Dan Karlsberg has been playing Cincinnati for a long time — CCM (University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music) grad, seven albums, and teaches piano to students from age four to ninety-one. He just released a solo record called Rooms Without Walls, built in late-night sessions, mostly not knowing where it was going. By the second session, he did.
DAN'S NEW ALBUM >>>>
https://dankarlsberg.bandcamp.com/album/rooms-without-walls
We talk about what it actually feels like to gig — the driving, the parking, the day-of call you weren't ready for, and the internal voice that tells you mid-performance that you can't do this. We talk about why his gig floor has gone from a hundred dollars to now three or four hundred, why he shifted his income to teaching, and the anxiety he carried for twenty years before he had a name for it.
1:25 Who is Dan Karlsberg — the baseball card
4:26 Life outside music — exploring, obsessing, Nadia Boulanger & Elvis
7:04 Rooms Without Walls — making a solo piano record
17:32 The gigging landscape — when the playing isn't the hard part
19:04 Gigging rates flat since 1980 — the economics of working musicians
22:01 My biggest challenge is myself
26:03 Panic attacks, therapy, and finally understanding himself
27:32 Teaching ages 4 to 91 — playing without hurting yourself
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