun...
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Season 3
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Episode 5
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1:01:23
Visualizing Sound with Rob Jensen and Warren Trezevant, Creators of Sonic Runway
What does it take to synchronize light and sound? Co-creators Rob Jensen and Warren Trezevant, talk about their work creating Sonic Runway, an art installation conceived at Burning Man. Sonic Runway immerses the spectator in colorful synchroniz...
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Season 3
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Episode 4
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30:25
Liminal Space: Summer Frequencies
What did you do this summer? What's left still to experience? Better yet, what did you hear? July is a liminal space and time to dive into the creative. This summer soundscape is an annual season pause so you can listen to July....
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Season 3
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Episode 3
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6:16
Hip Hop for Change with Grammy-Winning Alphabet Rockers
In 2007, Tommy Soulati Shepard and Kaitlin McGaw formed Alphabet Rockers to make music that makes change. This episode discusses how they met, the wide variety of their performing backgrounds and how they, 3 professional children artists and a ...
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Season 3
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Episode 2
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47:31
Taking Cello to New Vibrations with Cellista
Exposed to cello at an early age, Cellista broke away from her classical cellist training to follow her calling to create and collaborate with other art forms including beatboxers, spoken word artists, dancers, and musicians. Her work continues...
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Season 3
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Episode 1
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30:31
Grace Note: Season 2 Wrapped and You!
Season 2 has concluded. This episode is how you can (wherever you are!) share in the podcast festivities (listening, sending me an email). Listen as I review the guests we had over the past year, sing you a little song, and recognize some of th...
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Season 2
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Episode 7
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7:28
From the Mississippi Delta to the Board of the Grammys with Chelle Jacques
Chelle Jacques is a career musician, bandleader, educator and more. In this episode she shares the story of her recently launched Daughters of the Delta Project featuring the musical contributions from the women artists of Louisiana we so rarel...
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Season 2
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Episode 6
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35:42
Animal Sounds: Metamorphosis and Frida
I talked to Frida the parrot as she was on exhibit as part of a larger an immersive art experience. This Agile Vocalist episode dives into animal sounds and share a one-of-a-kind recording of my interactions with a parrot I went to “in...
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Season 2
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Episode 5
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10:01
From California to Tiny Desk Entry with Folk Musician, Moira Smiley
Folk and classical musician, composer, arranger, instrumentalist, and vocalist Moira Smiley has a broad repertoire of mystical and passionate music that pulls your heart strings. And if you sing, you may find yourself learning something she's w...
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Season 2
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Episode 4
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50:35
Reimaging Opera at Burning Man with Marisa Winter
What’s it like to lead the edge of change in the arts? Vocalist, Marisa Winter (Diva Marisa) has done that with her career and she remains driven to offer new audiences music in context. As a classically trained opera singer and Burning Man per...
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Season 2
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Episode 3
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38:36
The Touch of Music with Dr. Pianist, Makiko Hirata
Dr. Makiko Hirata (“Dr. Pianist") is on a mission to promote the power of music to heal and unite. In this episode, she talks about reconciling her training in classical piano with being a woman in music as well as how musicians hav...
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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32:46
Music for Refugees with Betsy Blakeslee
Betsy Blakeslee’s work has connected refugees with the healing power of music for two decades. She directed expressive arts programs for refugee youth in Bosnia and Croatia during the wars of the 1990s. Since 2016, her Expressive Arts Refuge te...
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Season 2
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Episode 1
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38:29
Agile Vocalist Epilogue, Season 1: Bathrooms, Cars & the Future
In celebration of Agile Vocalist's 1-year anniversary, this epilogue takes you back through an unexpected trend that emerged with many of my guests about creativity. The theme was this: people are often most creative and get their sound p...
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Season 1
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Episode 13
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6:51
Disc Jockeying to Engage with Justin James
What is it like to be a modern-day disc jockey(DJ) artist? How, with sound alone, does a DJ engage people they’ve never met to celebrate, raise the energy, hop onto a dance floor, and come together for a shared experience? I talk engagement and...
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Season 1
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Episode 12
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40:25
British Angel for Gospel Music with Opal Louis Nations
Growing up in England, Opal Louis Nations was passionate about soul music and followed his calling to perform it amid England’s soul and blues scene. In this interview Opal shares the roots of the painful history of gospel music and its evoluti...
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Season 1
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Episode 11
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41:56
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Music as Accompaniment to Life, Work & Feelings with Vidya Srinivasan (Part 2 of a 2-part episode)
This continuing conversation with Indian classical music vocalist, Vidya Srinivasan gives us insights into how she balances a multi-dimensional life with music and how music is a tool as frequently used in her work life as it is in her personal...
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Season 1
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Episode 10
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25:06
