your latest album called Trailblazers with the violist Molly.
How do you pronounce her last name?
Yes, good for you for asking because people usually don't get it right the first time.
It's Molly Gebrian. Molly and I met when we were like 15 at a summer music camp.
So we've been friends forever and we have very rarely actually been in the same place at the same
time, but we really like collaborating. So we've created a couple of projects as an excuse to work
together. And this most recent project, the album that was just released called Trailblazers,
no percussion on this one. It's just viola and piano, but they actually aren't viola sonatas.
They are cello sonatas that Molly has transcribed for viola. The genesis of the project is kind of
funny. Molly was cleaning her house and listening to something on YouTube. And then when the piece
she was done listening, YouTube autoplay started playing one of these cello sonatas.
I don't remember which one was the first one, but she was listening and she was like,
wow, this is a really cool cello piece. And then she went and looked at the composers like,
I've never heard of this composer. And then the autoplay feature played another one of these
cello sonatas by this not-very well-known female composers from the late 19th and early 20th century.
And again, so these three pieces came on back to back and it was the same reaction every time.
It's like, why haven't I heard these pieces? And these composers are amazing. And like,
I think these would work well on Viola maybe. So Molly took it upon herself to transcribe these
works for Viola. And then she asked me if I'd be interested in performing and recording them with
her, which of course I was, I wanted to, because it's right up my alley. I love being able to
showcase composers like this who have mostly been in obscurity. And the Bozmans in particular is a
piece that really, really spoke to me. It's got that great early 20th-century energy. And all of
this music is very, it's very accessible. Even though two of the pieces are from the early
20th century, they're more backward-looking stylistically. They're more romantic.
And other two female composers you included in the album are Ethel Smith and then Dora.
Dora Pajacevic.
Pajacevic.
And you know, we're really excited to have a chance to introduce this music
to folks who haven't heard it before. You should hear Molly play because it sounds really,
really great. Listen to her, a really good violist. It's an awesome instrument.
For our listeners, please check out Danny's latest album, Trailblazers on acisproductions.com.
If you haven't listened to the first half of this fantastic episode with Danny Holt,
please check it out on your favorite podcasting platform. The video format of this episode is
available on our YouTube channel. Check out all the links in our bio or in the description.