Beyond the Notes uncovers the craft, stories, and “aha” moments behind today’s most influential music makers. Host Vonn Vanier sits down—remotely—for in‑depth chats with composers, producers, engineers, and performers (from Grammy winners to game‑score innovators), exploring how they broke in, solved impossible challenges, mentored the next generation, and even pursued unexpected passions. Each episode delivers a 30–60 min deep‑dive plus bite‑sized clips to inspire your own creative journey.
A Grammy Winner Told Me to Listen to These 3 Albums as Homework
I’m a 19-year-old college student and composer learning how to build a life in music by talking with incredible musicians who have already built one. Today, I’m talking with Taylor Eigsti, a jazz pianist, composer, and two-time Grammy winner. Taylor tells me what winning a Grammy actually felt like, why the experience ended with a cheeseburger in a bathtub, and what success did and did not change. We also discuss how “Plot Armor” came together, what Taylor learned from playing with heroes l...
24 Sept 2026
This Grammy-Winner Told Me to Shut Out the World and Write | Donnacha Dennehy
First, you hear the music. Then the composer explains how he built it. Donnacha Dennehy is a Grammy-winning Irish composer and Princeton professor who has built music from the notes between the notes in a singer’s voice, the physical sensation of giddiness, and the changing light across an entire year. I’m Vonn, a 19-year-old college student and composer, and I’m currently writing a piece of my own on a deadline. I wanted to understand how someone like Donnacha finds an idea worth pursuing an...
11 Aug 2026
Two Days Before the Super Bowl, This Superstar Needed New Music. Chris Had 10 Hours.
The call came at 10 p.m. on a Friday. The Super Bowl was Sunday. One of the singers had just scrapped the arrangement she was meant to perform and Chris Walden had until morning to write her a new one for a full orchestra. He didn't go to bed. He finished at 9 a.m., walked into the studio at 10, and they recorded it. Asked what he felt when the phone rang, he says: "Nothing. I just do it. There's not enough time to think about the pressure." Chris Walden is a Grammy-nominate...
30 Jun 2026
Miguel del Aguila: How to Grow Classical Music Beyond the Classics
3x Grammy-nominated composer Miguel del Aguila joins Vonn Vanier for a conversation about how classical music can grow beyond the classics without losing what makes it powerful. Miguel reflects on finding his own voice as a composer, resisting pressure from teachers and critics, the role of rhythm in making music feel alive, and why classical music needs new works that actually sound like the world we live in. They also discuss inclusion in classical music, the danger of treating ...
26 May 2026
Peter Askim on Conducting, Composing, and The Next Festival
Peter Askim is a composer, conductor, educator, former orchestral bassist, Music Director of the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra, Director of Orchestral Activities at North Carolina State University, and Founder and Artistic Director of The Next Festival of Emerging Artists. In this episode of Beyond the Notes, Vonn Vanier talks with Peter about conducting, composing, working with orchestras, and what young musicians learn when they move from the practice room into the real world of rehea...
12 May 2026
Can Music Stay Human in the Age of AI? | David Fogel on AI, Classical Music & Creativity
David Fogel has spent decades working in artificial intelligence. He is also a composer, musician, and founder of the Symphonina Foundation. In this episode of Beyond the Notes with Vonn Vanier, David joins Vonn to talk about music, creativity, artificial intelligence, and the future of human expression in a world where technology can increasingly imitate what artists do. The conversation also explores David’s work with the Symphonina Foundation, his belief in shorter symphonic forms fo...
21 Apr 2026
Your Song Isn’t Finished... Until | A Conversation with Michael Romanowski
Most people hear music on earbuds, in cars, or through speakers that sound nothing like the room where the record was made. So what happens between the studio and the real world? In this episode of Beyond the Notes, Vonn Vanier talks with 6x GRAMMY Award-winning mastering engineer Michael Romanowski about what mastering actually is, why it still matters, and how records either survive or fall apart once they leave the studio. Michael explains why mastering is not just making music...
20 Mar 2026
Jeffrey Silverman Snuck Into Hollywood Scoring Sessions Then Helped Orchestrate Yanni’s Biggest Show
Jeffrey Silverman snuck into Hollywood film scoring sessions as a teenager. Years later, he would go on to orchestrate some of the most iconic concert productions of the 1990s, including Yanni’s Live at the Acropolis and John Tesh’s Live at Red Rocks. In this conversation, we talk about what orchestration actually means, how he built a career across Broadway, film, and television, and the unexpected story of how he sold more than 100,000 records under the pseudonym David Raintree....
24 Feb 2026
How Danaë Xanthe Vlasse Turns Greek Myths Into Grammy Winning Music
There are some stories that time itself cannot bury. Composer Danaë Xanthe Vlasse transforms ancient Greek myths into music that feels both classical and cinematic, intimate and epic. Her Grammy-winning Mythologies and Grammy-nominated Mythologies II explore beauty, tension, and transcendence through voices that sound as if they’ve crossed centuries to reach us. In this conversation with Vonn Vanier, Danaë shares how her Greek heritage shaped her love of myth, how she brings figures lik...
10 Feb 2026
How Composer Claire Ritter’s Music Helps You Breathe in a World Full of Noise
The internet rewards speed, volume, and constant stimulation. Claire Ritter makes music that does the opposite. Her album "Songs of Lumiere" feels like light painted with sound. Calm, spacious, and deeply intentional, it sits far outside the noise-driven logic of modern culture. In this episode of Beyond the Notes, Vonn Vanier talks with jazz and classical pianist and composer Claire Ritter about the musical lineage that shaped her voice. She reflects on studying with jazz legend Mary Lou Wil...
16 Dec 2025
Law & Order Composer Mike Post Goes Off-Script With His First Full Album
Mike Post has spent decades writing music to serve story. Scenes. Characters. Picture lock. Timing. Emotion under constraint. In this episode of Beyond the Notes with Vonn Vanier, the legendary Law & Order composer talks about what happened when, during COVID, that structure suddenly fell away — and an entirely different idea took shape. While driving late at night and listening to bluegrass, Mike had a question: What if an orchestra and a bluegrass rhythm section could truly ...
2 Dec 2025
Mike Post Talks About Your Favorite TV Themes (He wrote all of them.)
Oh, you definitely know the tunes. You can hum them right now: Law & OrderThe Rockford FilesMagnum P.I.Hill Street BluesThe A-Team. And that's not even all of them! But you probably don't know the name of the man who wrote all of them. Meet Mike Post. He's defined the sound of television for 50 years. In this interview, we talk about the "obsession" required to write 7,000+ hours of music, why he wrote a hit song in a jacuzzi, and the two specific notes that—to this...
28 Oct 2025
How SF Opera Is Hooking Gen Z on a 400-Year-Old Art Form
How do you get Gen Z to care about a 400-year-old art form? Matthew Shilvock, General Director of San Francisco Opera, has spent his career finding out. The stories he shares reveal exactly why opera still matters. In this episode, he talks about the moments that still give him chills, why staging Wagner’s Parsifal next to a brand-new Monkey King excites him, and what it feels like when 20,000 people cheer for opera at a baseball stadium. From childhood awe to leading San Fr...
15 Oct 2025
The Heart of the Matter
Imagine you're a professional musician. You've flown halfway across the world for a big concert in Istanbul. You walk out on stage... and there are three people in the audience. The band literally outnumbers the crowd. So what do you do? That one story from violinist Jeremy Cohen got host Vonn Vanier thinking: In a creative life full of uncertainty, in a business known for being brutal, what is the engine that actually keeps you going? This special episode pieces together the answer. Drawing ...
2 Oct 2025
How Grammy-Nominated Composer Peter Boyer Is Scoring America’s History
Grammy-nominated composer Peter Boyer joins Vonn Vanier on Beyond the Notes to share the story of his two most ambitious new works: "American Mosaic", commissioned by the Kennedy Center for America’s 250th anniversary, blending Boyer’s music with the imagery of Americana photographer Joe Sohm. "A Hundred Years On" is an equal collaboration between Peter Boyer and librettist Mark Campbell for the Mann Center and the Philadelphia Orchestra. It's an oratorio that explores the legacy o...
9 Sept 2025
From Apocalypse Now to Halo and Beyond - the INCREDIBLE Career of Leslie Ann Jones
Leslie Ann Jones: GRAMMY-winning engineer behind Apocalypse Now, Herbie Hancock, & Halo | Beyond the Notes What’s the secret sauce behind the music that stays with us? Legendary engineer Leslie Ann Jones turns session chaos into clarity—whether for Apocalypse Now, video games, or jazz albums. In this interview with composer Vonn Vanier, she shares: The studio trick that made bands rethink what's possible Taming chaos during Apocalypse Now scoring sessions The r...
22 Aug 2025
5x Grammy Winner John Snyder Tells the Truth "I hope I don't get sued by UNIVERSAL... but I know..."
"The most rapacious exponent of artist abuse are the major record companies. By far. They steal. It's terrible." In this episode, we sit down with legendary producer and founder of the iconic Artists House label, John Snyder. With a career spanning five decades, over 300 albums, and 35 Grammy nominations, John has worked with a staggering list of legends, from Stevie Wonder and Eric Clapton to Paul Simon, Etta James, Ornette Coleman, and Chet Baker. John pulls back the curtain on ...
8 Aug 2025
Jeremy Cohen Owns One of the Most Heard Violins in History
What if one of the most-heard violins in history wasn't locked away in a museum, but was still making music today? On this episode of "Beyond the Notes," host Vonn Vanier sits down with the instrument's current steward: 8-time Grammy-nominated violinist, composer, and educator Jeremy Cohen. This isn't just any violin. Forged in 1868 and later serving as the principal violin for the MGM Studio Orchestra from 1939 to 1969, its sound is woven into the fabric of cinematic history. From the ...
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