Stand Partners for Life

Music or muddle: Shostakovich’s 5th Symphony

Shostakovich had never had it worse: his latest opera, Lady Macbeth, had been panned. And not just by an ordinary critic: Joseph Stalin himself had paid a visit to the op

The best cadenza ever? Prokofiev and Ma Vlast

Have you ever “discovered” a major piece, live, in the concert hall? Nathan remembers sitting right next to a big star performing Prokofiev’s second Piano Concerto, with

Stand Partners “Four” Life

This week’s landmark episode marks the return of Akiko, plus a pair of fellow stand partners for life: violists Kate Reddish and Eric Lea! We discuss the slings and arrow

Travis Maril, Violympic Champion

I’m joined in the backyard this week by Violympian and VMC participant Travis Maril, as well as his fellow USC alum and my Director of Operations, Kate Reddish. Our wide-

Kerstin Tenney and the Light Album

Nathan, Kerstin and Kate (and Kate’s SPFL Eric) in Pasadena Today I’m talking with Kerstin Tenney, VMC violinist par excellence, as well as my Director of Operations, vi

Tour-ready? Copland 3, Mahler 1, and more

It’s tour time! While you’re listening, we’ll be flying, driving, and playing our way through Boston, New York, Mexico City, and Guanajuato. So to kick off the trip, let’

Welcome back with the All-Time Awards

Akiko and I are back for the 2022-2023 season! In this first episode we share with you a fun new format: awards in all kinds of different categories. Next week we’ll focu

039: Summer motivation, plus Q & A

We took quite a long break from recording the show with everything going on at the moment, but we are so glad to be back. To kick things off again we thought we would use

038: Do we really need a conductor?

Here at Stand Partner HQ, we get this question a lot! And that should tell you something without even knowing the answer. Nobody asks what a pilot does, or if we really n

037: Orchestra Players Anonymous

Twelve-step programs have helped millions of people, including some of our colleagues. But their constant references to a “higher power” rub some people the wrong way. A

036 – Johnny Lee wasn’t meant to be a Harvard MD

Violinist Johnny Lee is Akiko's mirror image on stage at Disney Hall: he sits fourth chair second violin, while she's fourth chair first violin. But they have something

035: Playing by numbers, or Advanced Orchestra Stats

How many times have you been jealous of the box scores for baseball and basketball, or the advanced statistics for football? Don't you wish that you too could be measured

034: The spirit is willing, but the Flesch is weak

This week, we're talking scales and etudes. Are they the foundational blocks on which your entire technique is built? Or more like raw vegetables that you have to choke d

033: The audience experience, with superfan Roderick Branch

Chicago Symphony cellist Brant Taylor may have been our very first special guest here at the Stand Partners, but so far we've been missing the perspective of his partner

032: What about Bob? Robert deMaine, our principal cello

Today we're joined by our good friend and LA Phil principal cello, Robert deMaine. Bob tells us about his childhood, his musical family and an early teacher who gave him

031: That’s life in the hot seat, Mr. Concertmaster!

Today we're talking concertmaster, and what it means to sit in the hot seat. What are the duties and expectations, and what makes "first chair violin" attractive or unatt

030: All about Amadeus

Nathan says: "My top three movies of all time would be The Godfather, Rocky, and Amadeus in some order." Akiko's not into those "top whatever" lists. But both of us lov

029: Living the rock star life at the Hollywood Bowl

It isn't every day that you get to perform for 18,000 screaming fans... especially if you're a violinist. But a handful of times each summer, we get the rock star treatme

028: Help, my audition’s tomorrow!

Maybe it's the proverbial "seven minutes to midnight", or maybe you've still got a week or two. It never feels like enough time, trust us. So here's some advice for thos

027: A Fistful of Mahlers

First, some exciting news: we've got Stand Partners for Life T-shirts! Check them out here, and show your Stand Partner love! For this episode, Akiko and I just had a on