At The Vanguard

About At The Vanguard

Empowering Artists, Elevating the Arts At The Vanguard is a home for artists, educators, and seekers who believe that art is not optional — it is essential. Hosted by musician and educator Christopher Lloyd Bratten-Zappala, each episode explores what it means to live artfully and transcend limitations. This is more than a podcast. It is the voice of the forthcoming Vanguard Institute for the Arts: a community where art is studied, created, taught, preserved, and celebrated. Here, you’ll meet artists and thinkers at the forefront of their fields, discover ideas that challenge and inspire, and be reminded of your own capacity for excellence and creativity. Whether you are a student, a professional, or simply someone who longs for more beauty and meaning in life, this podcast is for you. Together, we’ll keep the flame of the arts alive — and carry it forward into the future. Welcome to the Vanguard.

Publisher

Vanguard Institute for the Arts

Category

arts

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

25 Oct 2025

Latest episode

8 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

20 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   8 Oct 2026

   Making New Musical Theatre (Bev & Kirby Ward)

   Broadway veterans Beverly Ward and Kirby Ward join Christopher for a wide-ranging conversation about a lifetime in the theatre, creating new work, and their original musical Sunday After Next. Bev and Kirby reflect on the experiences that shaped them as artists—from Kirby originating Bobby Child in the West End production of Crazy For You to Bev’s evolution from performer to composer and writer—and on what decades spent performing, directing, choreographing, writing, and producing have taught them about the craft. They also share the story behind New Art City Theatre, which grew in part from an intimate living-room reading and their desire to create more opportunities for writers to develop new plays and musicals in front of real audiences. Much of the conversation focuses on Sunday After Next, their musical adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s "Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime". They discuss what drew them to Wilde’s darkly comic story, how they expanded it into a full-length musical, Bev’s approach to finding the score’s sound, what it’s like to write together as a married couple, and how the show has evolved through more than a decade of readings, rewrites, discarded songs, and discoveries. Now Sunday After Next is taking its biggest step yet with a fully staged developmental production featuring a seven-piece chamber ensemble and orchestrations by Tony Award winner Larry Hochman. The conversation also explores the state of musical theatre today: the importance of strong storytelling, the challenges facing truly new work, accessibility and ticket prices, how the art form has changed over the course of their careers, and what they hope its future might look like. And for anyone who feels the urge to create something of their own, Bev and Kirby offer perhaps the simplest and most important advice of all: start. SUNDAY AFTER NEXT  Music & Lyrics by Beverly Ward  Book by Beverly Ward & Kirby Ward  Directed & Choreographed by Kirby Ward November 13–22, 2026  Matilija Auditorium  Ojai, California Tickets and information:  https://newartcitytheatre.org/ At The Vanguard explores the ideas, experiences, and people shaping the performing arts, education, creativity, and the lives we build around them.

2. 

   19 Sept 2026

   The Art Of Matchmaking (Simone Grossman)

   What does a professional matchmaker actually do—and can matchmaking itself be an art? Christopher sits down with professional matchmaker Simone Grossman for a thoughtful conversation about love, attraction, compatibility, dating culture, and the craft of bringing two people together. Simone shares how she unexpectedly found her way into matchmaking, why she left larger companies to create a more personal practice, and what she listens for when getting to know a client. They discuss the difference between what people think they want and what may actually suit them, the limits of dating apps, the pressure to feel an immediate “spark,” and why habits, curiosity, consistency, and emotional availability can matter more than people realize. They also explore the ethics and integrity of matchmaking, the difficult feedback Simone sometimes has to give, and the ways bias and unrealistic expectations can complicate the search for love. Finally, the conversation turns to one of At The Vanguard’s central ideas: that artistry can exist far beyond the traditional arts. Simone reflects on matchmaking as a blend of intuition, storytelling, judgment, and science—and on the feeling that a great match may be less about creating something from nothing than about uncovering a connection that was already waiting to be found. A conversation about love, risk, hope, and the deeply human desire to connect. Find Simone Grossman:simonegrossmanmatchmaking.com TikTok: @TheInternetYentaInstagram: @InternetYenta

3. 

   11 Jul 2026

   The Revenge Of The Humanities

   The phrase "The Revenge of the Humanities" comes from Sam Harris, whose work inspired this episode. As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly capable, much of the conversation has centered on jobs, automation, and the future of work. Those are important questions. But I believe there's another question that's even more fundamental: What kind of lives will humans choose to live? In this episode, I explore the possibility that AI won't diminish the humanities—it may elevate them. As machines increasingly assume responsibility for tasks where efficiency, speed, and optimization matter most, I believe we'll place greater value on the pursuits where efficiency was never the point: music, theatre, literature, philosophy, film, dance, storytelling, and the countless ways we seek meaning, beauty, and connection. This isn't an argument against science or technology. It's an argument for remembering what they ultimately serve. Science expands our understanding of the universe. Technology expands our capabilities. But the humanities help us answer questions that become increasingly important as those capabilities grow: What is worth creating? What makes a meaningful life? What kind of civilization do we want to build? What does it mean to be human? Along the way, I explore why human-made art may always possess a unique kind of value, the difference between consumption and creation, why all roads ultimately lead back to humanity, and what each of us can do to help cultivate a richer cultural future. Whether you're an artist, educator, scientist, engineer, entrepreneur, student, or simply someone fascinated by where humanity is headed, I hope this conversation offers a hopeful perspective on one of the defining questions of our time.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

5 ratings

Contact At The Vanguard

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.