Shows
Voice of the ArtsWDR Big Band Visits Manchester Craftsmen's GuildThe WDR (West Deutsche Rundfunk) Big Band visits the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild February 28th and March 1st with Bob Mintzer.
Pianist in the band, Billy Test, is from Phillipsburg, Pa where he grew up watching Mr. Rogers Neighborhood and listening to the top drawer jazz of Johnny Costa, Bobby Rawsthorne, and Carl McVicker. Now Billy lives in Cologne, Germany where he composes and plays 250 concerts a year with the WDR Band.
He talks about the German radio broadcasting system, working with Bob Mintzer, and working with his colleague John Goldsby, who just retired after playing bass for many years. Jo...2025-02-2831 min
The Song Inside37. Robin Meloy Goldsby is Piano Girl!If you were in a Manhattan hotel 25 years ago, or a German castle recently, you may have heard Robin Meloy Goldsby tinkling the ivories, and not even known it. Her latest book, Piano Girl Playbook: Notes on a Musical Life, captures what it's like to play for all kinds of people in all kinds of places, and still find music at the heart of things. We talk about her storied life (played at Buckingham Palace? Check! Played for naked folks while wearing a concert gown? Done that!), the intentions of the composer, Mr. Rogers, and putting the work in.2022-02-071h 15
The Piano Girl PodcastThe Lady Plays“The Lady Plays,” is Robin's tribute to the Piano Queen, Marian McPartland. Robin taped a one-hour segment on Marian’s program, NPR’s Piano Jazz, twelve years ago, when her first book, Piano Girl, was published. “Marian’s joy rubs off on me. Look at her go—here’s a ninety-year-old woman playing piano the way she wants to. She has grown into her music and stayed young because of it. She listens, she responds, she encourages the rest of us to keep going. Marian doesn’t need magic, luck, or soothing words to keep her plane in the sky, because she’s the...2020-12-2328 minThe Piano Girl PodcastPretty, Pretty: Piano Girl vs. TrumpPiano Girl Podcast host Robin Meloy Goldsby flashes back to the eighties, when Donald Trump was her boss at a fancy-pants Manhattan hotel. "Goldsby has a wicked sense of humor and a keen eye for the absurd." Publishers Weekly Starred Review of Piano Girl: A Memoir This episodes features two tracks from Goldsby's December album: "First Snow" and "Hallelujah."2020-10-2925 minThe Piano Girl PodcastWe Are the Musicians“Music has never been essential for keeping people alive, but it has always been essential for helping us feel alive. Live music connects us in an impeccably human way.” Robin’s tribute to freelance musicians, doing their best during challenging times to feed their families, stay on track, and keep the music playing. Featuring "Blackbird" from Goldsby's Magnolia album. Sometimes poignant and often hilarious, Robin Meloy Goldsby, host of The Piano Girl Podcast ,reveals the comedies, tragedies, and mundane miracles witnessed from the business side of the Steinway. A pianist in lounges and lobbies around the world...2020-07-1600 minThe Piano Girl PodcastWaltz of the Asparagus PeopleThis month's Piano Girl Podcast, “Waltz of the Asparagus People,” takes you on a romp from a fancy New York City hotel lobby to a swanky German castle, accompanied by piano music and vegetables in costumes. It’s a bizarre story, but 100% true. You can’t make this stuff up. Featuring the track "Waltz of the Asparagus People," a tune inspired by Goldsby's encounters with her favorite stalky vegetable. Sometimes poignant and often hilarious, Robin Meloy Goldsby, host of The Piano Girl Podcast ,reveals the comedies, tragedies, and mundane miracles witnessed from the business side of the Ste...2020-05-0800 minThe Piano Girl PodcastOlives, Almonds, Sauvignon Blanc: The Musician's Guide to Losing (and Finding) Those Last Five PoundsFor over five decades Piano Girl Podcast host Robin Goldsby has lost and gained the same five pounds about four times a year. Road trips, evil catering, unidentifiable bar food, vending machine Twix bars, buffalo wings, airplane pretzels, stale ham sandwiches, chocolate donuts, and, yes, those community bowls of goldfish crackers—as a musician Goldsby has survived most of these things. For better or worse, here are some of her favorite diet phases, many of them career-related. 2020-03-3000 minThe Piano Girl PodcastAstoriaStep lively now. Back in the eighties, during her busiest years as a Manhattan Piano Girl, Robin Goldsby had a subway routine. She made her bridge and tunnel trip thousands of times in the fifteen years she lived in New York City. She says: "I never tired of the view from Queensboro Plaza, the way the serrated Manhattan skyline taunted the humble Queens horizon. The two parts of my life—where I worked and where I lived—remained separated by a yawning moat of fast-moving, murky water." Robin Meloy Goldsby, host of The Piano Girl Podcast, reveals the co...2020-01-3000 minThe Piano Girl PodcastWake Up, Santa!Nothing says Christmas quite like a drunken, snoring Santa refusing to wake up for the holidays. Robin Meloy Goldsby, host of The Piano Girl Podcast, reveals the comedies, tragedies, and mundane miracles witnessed from the business side of the Steinway. In this episode, Goldsby looks back on three variations of the "Wake Up, Santa" theme: Juiced Santa, Fairy Santa, and Emergency Santa—each Santa sound asleep in spite of holiday cheer, screaming children, a rubber fish, and a lot of music. Featuring the track "Magic in the Night" from Goldsby's album Songs from the Ca...2019-12-1900 minThe Piano Girl PodcastThe Notes that Got Away/Badass Randy and the Beauty QueensIt's family time on the Piano Girl Podcast with Robin Meloy Goldsby. In the first story, "The Notes that Got Away, you'll meet Bob Rawsthorne, Robin's drummer dad, as he takes a tour of the many places that once featured live music. Where did all the notes go? "Driving anywhere in the greater Pittsburgh area with my dad, eighty-two year old drummer Bob Rawsthorne, means listening to dozens of stories pulled from over six decades of gigs in vanished venues. We can hardly cross a strip-malled intersection without him pointing at a corner and blurting out a t...2019-11-0200 minThe Piano Girl PodcastThe Piano Girl Podcast: Varmint on the RoofMan (and music) versus nature. A bass player and a pianist take on a German weasel. Robin Meloy Goldsby, host of The Piano Girl Podcast,reveals the comedies, tragedies, and mundane miracles witnessed from the business side of the Steinway. A pianist in lounges and lobbies around the world, Goldsby tells her stories by connecting people she has met with places she has played. Along the way she discovers the human side, for better or worse, of her audiences—mobsters and moguls, the down-and-out and downright scary, and ordinary people dealing with life in extraordinary ways...2019-09-1200 minThe Piano Girl PodcastThe Accidental InsultPiano Girl Robin Meloy Goldsby's definition of an Accidental Insult: a comment that causes the recipient to say thank you and cringe at the same time. Most of the musicians she knows have developed thick skins underneath their little black dresses and tuxedos. Like it’s not hard enough to smile and remember 3,000 tunes while playing for a chiropractor convention—they must also suffer the slings and arrows, the digs and dings, of well-meaning, slightly-idiotic customers. In Part Two of "The Accidental Insult," Goldsby describes an indirect meeting with Madonna and how the two of them have more i...2019-08-0800 minThe Piano Girl PodcastStill Life with Grape and Hot DogPiano Girl Robin Meloy Goldsby and her partner Joe get an exciting songwriting commission. The subject? World peace and brotherhood. It takes five songwriting sessions, a plate of cold gnocchi, three slices of stale pizza, a few bottles of wine and half a chicken, but eventually they come up with a suitable composition. They show up at a synagogue in Princeton, New Jersey, to present the song to the congregation at a special ceremony. And that's where things take a left turn. Goldsby, host of The Piano Girl Podcast, reveals the comedies, tragedies, and mundane miracles witnessed fr...2019-07-1100 minThe Piano Girl PodcastNakedPiano Girl Robin Meloy Goldsby gets naked in the German sauna. Moving to a foreign country is tricky enough, but taking your clothes off in front of a bunch of strangers? Goldsby has a front row seat at the Penis Parade and it's a spectacle she's never seen before. Robin Meloy Goldsby, host of The Piano Girl Podcast, travels the world and reveals the comedies, tragedies, and mundane miracles witnessed from the business side of the Steinway. A pianist in lounges and lobbies around the world, Goldsby tells her stories by connecting people she has met...2019-06-1300 minThe Piano Girl PodcastThe Girl Who Curtsied TwiceApril 2, 2019 In "The Girl Who Curtsied Twice" Piano Girl Robin Goldsby plays a gig at Buckingham Palace for Prince Charles and 250 of his friends. Goldsby reveals the comedies, tragedies, and mundane miracles witnessed from the business side of the Steinway. A pianist in lounges and lobbies around the world, Goldsby tells her stories by connecting people she has met with places she has played. Along the way she discovers the human side, for better or worse, of her audiences—mobsters and moguls, the down-and-out and downright scary, and ordinary people dealing with life in extraordinary ways...2019-05-0900 min