On today’s episode of Orchestrating Change, we welcome Wesley Schulz, who helped kick off the 2025–2026 season as our first guest conductor for MasterWorks I: Six Strings & A Symphony. Wesley Schulz is celebrated for his imaginative programming and heartfelt, energetic conducting style. Currently Music Director of the Auburn Symphony Orchestra (WA) and Principal Guest Conductor of the Pacific Northwest Ballet, he has also served as Associate Conductor of the North Carolina Symphony and appeared with numerous orchestras across the country, including Seattle, Utah, Austin, and Canton. A passionate advocate for diversifying classical music and reaching wider audiences, Schulz has collaborated with renowned artists such as Tessa Lark, Leslie Odom Jr., John Williams, and Pink Martini. Outside of music, he enjoys CrossFit, snowboarding, cooking, and playing fetch with his dogs, Chewbacca and Han Solo. Orchestrating Change is available on all podcasts platforms. Visit www.orchestratingchange.com for more episodes, or visit cantonsymphony.org to learn more about the Canton Symphony Orchestra.

On this episode of Orchestrating Change, we are delighted to be joined by Alicia Lieu, who has served as one of our conducting fellows with the Canton Symphony Orchestra throughout the 2024-2025 season. She is a New York City-based conductor and composer known for her innovative programming, including the interactive “Dance-it-Yourself Nutcracker.” She leads the chamber ensemble Musikapiphany and has participated in various festivals. After her private conducting studies, she founded the New York Conducting Institute and Women Conductors Workshops to support fellow conductors. A composer trained under Nadia Boulanger, Alicia has received grants for her work and established the Composers Collective and Pitches Brew non-profit organizations. She created “The 48-Hour Musical” event and has extensive experience in arts education, serving as a teaching artist at several institutions. Alicia holds degrees in music composition and orchestral conducting from various prestigious schools. Orchestrating Change is available wherever you get your podcasts. Visit www.orchestratingchange.com/stay-informed to sign-up for email reminders, view past episodes, and see the various channels where you can view our content. For more information about everything else we are offering at this time, please visit www.cantonsymphony.org.

We are delighted to be joined today by Alison Norris, who has served as one of our conducting fellows with the Canton Symphony Orchestra throughout the 2024-2025 season.

On this episode of Orchestrating Change, we're honored to welcome the legendary Garrick Ohlsson—one of the greatest living concert pianists. With a career spanning over six decades, Ohlsson has performed in the world’s top concert halls and with leading orchestras around the globe. He made history in 1970 as the only American to win the International Chopin Piano Competition and later earned a Grammy Award for his Beethoven recordings. We talk about his recent performance of Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto in Canton, his lifelong dedication to the art of piano, and his current role mentoring young artists at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. From his roots in White Plains to his life in San Francisco, this is a deep dive into the extraordinary legacy of a true master.

Today we are delighted to be joined in person by operatic baritone Brian Keith Johnson. Brian has performed regularly with the Canton Symphony Orchestra throughout his career, most recently as Coalhouse Walker Jr. in last summer’s concert presentation of the musical Ragtime.

Today’s is Camille Delaney-McNeill, Director of the Judith and Thomas L. Beckman YOLA Center, serving the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles program in Inglewood, California.

We are thrilled to be joined today in person by Chris Jenkins, Associate Dean for Academic Support, Liaison to the office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and Visiting Professor of Musicology at Oberlin Conservatory. Concurrently with his work at Oberlin, he is also pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Viola Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music AND a Ph.D. in Musicology from Case Western Reserve University. All of this on top of degrees he already holds from Harvard University, New England Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music, and Columbia University. He is the former Deputy Director of the Barenboim-Said Foundation in the West Bank, and was a third place winner in the senior division of the 2005 Sphinx Competition. On top of all of this, he published his first book last year, titled Assimilation v. Integration in Music Education. Orchestrating Change is available wherever you get your podcasts. We also have a new website! Go to www.orchestratingchange.com to sign-up for email reminders, view past episodes, and see the various channels where you can view our content. For more information about everything else we are offering at this time, please visit www.cantonsymphony.org.

We welcome Mary Verdi-Fletcher, a professional wheelchair dancer and the founding Artistic Director of the Dancing Wheels Company, a physically integrated dance troupe that has operated in Northeast Ohio for over four decades.

We welcome soprano Amanda Powell, a multi-faceted artist equally at home under the lights on the orchestral concert stage and in the intimate clubs of the jazz and folk scenes.

Our guest today is Hip-hop artist Jéan Pierre Johnson. Known artistically as Jéan P The MC, he shares a body of music that reflects his environment, touching on topics such as fatherhood, childhood experiences, spirituality, relationships, and his outlook on Hip-Hop, locally and nationally.

Our guest today is GRAMMY Award-winning horn player and composer Jeff Scott. He rose to prominence as the founding horn player and twenty-plus-year member of the Imani Winds, a nationally renowned woodwind quintet made up of musicians of color. His horn career has also taken him to the pit of The Lion King on Broadway and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, as well on tour alongside such luminaries as Barbara Streisand. Jeff is also a prolific composer, whose new piece "Song of the Uirapuru" was premiered by the Canton Symphony Orchestra with violin soloist Seohyun Kim. A native of New York City and a graduate of Manhattan School of Music and the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he now lives here in Northeast Ohio, where he is a professor at Oberlin College. Jeff Scott, welcome to Orchestrating Change! Orchestrating Change is available wherever you get your podcasts. We also have a new website! Go to www.orchestratingchange.com to sign-up for email reminders, view past episodes, and see the various channels where you can view our content. For more information about everything else we are offering at this time, please visit www.cantonsymphony.org.

We are joined today by Mario Lopez, Executive Director of the Billings Symphony in Montana.

This episode features Leni Boorstin, who spent over forty years working for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, most recently as Director of Government and Community Affairs.

Today we are joined by coloratura soprano Louise Toppin. She has performed all over the world at venues such as Carnegie Hall and with orchestras in such diverse places as Sweden, Uruguay, and Japan.

Today we are joined by Blake-Anthony Johnson, CEO of the Chicago Sinfonietta.

We are thrilled to have the rare opportunity for a fully in-person podcast recording, as we welcome composer Wang Jie to our studio here in Canton!

Today we are honored to welcome world-renowned violinist Rachel Barton Pine. A celebrated interpreter of a wide range of standard and contemporary repertoire, she has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Chicago Symphony, with which she made her debut when she was only ten years old.

We are thrilled to be joined today by pianist extraordinaire Michelle Cann! She has performed as a soloist with many of this country’s finest orchestras, including the Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras, and the Cincinnati, New Jersey, Atlanta, St. Louis, and Detroit Symphonies, among many others.

To open season four, we are thrilled to be joined by Anwar Nasir, Executive Director of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra.

Today, we are joined by three members of the Minnesota Orchestra’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee.