Beyond the Notes with Vonn Vanier

Vonn Vanier

Beyond the Notes uncovers the craft, stories, and “aha” moments behind today’s most influential music makers. Host Vonn Vanier sits down—remotely—for in‑depth chats with composers, producers, engineers, and performers (from Grammy winners to game‑score innovators), exploring how they broke in, solved impossible challenges, mentored the next generation, and even pursued unexpected passions. Each episode delivers a 30–60 min deep‑dive plus bite‑sized clips to inspire your own creative journey.

  1. Aug 11

    Two Days Before the Super Bowl, This Superstar Needed New Music. Chris Had 10 Hours.

    The call came at 10 p.m. on a Friday. The Super Bowl was Sunday. One of the singers had just scrapped the arrangement she was meant to perform and Chris Walden had until morning to write her a new one for a full orchestra.  He didn't go to bed. He finished at 9 a.m., walked into the studio at 10, and they recorded it.  Asked what he felt when the phone rang, he says: "Nothing. I just do it. There's not enough time to think about the pressure."  Chris Walden is a Grammy-nominated composer, arranger and conductor whose credits include the Oscars, the Super Bowl, Paul McCartney, Rihanna, Michael Bublé, Quincy Jones, David Foster, Michael Bolton and Seal. He is the founder and music director of the Pacific Jazz Orchestra in Los Angeles.  He is also unusually blunt about how he learned. Two master's degrees, and he says nothing he was taught at music school was useful for the work he actually does. He learned by transcribing the arrangers he admired, one chart at a time. "That was my school. Not the building I went to."  In this conversation: what the lead arranger at the Oscars actually does, the mentor who never once gave him a lesson, leaving Germany at twenty-nine because he'd run out of things to do there, the snowstorm that put him in front of a radio symphony at twenty-two, the four years he spent with no work at all after a promising start in LA, and why he says the music is the easy part.  Vonn Vanier sits down with composers, performers, producers, engineers and creative leaders to ask what their biographies leave out and what it actually takes to build a life in music.

  2. Jun 30

    Miguel del Aguila: How to Grow Classical Music Beyond the Classics

    3x Grammy-nominated composer Miguel del Aguila joins Vonn Vanier for a conversation about how classical music can grow beyond the classics without losing what makes it powerful.  Miguel reflects on finding his own voice as a composer, resisting pressure from teachers and critics, the role of rhythm in making music feel alive, and why classical music needs new works that actually sound like the world we live in.  They also discuss inclusion in classical music, the danger of treating the concert hall like a museum, what AI music can and cannot do, and why the future of music may depend less on complexity and more on humanity.  Guest: Miguel del Aguila - https://migueldelaguila.com Host: Vonn Vanier - https://vonnvanier.com  Subscribe for more conversations with composers, performers, conductors, and artists shaping the future of classical music.

  3. May 26

    Peter Askim on Conducting, Composing, and The Next Festival

    Peter Askim is a composer, conductor, educator, former orchestral bassist, Music Director of the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra, Director of Orchestral Activities at North Carolina State University, and Founder and Artistic Director of The Next Festival of Emerging Artists.  In this episode of Beyond the Notes, Vonn Vanier talks with Peter about conducting, composing, working with orchestras, and what young musicians learn when they move from the practice room into the real world of rehearsals, relationships, and professional music-making.  They discuss why “networking” is the wrong word for real musical relationships, how composers can earn the trust of musicians, what conductors actually do when a new piece enters the rehearsal room, why clarity can matter more than complexity, and how professional musicians can find their way back when music starts to feel like just another job. Peter also talks about The Next Festival of Emerging Artists, which runs May 29–June 12, 2026 in Chatham, NY, Brooklyn, and New York City. The 2026 season celebrates women immigrant composers in honor of America’s 250th anniversary and features GRAMMY-nominated cellist and composer Andrea Casarrubios, along with world premieres and works by Niloufar Nourbakhsh, Adeliia Faizullina, Wang Lu, Clarice Assad, and Aleksandra Vrebalov. Upcoming Next Festival performances: June 5, 2026, 7:30 PM — PS21: Center for Contemporary Performance, Chatham, NY https://ps21chatham.org/event/next-fest/ June 6, 2026, 7:30 PM — National Sawdust, Brooklyn, NY https://www.nationalsawdust.org/event/the-next-festival-2026-featuring-andrea-casarrubios June 11, 2026, 7:30 PM — Gibney Dance, Lower Manhattan Pay-what-you-can showing of new works by Festival Fellows https://www.next-fest.org/attend Learn more about Peter Askim: https://peteraskim.com/ Learn more about The Next Festival of Emerging Artists: https://www.next-fest.org/  Subscribe to Beyond the Notes with Vonn Vanier for conversations with composers, performers, conductors, producers, and musicians about the craft, stories, and ideas behind the music.

  4. May 12

    Can Music Stay Human in the Age of AI? | David Fogel on AI, Classical Music & Creativity

    David Fogel has spent decades working in artificial intelligence. He is also a composer, musician, and founder of the Symphonina Foundation. In this episode of Beyond the Notes with Vonn Vanier, David joins Vonn to talk about music, creativity, artificial intelligence, and the future of human expression in a world where technology can increasingly imitate what artists do.  The conversation also explores David’s work with the Symphonina Foundation, his belief in shorter symphonic forms for modern listeners, and the challenge of keeping orchestral music meaningful for new generations.  At the center of the episode is a question that reaches beyond music:  As AI becomes more powerful, can music stay human?  Follow The Symphonina Foundation:  Website: https://symphonina.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SymphoninaFoundation/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thesymphoninafoundation3199 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/symphoninafoundation TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@symphonina Follow David Fogel: David Fogel music website: https://www.davidfogelmusic.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@davidfogel8191 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidbfogel/ Email: david.fogel@symphonina.org David Fogel interviews Vonn Vanier: https://symphonina.org/podcast-vonn-vanier Follow Beyond the Notes: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@beyondwithvonn Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beyondwithvonn Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beyondwithvonn TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@beyondwithvonn Follow Vonn Vanier: Website: https://vonnvanier.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@vonnvanier Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vonnvanier Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vonnvanier/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@vonnvanier Subscribe to Beyond the Notes with Vonn Vanier for conversations with composers, performers, producers, and creative thinkers shaping the future of music.

  5. Apr 21

    Your Song Isn’t Finished... Until | A Conversation with Michael Romanowski

    Most people hear music on earbuds, in cars, or through speakers that sound nothing like the room where the record was made. So what happens between the studio and the real world?  In this episode of Beyond the Notes, Vonn Vanier talks with 6x GRAMMY Award-winning mastering engineer Michael Romanowski about what mastering actually is, why it still matters, and how records either survive or fall apart once they leave the studio.  Michael explains why mastering is not just making music louder, why some songs become physically fatiguing to hear, why louder can actually work against the music, and why the best mastering engineers are not trying to impose their own sound on a record. They are trying to preserve the artist’s intent while helping the music translate across real listening environments.  They also talk about: why music can go wrong in “about every way you could imagine” once it leaves the studiowhat makes a mastering engineer valuable beyond technical processing - why “loud and bright” is not the same thing as mastering what it means for a record to translate in cars, headphones, living rooms, and streaming how artists misunderstand mastering when they confuse it with finishing the mix why some artists ask for music to sound “worse” and when that can actually make sense Subscribe for more conversations with composers, performers, producers, and engineers on Beyond the Notes with Vonn Vanier.

  6. Mar 20

    Jeffrey Silverman Snuck Into Hollywood Scoring Sessions Then Helped Orchestrate Yanni’s Biggest Show

    Jeffrey Silverman snuck into Hollywood film scoring sessions as a teenager.  Years later, he would go on to orchestrate some of the most iconic concert productions of the 1990s, including Yanni’s Live at the Acropolis and John Tesh’s Live at Red Rocks.  In this conversation, we talk about what orchestration actually means, how he built a career across Broadway, film, and television, and the unexpected story of how he sold more than 100,000 records under the pseudonym David Raintree.  We also get into what it’s really like working with world-class musicians, and the one lesson he learned watching them up close.  About the Podcast: Beyond the Notes is a podcast about the people behind the music — composers, performers, and creators — and how they think about their craft.  Learn more about Jeffrey on his website: https://jeffreysilvermanmusic.com/

  7. Feb 24

    How Danaë Xanthe Vlasse Turns Greek Myths Into Grammy Winning Music

    There are some stories that time itself cannot bury. Composer Danaë Xanthe Vlasse transforms ancient Greek myths into music that feels both classical and cinematic, intimate and epic. Her Grammy-winning Mythologies and Grammy-nominated Mythologies II explore beauty, tension, and transcendence through voices that sound as if they’ve crossed centuries to reach us.  In this conversation with Vonn Vanier, Danaë shares how her Greek heritage shaped her love of myth, how she brings figures like Medusa and the Sirens to emotional life, and what it takes to lead world-class artists toward a single creative vision. Along the way, she speaks candidly about rewriting endings, why she discards large portions of her work, and how she uses recurring musical themes to carry character across long-form compositions.  This episode is about the stories we inherit, the stories we choose, and what it means to tell them honestly through music.

    How Danaë Xanthe Vlasse Turns Greek Myths Into Grammy Winning Music

  8. Feb 10

    How Composer Claire Ritter’s Music Helps You Breathe in a World Full of Noise

    The internet rewards speed, volume, and constant stimulation. Claire Ritter makes music that does the opposite. Her album "Songs of Lumiere" feels like light painted with sound. Calm, spacious, and deeply intentional, it sits far outside the noise-driven logic of modern culture. In this episode of Beyond the Notes, Vonn Vanier talks with jazz and classical pianist and composer Claire Ritter about the musical lineage that shaped her voice. She reflects on studying with jazz legend Mary Lou Williams, her decades-long mentorship with pianist Ran Blake, and her lifelong search for space, color, and intuition at the piano. They discuss:  How jazz and classical traditions can live inside one musical voice The importance of space and silence in performance Why many young musicians lose connection with their instruments The role of mentors and lineage in shaping an artist Claire’s upcoming book on her musical philosophy and teaching methods This conversation is about presence, legacy, and the quiet courage it takes to follow a different artistic path.

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Beyond the Notes uncovers the craft, stories, and “aha” moments behind today’s most influential music makers. Host Vonn Vanier sits down—remotely—for in‑depth chats with composers, producers, engineers, and performers (from Grammy winners to game‑score innovators), exploring how they broke in, solved impossible challenges, mentored the next generation, and even pursued unexpected passions. Each episode delivers a 30–60 min deep‑dive plus bite‑sized clips to inspire your own creative journey.

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