The podcast that profiles great harmonica players and technicians from around the world

Classical Chromatic Episodes

These players use a chromatic to play the classical genre
Jan. 11, 2025

Sigmund Groven interview

Sigmund Groven joins me on episode 127. Sigmund is a chromatic player who is a household name in his native Norway. He was inspired to take up the harmonica after hearing Tommy Reilly on the radio. After taking some lessons ...

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Nov. 23, 2024

Shima Kobayashi interview

Shima Kobayashi joins me on episode 124. Shima is a classical chromatic player originally from Japan, who has been living in the UK since 2004. After winning the World Harmonica Championship in 1995 she was awarded a bursary...

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Sept. 13, 2024

Yeore Kim interview

Yeore Kim joins me on episode 119. Yeore is from South Korea, where she first picked up the tremolo harmonica at the age of six. Her mother is a piano teacher, so she also learnt piano and other instruments, including trumpet...

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July 27, 2024

Isabella Krapf interview

Isabella Krapf joins me on episode 116. Isabella is from Vienna, Austria, where she started teaching and performing concerts in her late teens and has had a career in the harmonica ever since. Isabella is a collector of harmo...

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May 28, 2024

Svang interview

Harmonica group Svang join me on episode 112. Svang are a harmonica quartet from Finland, who have been performing and recording for over twenty years now. They first formed in 2003 when Jouko was teaching at the Sibelius Aca...

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June 23, 2023

Jim Hughes interview 2

Jim Hughes joins me (again) on episode 88. Jim is a chromatic player who was last interviewed on the podcast in October 2020, back on episode 26. He is now at the grand age of 93 years young, and he shares the wisdom he has d...

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Feb. 10, 2023

Rocky Lok interview

Rocky Lok joins me on episode 79. Rocky lives in Hong Kong, where there is a vibrant harmonica scene. Harmonica is taught in many schools there, which is how Rocky got started playing himself almost 50 years ago. He went on t...

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July 15, 2022

Joe Powers interview

Joe Powers joins me on episode 65. Joe started out playing diatonic harmonica along with blues records as a teenager, before deciding to study music composition at college, taking up the chromatic there. Joe’s passion for dan...

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April 14, 2022

Gerhard Mueller interview

Gerhard Mueller joins me on episode 59. Gerhard is the Product Manager for Hohner harmonicas, a role he has held for 28 years. His father worked as a gardener at the Hohner factory in Trossingen, and as well as getting his so...

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Oct. 26, 2021

Cy Leo interview

Cy Leo joins me on episode 48. Leo is from Hong Kong, where he started learning to play classical chromatic harmonica from age 6, under the direction of his father, who is an accomplished player himself, having won the ensemb...

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March 27, 2021

Robert Bonfiglio interview

Robert Bonfiglio shares with us the world of the concert chromatic harmonica player. After studying composition in New York, he spent five years under the tutelage of Chinese classical player, Cham Ber Huang, and another 12 y...

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Dec. 19, 2020

Fata Morgana interview

Fata Morgana are a Dutch harmonica quartet, who first formed in 1980 after meeting at the Eindhoven Harmonica Club. Two of the original members survive from that time, with the current line-up existing since 2001. The group h...

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Oct. 26, 2020

Jim Hughes interview

British Chromatic royalty Jim Hughes joins me on episode 26. Jim has been playing professionally for over 60 years. From his early success in harmonica competitions, he went on to forge a successful career as a session musici...

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Sept. 26, 2020

Antonio Serrano interview

Chromatic player, Antonio Serrano, is the current SPAH harmonica player of the year. And with good reason. Antonio’s father was a great influence on the fledgling harmonica player. And Antonio met Larry Adler at a young age, ...

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