The Score | Make a Podcast

The pandemic is amplifying trends that were already underway before the pandemic began, and that’s certainly true for podcasts: there is a whole slew of new ones out there. The Cleveland Orchestra launched its “On a Personal Note” podcast in the spring with an episode entitled “The Sound of Crisis,” in which Music Director Franz Welser-Möst spoke about his emotions conducting the orchestra one last time before the pandemic silenced Severance Hall. In other episodes, Welser-Möst talks about an automobile accident that sparked a lifelong affinity for Schubert; Principal Percussion Marc Damoulakis speaks about feeling rhythm from an early age and what it means to keep time for the orchestra; and violinist Katherine Bormann talks about her love for Strauss’s Rosenkavalier Suite. Dallas Symphony Orchestra violinist Sarah Kienle started a podcast called “On the Record,” in which she speaks with DSO musicians about music. The Handel and Haydn Society has a podcast called “Tuning In,” which includes interviews with musicians and staff about the music they love. American conductors Ankush Kumar Bahl, John Devlin, Anna Edwards, and Enrico Lopez-Yañez have launched their “UpBeat” podcast; one of the initial episodes features Lopez-Yañez and Devlin’s conversation with Michael Ellis Ingram, who speaks about race and his experiences as a Black conductor in Germany and the U.S. The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in Washington State has been posting weekly podcasts featuring guest-artist interviews and excerpts of past performances. The New York Philharmonic’s five-part “The 5th” podcast exploring Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony was included as part of the “Switched On Pop” podcasts, in which musicologist Nate Sloan and music journalist Charlie Harding explore what makes pop songs catchy.