In January of 2005 GPB began broadcasting concerts by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Produced by Terrance McKnight with help from Sarah Zaslaw, these weeky two-hour programs offer an evening's music from Atlanta's Smphony Hall together with interviews with the artisits who make the music. From that first season of the ASO on GPB, here are interviews with 15 guest artists and 15 members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.

David del Tredici
Composer
Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David del Tredici speaks with Sarah Zaslaw about the world premiere in Atlanta of his large-scale work Paul Revere's Ride. The piece starts with a siren and ends with "Yankee Doodle Dandy." It was inspired by Del Tredici's feelings of patriotism living in lower Manhattan during and after 9/11.

Charles Dutoit
Conductor
Charles Dutoit talks with Terrance McKnight about his switch to a lighter guest-conducting schedule, after decades as a music director doing 150 concerts a year, and about Berlioz's Damnation of Faust.

Jane Eaglen
Soprano
The Wagnerian soprano speaks with Terrance McKnight about Wagner, mostly: about being told at 17 that she would one day sing the role of Brunnhilde, why she loves Wagner, what it takes to sing Wagner, and whether to separate Wagner's art from his personal life. Also about her work for the soundtrack of Sense and Sensibility and her favorite place to do some online shopping.

Alan Gilbert
Conductor
Alan Gilbert speaks with Sarah Zaslaw about his life on the road and in Sweden (where he leads the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and has an infant daughter with his cellist wife), growing up in a New York Philharmonic family, his first forays into conducting as a Harvard undergrad and how his technique then looks to him now, and the opening of Brahms' Fourth Symphony.

Osvaldo Golijov
Composer
Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov and Brazilian singer Luciana Souza share with Terrance McKnight their impressions of watching tango composer Astor Piazzolla perform, collaborating with conductor Robert Spano and each other, Golijov's cantata Oceana (which sets poetry by Neruda about the goddess of the ocean), and Souza's way of singing wordlessly atop the chorus, like floating on the sea.

Hilary Hahn
Violinist
Renowned violinist Hilary Hahn tells Sarah Zaslaw about being a blogger before the term existed, writing her own liner notes, watching for bow tips and eyebrows and gongs at orchestral concerts, handling the public part of her life, and life on the road. Also, a story about her teacher's direct link to Sergei Prokofiev and his Second Violin Concerto.

Bernard Labadie
Conductor
Bernard Labadie speaks with Terrance McKnight about Baroque-style performance practice, going back to the source and making it speak to modern ears, the founding and survival of his group Les Violons du Roi in Quebec City, how switching between modern and 18th century bows gives modern instruments two very different sounds, and the story of Handel's Water Music and how Labadie performs it with members of the Atlanta Symphony.

Lang Lang
Pianist
Lang Lang tells Terrance McKnight about his life as a hot musical commodity at 22, the sacrifices his family made for his education back in China, his first exposure to classical music (think Tom and Jerry), his history with the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto, and ping pong.

Scott Long
Highland Bagpipes
Scott Long tells Terrance McKnight about growing up in the musical culture of northern Nova Scotia, touring with the folk-rock band Seven Nations, and his moment to shine at the end of Peter Maxwell Davies' orchestral piece Orkney Wedding with Sunrise.

Louis Lortie
Pianist
Canadian pianist Louis Lortie talks with Terrance McKnight about performing complete cycles of a composer's music, keeping physically fit, the double-header recital/concerto evening he once played, preparing mentally the day of a concert, and Brahms's Second Piano Concerto.

Jun Maerkl
Conductor
Jun Maerkl grew up in Munich with a German father and a Japanese mother. He chats with Terrance McKnight about being bicultural, learning from mentors Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa, approaching first dates with new orchestras, and Schoenberg's transcription of Brahms.

Alexander Mickelthwate
Conductor
Alexander Mickelthwate, former assistant conductor with the Atlanta Symphony, took a similar position with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2004. He talks with Terrance McKnight about his toddler's achievements, LA's exciting new hall, and what's radical about Beethoven's Eroica Symphony.

Garrick Ohlsson
Pianist
Chopin specialist Garrick Ohlsson speaks with Terrance McKnight about Chopin's musical significance: his influentially fluid harmonies, his organic, long-lined, unstructured sound, his vocal-like piano lines, his expansion of pianists' technique, his poetry of the individual heart, and his ability to touch everyone, even classical music novices.

David Robertson
Conductor
David Robertson tells Terrance McKnight about how he became the St. Louis Symphony's new music director, differences between orchestras, the relevance of classical music today, acting, preverbal enjoyment of music, the concerto as photo shoot, and collaborating with his wife, Orli Shaham.

Indra Thomas
Soprano
Atlanta native Indra Thomas chats with Terrance McKnight about returning home to sing excerpts from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, the jazz sense and the Southern dialect one needs for singing Gershwin, and the prospect of learning songs in Russian.

Cecylia Arzewski
Concertmaster, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
ASO concertmaster Cecylia Arzewksi (ahr-ZHEF-skee) speaks with Sarah Zaslaw about her path from postwar Poland to the Atlanta Symphony's first chair, her father's musical influence on her, what it takes to be a concertmaster musically and otherwise, the increasing frequency of musician injuries, matching the gown to the concerto, how it feels to step out in front of her own orchestra, and her history with the Beethoven Violin Concerto.

Rhonda Respess
Violinist, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Ronda Respess talks with Sarah Zaslaw about blending into the violin section without losing one's individuality, how much violins cost, the ASO's outreach programs, her Franklin Pond Chamber Music summer program, and her passion for sharing music.

Paul Murphy
Associate Principal Violist, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Paul Murphy chats about the differences between violin and viola (apart from the fact that one burns longer), why some violinists turn violist, the long and sometimes stealthy search that resulted in Robert Spano being picked as the ASO's music director, conductor Charles Dutoit's affinity for Petrushka, and a gig playing backup for REM.

Christopher Rex
Principal Cellist, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Christopher Rex tells Sarah Zaslaw about how he gets into character to play the role of Don Quixote, why he has to carry a water bottle on stage, how he resisted practicing cello early on, and what his family danced to when he was young.

Jere Flint
Cellist, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra Conductor
Jere Flint talks with Terrance McKnight about the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, the unusual mentoring relationship it has with the Atlanta Symphony, attitudes toward performing and perfectionism, and Flint's career.

Ralph & Gloria Jones
Principal and Associate Principal Double Bassists, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Two bassists, Ralph Jones and his wife, Gloria, chat with Sarah Zaslaw about meeting and marrying, sharing first stand in the ASO, how you store and transport basses (and what can go wrong along the way), the hazards of playing bass while pregnant, and the emotional effects of music.

Christina Smith
Principal Flutist, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Christina Smith speaks with Sarah Zaslaw about winning the ASO's principal flute position at age 20, sharing a section with her husband, becoming obsessed with the flute at four after seeing Jean-Pierre Rampal play on Sesame Street, and loving playing under conductor Robert Spano.

Christopher Martin
Principal Trumpeter, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Christopher Martin chats with Sarah Zaslaw about the nature of talent, performance psychology, how he leads his section, and his favorite trumpet piece (it's a concerto by Telemann that starts off slow).

Susan Welty
Associate Principal French Horn, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Susan Welty talks to Sarah Zaslaw about becoming a horn player, the phenomenon of married couples in the ASO, emptying condensation from tubing (it's not spit!), and the many terms for the occasional missed note. She also introduces the Wagner tuba - its background and sound - and recalls a peak experience performing Beethoven's Ninth under Robert Shaw in Berlin.

Colin Williams
Principal Trombonist, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Colin Williams talks to Sarah Zaslaw about the laid-back trombonist personality, orchestral camaraderie, his sole foray into musical theater, the challenges of playing Paul Creston's Fantasy, his reluctant initiation into rock climbing, and falling in love with Mahler.

Michael Moore
Principal Tubist, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Michael Moore talks about not being that other Michael Moore, the stereotypes and realities of tuba playing, the number of tuba notes in Dvorak's Ninth (hint: it's between 10 and 20), the Atlanta Brass Society he founded, Vaughan Williams' Tuba Concerto (he calls the three movements marchlike, beautiful, and hellacious), and how playing tuba is like goaltending.

Thomas Sherwood
Principal Percussionist, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
On performing Tan Dun's Concerto for Water Percussion, Tom Sherwood tells Sarah Zaslaw about using security camera shields, flip-flops and salad bowls to make instruments; the many sounds of water; how wet the stage gets; and how the final chord'a spotlit waterfall tumbling from a huge colander' reminds him of his wife's water breaking soon before childbirth.

Elisabeth Remy
Principal Harpist, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Elisabeth Remy tells Sarah Zaslaw about what people always ask about the harp (and what the answers are), the care of her fingertips, what it takes to tune the instrument, her experience auditioning for the ASO while writing her senior thesis at Harvard, and the story behind Handel's Harp Concerto.

Brenda Pruitt
Assistant Director of Education
Brenda Pruitt outlines the ASO's educational programs around the Atlanta area and around Georgia, the symphony's commitment to educate people to get more enjoyment out of music (it's part of its written mission statement), and how to learn more about these programs.