The Guest List
Thursday March 23rd, 2023 with Joe Reilly
We talk to Matt Ellis of the group Villages and Yosuke Kawasaki, the concertmaster with the National Arts Centre Orchestra

We open the program today in conversation with Matt Ellis of the group Villages. The group hails from Cape Breton Island so Celtic lore and the beauty of the land makes its way into their uplifting music. Matt explains some of the themes on the album and the title Dark Island and he also tells us about the contributions of producer Joshua Van Tassel on the new album. You can see Villages performing at the Rainbow on Saturday, March 25th. For ticket information: https://www.ticketweb.ca/event/villages-okies-james-leclaire-rainbow-bistro-tickets/12843065?pl=spectrasonic For more information about Villages: https://www.thebandvillages.com Then we feature an extensive interview with Yosuke Kawasaki who is the concertmaster with the National Arts Centre Orchestra. The concertmaster is the principal first violin player in an orchestra, and after the conductor, the concertmaster is the second-most significant leader in an orchestra. Yosuke has been the concertmaster of the National Arts Centre Orchestra since 2007 and his vibrant performance style is a highlight of any performance by the orchestra. He tells us how he started playing the violin under the guidance of his father and how his approach to performing was shaped by some of his early performance experiences. We also talk about things like breaking the fourth wall between the orchestra and the audience and how he will prepare to perform Mozart's challenging Violin Concerto No. 4 on Wednesday, March 29th and Thursday March 30th. Yosuke is very generous with his time and provides plenty of insight into how much he enjoys performing with the NACO. For ticket information for these performances use this link: https://nac-cna.ca/en/event/30526 For more information about Yosuke Kawasaki: https://nac-cna.ca/en/bio/yosuke-kawasaki Get out and see some live music this week. Thanks for listening.