the Extra Half

03/05/2021

Last week, Natania and Žilvinas published a small reflection on the first 24 episodes of The Extra Half. Have a listen to find out some of the highlights of the learning process for Natania, with original music by Žilvinas. And make sure to leave us a comment or send us your feedback :)

Here’s the link to the episode:
https://anchor.fm/theextrahalf/episodes/25-work-in-progress-evml62/a-a5cc6m1

Photo: Mindaugas Meilutis

01/03/2021

Episode 24, with Alexis Nelson, is here! Alexis is the creator of Black Forager and social media manager at BARK. We talk about culture through many different lenses: culture as food, culture as language, the condensation of culture and the aftermath of cultural suppression. Alexis talks about both the beauty of her family’s traditions and the difficulty of genealogical research in parts of the Black and Native American communities, as well as the magic of Martha’s Vineyard. And as the creator of BlackForager, Alexis talks about her beautiful, educational, and entertaining content centered around foraging and cooking delicious food (along with important historical context). Alexis was named a member of TikTok’s inaugural class of Black Trailblazers, and you can find her work on Instagram and Facebook () or Tiktok ().

If you’d like to support our work, please visit patreon.com/theextrahalf
And if you’d like to support Black Forager, visit patreon.com/blackforager
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01/02/2021

have a listen to Episode 23 with Simen Fegran! Simen is a German and Norwegian horn player, and a member of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. You can hear us talk about the the importance of understanding the past as a nation and about how patriotism is perceived in Germany, Norway, and the United States. We also talk about the differences between living in Western and Eastern Germany, his time on tour with the Gustav Mahler Youth orchestra, and about the role that the Gewandhausorchester played in the Leipzig community during the pandemic. Was there something in this episode that resonated with you? Share it in the comments below 🙂

🇩🇪 🇳🇴 .kammerorchester

27/01/2021

One week ago, the Kennedy Center and Washington National Opera celebrated the 59th presidential inauguration with an incredible series of performances, including a fantastic piece, “My Country,” by Shawn E. Okpebholo. The whole program is great and his piece at around 8:27.

To hear him talk about all things culture, you can listen to his wonderful Episode 18 here:
https://anchor.fm/theextrahalf/episodes/18-a-moving--spiritual-experience-emi6mb

Join an all-star cast of artists from the WNO for a concert dedication to the 59th Presidential Inauguration.FeaturingRenée FlemingJ'Nai BridgesLawrence Brow...

26/01/2021

Here we are with Episode 22! So happy to present this wonderful mother-daughter conversation with the Rosalind Chao & Yi-Mei Templeman! You might know Rosalind from her roles in the Joy Luck Club, Mulan (2020), Star Trek, The Laundromat, or Freaky Friday; you might also know Yi-Mei as a cellist who can be found performing with Trio Gaia or crafting beautiful cross-genre songs. But we bet you haven’t heard them discuss their cultural background, how they draw creative strength from one another, and their thoughts about the importance of the performing arts today… so we fixed it 😉 have a listen to Episode 22 here:
https://anchor.fm/theextrahalf/episodes/22-storytellers-epfaq4

You can support our work at patreon.com/theextrahalf

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08/12/2020

Ready for the last episode of the year? Here’s Episode 21 with Harriet Langley! Harriet is a great violinist whose parents are from Korea and Australia, who calls Belgium home, and who just voted in her first US election. Click the link below to hear her story in context; we talk about learning the violin in different languages, about navigating race and gender across cultures, and about learning to fit in - or not worrying about it - in Australia and Korea. And at the end we both open up about something we care about a lot: the influence of what we eat on the world. You can find the conversation on all major podcast platforms, or at the link below.

▪️photo of .space
▪️to listen: anchor.fm/theextrahalf
▪️support us at patreon.com/theextrahalf

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30/11/2020

Episode 20 with Luisa Weiss is here! Creator of The Wednesday Chef, Luisa is a writer, home cook, editor, translator, and author of one of the most well-known food blogs today. We have a fascinating conversation about how food can be a powerful constant in a life characterized by change, about her intercontinental “commute” as a child, and about her realization as an adult that Berlin was truly home. You can find the conversation on all major podcast platforms, or at the link below.

photo credit: Ramon Haindl

to hear the episode: anchor.fm/theextrahalf
to support our work: patreon.com/theextrahalf

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23/11/2020

And Episode 19 is live! Our guest, Nina de Félice, is a French and Mauritian pianist; she talks about the basic assumptions that shape both societies, and tells us the stories that brought her mother’s family from India through Mauritius to France (plus she explains why, despite what everyone expects, she doesn’t speak Italian). We talk about traditions, about awareness, and about the strong cultural contrasts that coexist within her. And of course, about her career as a pianist, along with two special projects she’s been working on: An Artist’s Blog and the Festival Contrepoints Croisés.

Photo credit - Marije van den Berg

Find the conversation at anchor.fm/theextrahalf, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

To support our work, visit patreon.com/theextrahalf

🇫🇷 🇲🇺 🇨🇭 🇮🇹 Nina de Félice An Artist's Blog Festival Contrepoints Croisés

16/11/2020

Excited to introduce our guest for this week, Dr. Shawn E. Okpebholo! We take a moment out of his busy schedule as a composer, professor, and conductor to talk about all things cultural; Shawn’s parents are from the United States and Nigeria, and we discuss what it means to be Black and/or African-American, how his worldview has shifted in the last fifteen years, and how strongly knowing his own roots influenced his trajectory. We also talk about the importance of being Nigerian for for him growing up as well as the joy and surprise of going there for the first time as an adult, paired with the immediate sense of connection and belonging that he felt meeting his family.
Don’t miss this episode!

▪️Photo credit: Greg Halvorsen Schreck
▪️To listen, click here: https://anchor.fm/theextrahalf/episodes/18-an-incredible--moving--spiritual-experience-emi6mb
▪️To find out more about Shawn’s work, visit shawnokpebholo.com
▪️To support our work, visit patreon.com/theextrahalf

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09/11/2020

so happy to introduce our guest for this week, Josiah Coe! Josiah is a violist, and his family is from the USA and the Philippines. He tells us about his childhood on a farm in rural Georgia with seven siblings and the ways in which he grew up surrounded by Filipino culture within the United States. He talks about often being misidentified as Iranian or Mexican, and how those experiences led to his learning Farsi and Spanish and delving into both cultures. We also talk about his life as a violist and the importance of truly listening in today’s world.

to listen, find us on all major podcast platforms or click here:
https://anchor.fm/theextrahalf/episodes/17-your-mom-didnt-teach-you-Spanish-em7ost

and to support our work, visit
https://patreon.com/theextrahalf

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02/11/2020

This week we have a very personal, relevant, and important episode with Armine Sargsyan. You might have a lot on your mind between the US presidential elections, the new lockdowns around the world, and the spread of the virus. However, please do take a moment to listen to Armine’s story; our Armenian-Lithuanian guest talks about her experience watching her country, which has been in political limbo for decades, descend into a tragic war. The story of her mother’s emigration to Lithuania is intertwined with the conflicts in Nagorno-Karabakh of the 90s, which have strong parallels to the war that started on September 27th, and continues to escalate. Armine talks about her upbringing, understanding her own cultural identity, what she and her family are doing to support Armenia in this difficult time, and how raising international awareness is key. Please listen and share ❤

To support our work, visit http://patreon.com/theextrahalf

Photo by: Martynas Arlauskas

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27/10/2020

We’re back!! And we’re so happy to present our conversation with Amarins Wierdsma - Violinist , who is Dutch and American! This chat was a really special one, touching topics like what it means to understand how a country works, how directness can be valued very differently in different contexts, the differences in musical education in the United States and in various countries in Europe, and how the balance between formality and informality can shift over time.

photo ©Gabriel Isserlis

to support our work, visit patreon.com/theextrahalf

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05/10/2020

So excited about our guest for Episode 14, Edoardo Ballerini! Edoardo is Italian and American, and is an incredible narrator and actor; a two-time winner of the Audiobook Publishers Association’s Best Male Narrator Audie Award, Edoardo has recorded nearly 300 titles, from classic works by Tolstoy, Dante, Kafka, Whitman and Camus, to best-sellers by James Patterson and David Baldacci. We talk about the ways in which being Italian and American is different from being Italian-American, the comic books that had a special place in his (and Natania’s) bicultural childhood, and how his career as an actor and as a narrator were both influenced by his heritage, albeit in very different ways.

If you’d like to support our work, please visit http://www.patreon.com/theextrahalf

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04/10/2020

Episode 14 will be out tomorrow:) We’re so excited about our guest this week, Edoardo Ballerini, who is Italian and American. You can already get to know him in the article below.

Find us on Mondays wherever you listen to podcasts.

How Edoardo Ballerini became the audiobook world’s most reliable narrator.

28/09/2020

Episode 13 with Jakob Nierenz is out now 😍!! A wonderful cellist, Jakob’s parents are German and African-American and he grew up in Lüneburg, Germany. We talk about his two years spent in the United States pursuing a Master’s degree at Rice University, his work with Ensemble Reflektor, and about the importance of meaningful programming in classical music. We also compare the ways in which the United States and Germany have traditionally looked at their own past, and the role of nationalism in both countries.

Picture: Natalie Lin Douglas

If you’d like to support our work, please visit http://www.patreon.com/theextrahalf

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21/09/2020

Episode 12 is here with our wonderful guests, Martina and Costanza Pereyra 🎉🎉🎉The Italian and Argentinian sisters grew up in Germany, the Netherlands, and Portugal. Martina is studying at the Nuova Accademia delle Belle Arti in Milano, while Costanza studied at Warwick University and the London School of Economics, currently serving as Marketing Coordinator at NBCUniversal Media. We talk about what it means to grow up as third-culture kids: the challenges of having to start over in each new country as well as the special bonds and friendships within their international communities. We also talk about the responsibilities that come with being bicultural and about how to bring multiculturalism to the workplace and to the table as a positive force.

If you’d like to support our work, please visit http://www.patreon.com/theextrahalf

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14/09/2020

We’re so happy to introduce our guest for Episode 11, Julia Hartley!! Julia was raised in Belgium by Italian and English parents, and is a full-time researcher at the University of Warwick, having completed a PhD in modern French and medieval Italian from the University of Oxford and an masters degree in Iranian Studies from the SOAS university of London. Right now, Julia is working on her second book, which looks at the portrayal of Iran in 19th century french literature. In the podcast, we talk about one of the defining characteristic of her academic work: finding connection between time periods and cultures which, at first glance, seem to have very little in common. We also talk about her experience learning Persian, her work in theatre, her thoughts on Brexit, and the screenplay for a television series that she has written during quarantine.

Photo credit: Marzia D’Amico

If you’d like to support our work, please visit http://www.patreon.com/theextrahalf

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08/09/2020

Benvenuti al nostro primo episodio in italiano!! La nostra ospite, Abril Muvumbi, è di Imola, della Repubblica Democratica del Congo e dello Zambia. Si è candidata per le prossime elezioni nella lista civica di “Imola riparte” e abbiamo avuto una conversazione straordinaria sul biculturalismo, sulla politica italiana attuale, sul suo lavoro con Cécile Kyenge al parlamento europeo e sulle sue idee per il futuro. Ascoltate, condividete, e soprattutto votate!!

Per ascoltare: https://anchor.fm/theextrahalf/episodes/10-1-non-devi-scegliere-IT-ej9cd6, oppure trovateci su Apple Podcasts, Google Podcast, ecc.

Se volete sostenerci, potete trovarci su patreon.com/theextrahalf

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Una conversazione con Abril Muvumbi. Abril è di Imola, dello Zambia, e della Repubblica democratica del Congo. Si è candidata per le prossime elezioni nella lista civica di Imola “Imola riparte” e abbiamo avuto una conversazione straordinaria sul biculturalismo, la politica italiana attuale, i...

07/09/2020

So happy to introduce you to our guest for Episode 10, Abril Muvumbi! Abril was born in Italy and her parents are from the Democrati Republic of the Congo and from Zambia. She’s currently running for city council in her native Imola with the election in just a few weeks, and we had an amazing conversation about what biculturalism means to her, about current Italian politics, and about her ideas for the future. She tells us about feeling African in Europe and European in Africa, about her work with Cécile Kyenge at the European Parliament, and about a special journey that made her understand for the first time that she is truly both.

The full-length interview is in Italian, but we’ve made an English version for you as well. Enjoy, share, and stay tuned for more to come!

If you’d like to support our work, please visit http://www.patreon.com/theextrahalf

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01/09/2020

Meet our guest for Episode 9, Robertas Lozinskis! Robertas, the pianist of our very own Trio Agora, is both Russian and Jewish and was born and raised in Kaunas, Lithuania. We talk about his belonging to ethnic minorities which have had historical tensions with the local population. We talk about his love for Lithuania that stops just short of patriotism, about the importance of assimilation, and about how history bleeds into the present in ways that can be difficult to face, but cannot be avoided. Robertas tells us about the festival that he co-founded, Kaunas Piano Fest, how it changed him as a musician and artist. And we talk about his incredible passion for geography which has accompanied him for over two decades.

Photograph by Mindaugas Meilutis

If you’d like to support our work, please visit http://www.patreon.com/theextrahalf

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24/08/2020

Meet our guest for Episode 8, Natalia Kitamikado! Natalia is a Japanese-Polish designer, raised in both countries and active in product design, scenography, and costume design in opera, theatre, dance and film. She has worked extensively with director Krystian Lada and they, with set designer Didzis Jaunzems, have recently been selected as one of three finalist teams for the 2020 Ring Awards! Natalia is a new mother; when we spoke, her first daughter was only eleven days old and had just come into this world… and in this very special moment of Natalia’s life, we talk about the shifting role biculturalism can play in childhood, adolescence, professional life, and now motherhood and planning for the future. Episode link in the comments
You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify
and you can support our work at
https://www.patreon.com/theextrahalf
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17/08/2020

We’re back! 😀 Meet our guest for Episode 7, Muriel Razavi. Muriel is a wonderful Persian-American violist raised in Germany. She performs regularly as a soloist, chamber musician, and in both baroque and contemporary ensembles. In addition to her viola studies, Muriel holds degrees in “the History and Culture of the Middle East” and “Religion and Culture." We talk about what happens when the countries we identify with are in conflict, the importance of understanding the past to understand the present, her love for Persian poetry, and the parallels between biculturalism and “bi-professionalism” (which are so plentiful and so rarely discussed).
Episode link in the comments 🙂
You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify
and you can support our work at
https://www.patreon.com/theextrahalf
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12/08/2020

meet the team: Natania Hoffman is our host and the bicultural 🇮🇹🇺🇸 who got the project started. A by profession, Natania has always been drawn to music as a space to be both an artist and an artisan. And here at the Extra Half, she can delve into other aspects of creation: hosting conversations, editing the episodes, and getting to know incredible people!

Natania listens to podcasts while biking, on trains, in buses… anywhere where her eyes can take in the sights while she’s thinking about something new.

She spent two weeks in Florence, Italy this summer and is excited about an upcoming week of teaching and performing in Lithuania!

Look out for our next episode on August 17th!

07/08/2020

Meet the team: Jessamine Jones is our and the creative mind behind our logo. A morning podcast listener, she takes her time making & enjoying a cup of coffee while catching up on the latest episode.

Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Jessamine has been living in Norway since 2015; she's based in Oslo but never misses a chance to explore Norwegian nature with her partner and golden retriever, Po. One of their favorite spots: Jotunheimen National Park, which you can catch a glimpse of from just outside the cabin windows.

Curious about her work? Find her at jessaminejones.com

02/08/2020

introducing the team: 90% of the time, Žilvinas Brazauskas is a . But at the Extra Half, we use some of his hidden talents - he composes and performs our theme music on the piano and guitar. He’s also our podcast editor, piecing together the conversations and leaving out the connection problems and outtakes. And he only listens to the episodes from start to finish when he’s ironing 😉 a Lithuanian, Žilvinas has been living in Germany since 2010 and just enjoyed a small vacation in Florence.
We’ll be back with new episodes from August 17th!

20/07/2020

Episode 5 is here!! We talk to violinist Brandon Garbot about the elusive nature of identity, how culture is diluted over time, and finding ways of self-expression through music when language fails; he is of European and Japanese heritage, but grew up in a monolingual American family. You can find us on all major podcast platforms, episode link in the comments. Hope you enjoy the conversation!
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17/07/2020

SO EXCITED that the Extra Half is finally on Apple Podcasts!! It took longer than we expected, but we’re now ready to go. That means you can find us, subscribe, maybe even give us a rating ;) and you can listen back to our wonderful guests Benjamin Hoffman, Hiwote Tadesse, Ellen and David Mamedov, and Aliya Vodovozova!! More episodes coming soon :)

14/07/2020

Episode 4 is out!! Our wonderful guest, flutist Aliya Vodovozova, is half Ukrainian and half Tatar and has lived in Turkey, Russia, France, and Germany... we talk about the effects those changes have on her personality, finding community around the world, navigating religion in different contexts, and what it's like to play in the Pacific Quintet, whose five members come from four continents.
***edit: you can now find the Extra Half on Apple Podcasts!!***
Link in the comments.
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06/07/2020

Meet our guests for week three!! David and Ellen Mamedov are brother and sister, but born thirteen years apart; Ellen was born in Baku, Azerbaijan while David was born in Cincinnati, Ohio after their parents emigrated to the United States. We talk about their Azeri, Lezgin, Jewish, and Armenian heritage balanced with their American identity. We also talk about empathy, raising a bicultural child, David's first time in the "old country," Ellen's name change... there's even a surprise guest at the end 😉
Link in the comments
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29/06/2020

We're excited to share Episode 2 with you! A conversation with Hiwote Tadesse, a violist and bicultural from Croatia & Ethiopia. You can find us on Anchor.fm, Spotify, Breaker, Google Podcasts, PocketCasts, and RadioPublic. More coming soon!

A conversation with Hiwote Tadesse, violist. We talk about growing up in Croatia with an Ethiopian father, thinking about identity through the lenses of language, appearance, and tradition, and her dreams of channeling her profession to create positive change in Ethiopia.