Follow Your Dream - Music And Much More!

Jen Ash is a Lebanese-French pop star. With a really interesting back story. She was born in Lebanon and raised in France. And listen to this - She was a professional basketball player for 14 years, and then she ditched that career for a career in music. She calls her music Afro fusion, mixing R&B, French Caribbean and Afro rhythms, together with her Lebanese roots. And she says she wants to be part of a rebellious era and raise her voice against injustice and conformity.   My featured song is “Redemption Road”, from the album PGS 7 by my band P...

Charu Suri is a Grammy nominated pianist and composer. She fuses Indian ragas with traditional jazz. Her latest album, Shayan, blends evening ragas with classical and jazz, encouraging people to sleep better and healthier. She had a sold-out premiere for this release at Carnegie Hall last year. Her prior album featured John Patitucci and Steve Gadd. Her albums have reached #1 in India and #2 in Kenya. She also became the first Indian artist to collaborate with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. And she is a Governor of the Recording Academy’s New York Chapter. My featured song is “Feel...

Philippe Quint is a multiple Grammy nominated violinist. He’s an advocate for contemporary music. Conductors he’s worked with include Andrew Litton and JoAnn Falletta, both of whom have been guests on this podcast. His programs include an Homage to Bach, Charlie Chaplin’s Smile, and The Legend of Astor Piazzolla. He’s performed with the London Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra among many others. He’s released 17 albums. His mentors include Itzhak Perlman. My featured song is “Ma Petite Fleur String Quartet”, my recent release. Spotify link. —...

Jim Kimo West is a multiple Grammy winning Hawaiian “slack key” guitarist, producer and composer with kind of a New Age bent. He went to Hawaii in 1985 and basically never left. Except to go on tour with Weird Al Yankovic, with whom he’s played for over 30 years and earned 5 Grammys and a Billboard #1 album. He’s also composed music for TV and films. My featured song is “The Pardners”, from the album East Side Sessions by my band Project Grand Slam. Spotify link. —------------------------------------ The Follow Your Dream Podcast:Top 1% of all podcasts w...

This episode introduces a new addition to the Follow Your Dream platform. It’s called Essays. Over the years, I’ve had more than 750 in-depth conversations with creative artists from around the world. Those conversations have taught me a great deal about creativity, success, curiosity, purpose, and the creative journey. To explore some of those ideas more deeply, I’ve launched Essays. It’s Follow Your Dream’s fifth pillar of content. Essays draw upon lessons I’ve learned from my hundreds of artist guests, as well as my own experiences as a musician, au...

Lola Kristine is a terrific singer and songwriter. She’s known as “the little girl with the big voice” and boy is that true, as you will hear. She combines jazz, blues and gospel. Her latest album is called “Chapters”. Her recording of 'We Are One' was featured on lran TV Network as part of the Woman Life Freedom movement. And she’s given me a couple of new songs for the Songfest portion. My featured song is “You Started Something”, from the album Trippin by my band Project Grand Slam. Spotify link. —----------------------------------------------------------- The Follow Your...

Alessio Bax is a remarkable Italian born classical pianist - a recitalist, a chamber musician, and a soloist. He’s appeared with nearly 200 orchestras, including the New York, London, Royal, and St. Petersburg Philharmonics. He has collaborated with Joshua Bell and his wife, Lucille Chung, another world-class concert pianist, among many others. He’s the founding Artistic Director of the London Festival of Chamber Music. He performs regularly at festivals all around the world including at Tanglewood. And he’s on the piano faculty of the New England Conservatory.  My featured song is “Ma Petite Fleur String Quartet”...

Christina Courtin is an outstanding Violinist, vocalist, and composer and a founding member of The Knights, the classical orchestra founded by Eric Jacobsen and his brother. She has collaborated with Ed Sheeran, Le Ann Womack, and Sara Bareilles, among many others. She has toured all over the world, and continues to have a thriving solo career. She has sung with artists including Yo-Yo Ma, Dawn Upshaw, Laurie Anderson, Bela Fleck, and The Orlando Philharmonic.  She’s a featured soloist in the films Chappaquiddick and Free State of Jones, and writes music for This American Life. And she’s been a tea...

Carly Paoli is a spectacular British classically trained soprano singer and a Classical Brit nominee. She’s known for her romantic, lyric driven performances across various musical genres including classical, contemporary, operetta and popular songs. She’s headlined at Carnegie Hall, St Peter’s Basilica, Windsor Castle, St James’ Palace and the London Palladium among many others. She's performed with Andrea Bocelli. She’s been on British television and she’s in huge demand in Italy. And she’s glamorous too, often being featured in magazines such as Vogue, Glamour, and Vanity Fair. She is the whole package. My featured...

After more than 750 episodes, I’ve observed that many of my remarkable guests are connected by one or more common threads. Each episode of Special Collections focuses on a particular thread that ties together some of my guests. In this episode, that common thread is the British Invasion era of the 1960s. The era began, in essence, with the appearance of The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964. It was the most-watched television broadcast up to that time, with an audience of more than 70 million people. And like other “invasions,” this one ha...

Keita Ogawa is a 5x Grammy nominee and 3x Grammy winning percussionist and drummer. He’s performed with Yo-Yo Ma, Maria Schneider, Betty Buckley, Sabeth Perez and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. And he’s a member of Snarky Puppy. He’s got a passion for crossing musical borders and uniting differences in cultures.  My featured song is “Moon Shot”, my recent single. Spotify link. —----------------------------------------------------------- The Follow Your Dream Podcast:Top 1% of all podcasts with Listeners in 200 countries! Click here for Start Here Click here for All Episodes  Click he...

Nathan Schram is a 2x Grammy winning composer and the violist of the Attacca Quartet. He has collaborated with Sting, Björk, Billie Eilish, David Crosby, and Becca Stevens, among others. He is an Honorary Ambassador to the city of Chuncheon, South Korea. He’s released three solo records and several with Attacca, two of which won Grammys for Best Chamber Music Performance. His arrangement of a Radiohead song was nominated for a Grammy. He’s also the Founder and Artistic Director of Musicambia which develops music programs and performances inside prisons and jails. His latest work, “Let Me Out”, d...

John “JR” Robinson is one of the best and maybe the most recorded drummer of the modern era. His Bio is out of this world. You definitely know his playing, because he’s played on just about every song ever recorded. Here’s just a couple. He’s the guy who played that legendary drum fill in Michael Jackson's "Rock With You" from “Off The Wall”, the spectacular intro to Steve Winwood's No. 1 hit, "Higher Love" from “Back In The High Life”, and he was the drummer on “We Are The World”.  In total he’s played on over 10,000 recording sessions, 500 m...

Jen Shyu is a groundbreaking multilingual vocalist, composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and dancer. And if that wasn’t enough she is also a Rome Prize Winner, a Guggenheim Fellow, a United States Artists Fellow, a Doris Duke Artist, and she was voted a Downbeat Critics Poll Rising Star Female Vocalist. Her background is Taiwanese and East Timorese, and she speaks 11 languages. She’s performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She’s performed with Terri Lyne Carrington, Reggie Workman, Kenny Barron, and Bill Frisell. She’s released eight albums as leader. And she’s produced three solo...

After five years and more than 750 episodes, I had a revelation that Follow Your Dream had become much more than just a podcast - it is a global arts platform. It's founded upon 5 pillars of content: Conversations with more than 750 guests; Special Collections, where I curate episodes around common themes and ideas; Reflections, where I share my own observations and thoughts inspired by hundreds of conversations with creative artists; Legends, featuring iconic artists who helped to define their fields; and Essays, which allows me to step back and explore larger themes such as creativity, success, purpose, curiosity, and...

John Riesen is an award winning tenor singer. His genres include opera, musical theatre, oratorio, studio recording, and concerts. He’s released 2 albums and over 130 commercial recordings. He is also an associate producer on the Grammy nominated project The Impossible Dream. He was on America's Got Talent as part of the group Metaphysic. He’s performed at venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and Dallas Symphony. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in Carmina Burana. He’s also performed in Sweeney Todd, Carmen, Handel’s Messiah, The Pirates of Penzance, and HMS Pinafore. His newest project is Aria Nouveau, his duet...

Ted Rosenthal is the real deal. He’s a Grammy nominated jazz pianist and composer and one of the leading lights in this genre. He has performed worldwide as a soloist, with his trio, and with many jazz greats including Gerry Mulligan, Wynton Marsalis, Jon Faddis, Art Farmer, Phil Woods, and James Moody.  All are jazz icons. He’s a Winner of the Thelonious Monk International Competition. He’s released 19 CDs as a leader. He’s performed with the Boston Pops, Detroit Symphony and Phoenix Symphony among others.  He has been accompanist for many of the top jazz vocalists including...

Jennifer Barnhart is an actor, singer, voiceover artist - and a puppeteer! Her career is filled with her extraordinary work on children’s programming. She was an original cast member of the Tony Award-winning musical, "Avenue Q.”  She is also an Emmy-nominated performer for her work  on "Sesame Street," where she plays Zoe and Granny Bird, among others. She was Cleo on the PBS show, “Between the Lions” and she has played dozens of characters on a variety of TV shows, including “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” “SNL,” “Law & Order: SVU,” and “Bear in the Big Blue House”. My featured song is...

Nino Surguladze is an acclaimed operatic mezzo-soprano. She is from Tbilisi, Georgia. She made her debut at age 23 at La Scala and has performed at many of the world’s most prestigious opera houses including Teatro di San Carlo; Teatro Real Madrid; Metropolitan Opera in New York; and the Mariinsky Theatre, San Diego Opera, New Zealand Opera and across Italy where she starred in Carmen. Her career spans Europe, the United States, New Zealand and Asia. Her discography includes live recordings from Milan, Barcelona and Verona. She’s also appeared in film and television. She has been honored with the...

Alex Frank is the Musical Director and bassist for actor and musician Jeff Goldblum’s jazz group, The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra. He co-produced the group’s latest album, which includes Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, and Scarlett Johansson. He’s also worked on previous albums with Kelly Clarkson, Fiona Apple and Miley Cyrus. He played the bass in the film Jersey Boys, directed by Clint Eastwood, and he’s also appeared on albums by Michael Bublé, Charlie Puth, and Nas. He’s played with Tamir Hendelman, Tierney Sutton, Jackie Ryan and Benny Benack III, each of whom has been a guest on th...