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I Love Your Stories is a soulful conversation series hosted by artist and creative guide Hava Gurevich, where art meets authenticity. Each episode invites you into an intimate dialogue with artists, makers, and visionaries who are courageously crafting lives rooted in creativity, purpose, and self-expression.
From painters and poets to healers and community builders, these are the stories behind the work—the moments of doubt, discovery, grief, joy, and transformation. Through honest, heart-centred conversations, Hava explores how creativity can be both a healing force and a path to personal truth.
If you’re an artist, a dreamer, or someone drawn to a more intuitive and intentional way of living, this podcast will remind you that your story matters—and that the act of creating is a sacred, revolutionary act.
Hey everyone, welcome back to the show.
I'm really excited to
have as my guest today
uh vina kukarni-rankin
vina has is a musician and um
She has a couple of bands that she will
also tell you about in a
minute, but I had the fortune
The great fortune to uh sit in and listen
um on a rehearsal, um
a couple of weeks ago
And I was so struck by the way
I also struck by the way that you um
Talk about music it felt like you know,
it's been rehearsed before but you were
still refining it or
you're still working on it
and you were kind of
Making it happen in real time
And it's the closest thing I like for me
the analogy would be
watching somebody paint
And what I was really struck by is the
way you the way you describe music the
way you describe the process
felt so visual to me
That I just immediately thought like oh
and I I remember I just like closed my
eyes and I could see the music
Because of how you described it and then
you asked me what it looks like to me
So I was like, okay. I have to have vina
So dina welcome to the show and let's
start with if you can just um, tell
everyone a little bit about yourself
Well
Hava, i'm very happy to be here. This
Is something new for me?
And actually you were
sitting in on the first
Rehearsal iteration of that piece believe
it or not. So we'll talk about that later
Well, I am a pianist by training
very western
classically trained since age five
And i've had the privilege of
studying at indiana university
the university of michigan
With most of my
degrees in piano performance
And finally one in piano pedagogy
Here at the university of michigan in an
arbor. So I love teaching
I finished my degree in
2005 since then that was a long time ago
My teaching and
playing have evolved a lot
and
Long story short. I love improvising
I've always been a jazz fan
and
it's
completed me
completed my skill set and
wishlist to be able to create on the spot
And
Have the freedom of
Not having to get it perfect but still
having a framework for these pieces
so
What you heard in that
rehearsal a couple weeks ago
The jam session was that
I did actually have a plan
But with the other members particularly
particularly with bobbuk
Babak solomani on santur
We were
also scripting the large scale format
Of how this piece would go
I came there simply with a
prompt that it would be called
A bukang liwayway
Which in tagalog means
dawn morning morning breaking
That was it so we did have
quite a visual inspiration
And it helps for us to have some ideas
That was it. So you were seeing us work
with I would say some basic
elements of creation if you can
Tell me tell us a
little more about the band
The instruments in the
band and the genre of the band
Sure
Sure because you said you're you're
trained classically, but this was this is
how would you describe it?
Aga udilim
We are myself on keys
And I would say the main
flavor that really
Gets people's attention
and makes their ears sit up
Is bobbuk
Solomani playing on the persian santur
which is
I guess one would call it a dulcimer
Where the strings are
open and they're struck
He's highly trained
although he has another job
And it's amazing what he
can do so he comes with a deep
Iranian persian training with all of the
scales and melodies that were part of
this training. So when I have ideas
I think it's because
Almost immediately it's he's it does
sound like he came with something
composed, right? I understand why you
thought it was written
but he
Took an idea and ran with it very quickly
And then we have our wonderful bass
player frankie bennett
And finally chris pike on drums who
Just one or two years ago graduated with
a jazz degree at university of michigan.
So he's our young man
And has really serious
jazz chops
Which is wonderful. So we are
Also struggling to explain our music but
I would call it jazzy
world music very simply
Jazzy world music music. Okay. Yeah, and
I would add like this sort of um
loungey down tempo
Um, I love it
That's that's amazing can I ask so you're
you're trained western
in western, um, right
and
obek
correct
He's trained in
The he said he's
iranian persian tradition
Yes, same is it the same tradition as the
western tradition the scale
it is it is not I would say
In terms of relating it to my influences
it's more similar to indian classical
music which is
Highly systematized but
improvised at the same time. Wow
so
Again, i'm not an expert. I'm simply a
fan although my dad is indian
Indian classical musicians
and iranian classical musicians
are
Rigorously trained in scales and rhythms
and melodies that are connected to
certain collection of
notes
And then they use those
materials in real time to improvise
Where so I would say it's
more akin to jazz training
Okay
And jazz musicians here everywhere are
very rigorous in their training and I
have not gone through
that i've had a couple of
lessons and classes and
I listen to it every day
and so I have a comfort
level with improvising and
Maybe one day i'll call myself a jazz
musician. But right now
i'm just a musician who
Loves creating on the spot
Can you um
so I I understand that improvisation is
in a sense creating on the
spot and sort of reacting to
What just happened like each note that
gets the next note kind of thing
But can you talk more
about the difference?
Like what what is it about improvisation
that you gravitate like why you gravitate
towards that and how
is it different from?
more traditional like non
improvisational because I
I
I'm just like i'm a consumer of music
But i'm so ignorant when it comes to it
and and the more you talk
the more like I I have so many
It sounds so much like painting to me
so
Well, this analogy is going to be rich
for me as a takeaway. It's exciting
In the conservatories
of music composed by
Uh written down once upon a time it was
mostly curated as european composers, but
there's so many
composers in every continent
That bring their culture and
inspiration and talent together
those notes are
95 99 of the time written down
It's like memorizing a
script to a shakespearean play
Wow
right, but those words are
Performed with quite a bit of variety but
verbatim you don't expect your main
actors to go off cuff and improvise
When you're going to
see romeo and juliet or a
One of the other plays midsummer's
nightdream you expect to hear what
shakespeare wrote and that's the same way
you expect to hear a bay tov and sonata
with
Emprophesized improvised
forms there's a huge gamut here
much like visual art and I would say the
music that I tend to listen to
Uh, be it jazz or funk
again huge genres of
Music that encompass wildly different
sounds or say indian classical
There are
Frameworks that they stay within
So there's a selection of notes and what
we call harmony
underneath that the musicians
play off of
So they have a palette. Let's say
of colors that they're coming back to
And shading those colors, but
those notes or colors and
rhythms they go together and
They're playing with it really and
messing with you
Maybe referring back to the rhythm
Maybe scrambling it up
And typically at the beginning or the end
now i'm thinking more traditional jazz
You'll hear an iteration of
the melody the original melody
Which is especially
true for vocal jazz, right?
So the tunes that you love what we call
jazz standards you'll hear
Ella Fitzgerald scatting and at the end
you hear the melody as she presented it
at the beginning of the track
You know the analogy at
some point breaks down but
I think
improvisational to me
feels very much like
creating you start with you
know a blank canvas and you
you know, you put some initial marks on
it a color wash a few lines and and uh
as as the as the image grows, um
What's there?
Sort of dictates what goes next and and
then you kind of step away and say like
oh, this is a little heavy over here
Or it's a little too dense over here.
Let's break this up a little bit. Let's
let's add a little more like
richness here
So
you know
That's it's kind of what I was hearing.
It's just fascinating to me
that um
You can be you know
When you when it's something that you
like do well understand well practice
get better and better, um
and
You know, some of it is
intuitive. Some of it is
Some of it is language that's very
specific to that discipline
But at a certain point especially if you
want to get like really really specific
about what it is that you want
um, well like where
it's like a feeling or a
emotion or um
like a gesture
The way the way that our brain processes
it it just feels to me like
it processes it the same way
Um
Whether like the perception is happening
through your ears
through your eyes through your
Hands, you know, I think like I think
there there there would be a very similar
kind of analogy that can be made to um
Dance and you mentioned shakespeare. So
certainly to performance to acting. Um
There's this innate
kind of
A need to express
That's a human. I just like
this human need to express
An idea I just something that is like
it's it's the thing that
happens before the thoughts happen
it's you know, that's
this really raw thing and
You know, I love that. Have you have a
medium that you're good at
And it gets translated. It's almost like
Yours gets translated in one language
Mine gets translated in another language
a dancer will translate it
and get into a third language
Um, but we are saying
Like a similar thing
It's so primal and you see it in kids
like in young kids, you know, and they
all scribble they all
Right. I'm saying they all try to dance
and it's it's it's just it's there
and so when
Recognizing like I think that's what I
connected to is I recognized what you
were trying to communicate
and
Um to me like especially if I close my
eyes, I could see you
talking about something visual
um
That's amazing
Oh, I really love that
especially where you said
the
unconscious
Thought before we verbalize it
I like that a lot
You asked me a bit a few moments ago.
What attracts me to improvisation?
Along those lines
To me it feels
spiritual spiritual and religious
to
Well, first of all
For me at this stage,
I don't know of other
improvisers
Feel this way. I do feel a little bit
like i'm falling off a cliff
Taking a dive not a not a physically
dangerous one, but something where i'm
Vulnerable. I don't
know what's going to happen
So there's that exciting feeling
Then there's the excitement of thinking
what will bob eck frankie and chris do
I don't exactly know what they're going
to do either. Although I have an idea
I mean we certainly compose a piece and
the one you heard will
work on that a lot. It'll be
Iterated reiterated and it'll evolve into
something that is a little more
standard for us
And yet we'll still be riffing on it and
improvising. So there's
that nervous feeling of
Okay
God, let's say and that in my case i'd
say that I trust you i'm gonna
Take that step off the cliff
over the water
and
Close my eyes
Trust the skill and training i've had but
also trust that something
beautiful is going to happen
And i'm going to also
respond to the vibe in the room
So
It's exciting of course to gather with
these musicians in rehearsal
But to have a performance and even having
you and your partner there
Change the energy which is really neat
We're responding to
the collection of people
Yeah
And events of that day
I want to pick up on
something before I forget the the dynamic
of working on this with
other band members, so
In a sense, you know on
you and I could tell that
The four of you really
It's almost like telepathy
At least especially with
especially Boba. Um, it felt like
especially the two of you
like
Had a almost like a telepathy thing going
Um, I love them like
this understanding, um
You know, we joked at the time
I was thinking like if I had like three
other people sitting next to
me while i'm painting and going
Oh, can you add a little more blue here?
I'd be smacking all of them
because it's just
uh, you know that you know because so
that's that's where the
analogy ends and I think for
A lot of musicians,
especially if you are in a band
um
The dynamic of working together feels so
important
Um, yes, and i'm assuming there's
sometimes a little bit of
a compromise that happens
But at the same time it's like four large
brains working on
something and yes, you know and
How long did it take you to find
that that level of dynamic
with your band members and
How do you know how do
you know when you have it?
Well
It is a skill to learn
how to collaborate and
my skills
in collaboration
Have had decades to bake
In different forms and
with different people
Aga o delim is relatively new
Boba and I started jamming together
I think in 2022 only and
he and I were connected
by
Justin Snyder a wonderful
Avant-garde I would say very
edgy pianist that I teach with
Justin connected us and
bubba and I started playing
Hit it off immediately.
There was a kinship in
Personality and
Interest in improv and curiosity
I guess interest in american sounds
international sounds I
was extremely excited
of course by his skill level
but his own background with
Iranian
Scales and I could
Hear some overlap with indian classical
which i've always loved listening to
But my ability to work in a group started
with chamber music as a classical pianist
And then as a church musician
Here in the an arbor the christian reform
church. I've been part
of a contemporary band for
Wow over 20 years
Where I met my other main
collaborator collaborator
Jean bernard sarin
for quanta musique
And there we would
discuss things in rehearsal
Younger band members who were often were
teenagers volunteering
thought we were arguing arguing
But we weren't we
were just working it out
All that work
Has helped me
Be willing to give things a try just try
it out. Just try it out. So in the
rehearsal that you heard
the
Four of us musicians were not necessarily
Understanding what was
in the head of the other
And that was okay, so
boba
Had a different tempo
We started to talk about
doing something with five beats
And we we tried it and
One thing that's going to help us a lot
especially with a group like
agaudilim and my other
Uh project quanta musique
We record our sessions. So and hearing
what worked what we liked
and
I'll like things but I might change the
order around so I might change my panels
put them in a different order
So that reiterative process
We don't have to get it right right away
Yeah, so I've enjoyed also getting older
to just chill out you just mellow out so
there are funny stories of
Especially with chamber music just the
angst of feeling that well, we have to
play the phrase this way
with agaudilim we are
Scripting everything
and
somehow
Having a sense of what you want
And just trying other stuff
Really helps
I think hearing the expertise of all
three other musicians
I can I can trust that
Something good's going to happen even if
we don't necessarily
Do what was in my head right away
Can I ask?
For you personally at
this point in your life
And with your with your
music you teach right?
I do quite a bit
Um, you have two bands you're
Pretty committed to it. How would you how
do you define success for yourself?
That is such a great question there's
several answers to that obviously
With the bands with
cuentum is ik with agaudilim
Enjoying ourselves on stage is huge
That is a large component of success
We do want to have audience accolades
Being asked back for repeat performances
There's some classic things that are
connected to making a living right?
But yeah
Success is in the enjoyment
In the feeling that
I guess that we finished some things
That it got past
the idea stage
Recording making tracks a
cuentum is ik has an album out
Agaudilim has singles out
and will soon have an album
Um, I'm still searching for it too. I'm
still in that process
Does it change as you get older?
Oh, yeah, definitely
Definitely
Especially
Being a classical musician who was
Born in the 70s and
raised in the 80s and 90s
piano competitions
For classical pianists were huge
Now I would classify
those as really macho
events and what I mean is
classical pianists will memorize their
whole 60-minute program.
It's very impressive and
Most undergrad music majors
At the universities, let's say michigan
will knock your socks off.
They're really amazing and there's
thousands of thousands of musicians so
Once upon a time winning those
competitions was
important and building the cv
But now
Having a unique sound that I enjoy
Having enough concerts on a regular basis
The fact I would say that
Great lakes performing artists
associates. It's a non-profit
management. They they manage us
And that's wonderful to see that we get
good concerts through
great lakes
I would call that success and also
understanding that not everybody's gonna
Like our sound it's not going to be
everyone's cup of tea
I can definitely say that for other
musicians who are clearly
Exceptional but not necessarily my taste
there's room for all of us
That
General frame helps me relax in this is
our sound this is what we're really into
So
Yeah, it's a it's a
very easy on ourselves
definition of success I would say
But but yeah also getting paid
I know I would can deny that you know
starting to earn more and more
For one's art
We all know that that's necessary
It's necessary, but also there is a
certain level of
validation that comes with it
And
You know
For me personally that was something I
struggled with for a very long time. Like
I I had a really hard time
Thinking about my art as a commodity
And I still try like when i'm when i'm
working on a on a painting
I try not to think about like oh is
someone going to buy it?
because that that messes with
Creativity it messes with
it messes with um intent
um
But when somebody does
You know spend their hard earned money to
buy something I created because they want
they love it so much
They want to live with it
And look at it. Oh, yeah
Um, so yes, there's the money component
on of it that that's
like great if I can do that
I don't have to like be a barista
somewhere on the side
But it but on another level it is it is a
confirmation and a validation
that what you're putting out
resonates
deeply
You know, um with someone
else and I can I can imagine that
You get some of that
When you're performing because you were
saying that even just
having us come and listen
Um change the dynamic and I can only
imagine that when you're performing and
you can see like you're in real time
You are seeing how your music is
affecting your audience
and that kind of feedback loop of like
It resonates
You know what you're putting out is being
consumed and appreciated and you can see
that and how that feeds into it
And if you're getting paid for it and
somebody's booking you saying
We love you. Please come back and we're
paying you to come back
it's
It is on that level not just um us, you
know a transactional
Like uh, it's not just a financial
transaction. It's also, um
On another level just a
very kind of reaffirming
On a on a deeper level at least for me. I
would agree with that the
words you used were reaffirming
Having someone
resonate with your creation
That connection
Yeah, so having a listener or viewer
Want to purchase your work
for me
It is those things
On the level beyond financial need that
it affirms and it says hey
we resonate with what you did
um, so i'm gonna i'm gonna
shift gears a little bit and
We've been talking a lot about
You know the music and
the art right that I want to
Kind of shift it more towards the artist
Okay, the artist and the practice and
that kind of like artistic
growth or artistic journey
and
so we're about the same age and
had you know other
chapters in our lives and
um
So like looking back at your at the arc
of your sort of life in your musical
career to the so far
What are you like?
What are you most proud of?
One of the constants
that actually
helps transform
whatever I do
Is
Originated with my
classical playing and that is
Putting it all out there on the stage
So
Allowing people have said that i'm a very
expressive performer
And I mostly would play list and Chopin
and Rachmaninoff pieces
and that
carries through
to
My performing now even if it's not a
classical piece even if it's with a band
so
staying true to that
You know really being expressive and
connecting with the
audience is of value so I have this
I would say value
I don't know if it's a
mission statement, but
Whatever I do. I do
want it to resonate with
audiences
So
Especially with Jean Bernard Sarin, Dr.
Jean Bernard Sarin, my
collaborator
for Quantum Azik
we
started our collaboration
as as Quantum Azik in
I think 2014
2015 so it's about 10 11 years and
our concerts
emerged into
the 19th century
salon style concerts where
There's
A duo piece. He's got an amazing voice.
So we might have a piano and duo piece
then we might
talk a little bit
about
the thematic
aspect of the
concert
and those type of
concerts that have a theme
and
You were breaking down the fourth wall,
you know, we're talking with the audience
Involving them with maybe a little bit of
sing-along here and there
I've been really most happy with those
type of concerts those have really
Felt great. I had the privilege of doing
one for my dissertation
in
around 2004
at the carry town concert house that
Had a simple concept of
going from a dark hall into light
and the music that I chose
Started in a dark place and ended up with
the later works of composer fronds list
And those programmatic aspects
have
Been part of my I would say pride and joy
with Quantum Azik and
And even classical
concerts, so I enjoyed this
Programmatic or extra musical element
so
Realizing, you know, perhaps that could
be a guiding question that
helps with when people are
Say, what do I want to do next with my
arty? How does this really?
up the connection
with the viewers or listeners
and I and I hope that could be
Something that opens the door for artists
that are saying
what's next with what I do
I'm hearing a lot that
Music isn't just your chosen like
artistic expression. It's your chosen
form of expression or
communication altogether
Yes, it sounds like you are happiest when
you are collaborating
with other musicians
collaborating with the audience when
there's when that
channel of communication
Is open and you can communicate
So directly and
viscerally through the music
You got it
I'll have to come back to you
to distill what makes me tick
Um
If you don't mind me
asking I know that you've been
recently
dealing with some health
issues health challenges
and um
I'm I'm curious
I I know i'm i'm sure it's pretty obvious
how those challenges might be
affecting your ability
to perform your ability to
You know
Be at your best, but i'm curious how
In the other direction is your music is
your art helping you?
With your challenges
I do feel the best when i'm playing
and
jamming with
Creating performing I was diagnosed with
late stage ovarian cancer
End of april and may this is so recent. I
didn't realize that yes
Yes
it's the chemotherapy
has
Required me to keep take a break from
teaching. I haven't minded it. I'm i'm
i'm thankful that I I can
Take a break, although I miss
teaching
I guess it's in
highlighted
my
joy
and desire to
perform even more
And to teach i've you know, that's a
whole other conversation
I've been envisioning ways
to teach more effectively
And more
financially
successfully
And that's been fun to take a break and
say how are how am I going
to do things differently?
So actually this enforced hiatus
For cancer treatment
Will probably change my teaching methods
more than anything
but playing
It's been interesting. I've
Thought oh like I can't
Not be playing with
the band with the bands
and
creating things with
Quanto mazique or aga delim is
Really healing it truly is medicine
Which is exciting to bring to a concert.
I've always felt that
We all have our music that heals us
and
You know, perhaps that is
another general frame
These are personal to me, but I think it
might resonate with other artists that
What is healing what makes you feel
better? What makes you
want to be in a gallery space?
you personally
You know to be authentic to really stick
to your voice and trust
That it's going to connect to a certain
segment of the population
That I think when you're doing your
studies as a younger person
I
Don't know if many of us I wasn't this
prescient when I was young to think about
these questions, but
getting older
Taking a break from you know, typical
ways of doing things
in my in my case it was
Practicing classical music which might be
alarming to some of my colleagues. I I
just didn't do it as much for many years
Or in this case an illness, you know, I'm
taking a break then you
have a chance to think well
What is what are some guiding principles
for when I come back in
To my practice whatever that may be
Yeah, i'm sure also that when you're like
immersed in your art
and
it's just
The time when everything else falls away
um
And you're not you're not focused on the
illness. You're not
focused on those things that
on your limitations
Absolutely
That
I believe is universal for
a
Person going through a hard time. Yeah to
not deny it but to have
To look for a way to be
immersed in something they love
I
I wish if there was more of a notion that
Just engaging in art actually making art
expressing yourself artistically in
whatever happens to be the
thing that you gravitate towards
That it does heal you
And if you're not
If you're not sick, then it makes you
even better like like it
can take you even higher
and
Just like you know
We're just only now beginning to
understand as a society and not
individually but as a
society that like what you eat is
Who you are like what
you put in is what right?
You know that you should eat healthier if
you want to feel healthier
You should exercise if you want to feel
healthier and be more
like have more vitality
um, I think it just it
should be part of um, like
a
health plan the national health plan
To I could not agree more, you know, like
you need you need to
have a creative outlet
Because it will heal you it will make you
feel better. It will make
you healthier altogether
like mentally and physically I think
Imagine
What you just said
this creative outlet being a core
To every child's education
It is in some places and times
Yeah, it was it's not I can only think of
it being a positive thing. Yeah. Yeah, so
Let's just put that out there
Yes, I would agree with you on this, you
know, we we we we've
created it as as a thing now
It's out there. Um, this has been
amazing. I could keep talking forever.
Thank you so so much for taking the time
um
I'm I feel personally that
You know
For me music especially classical music
It's it always is a little bit. It's a
little bit intimidating
um hearing you guys
um
Compose together and play together. Um,
it was a really big
learning experience for me
but not not like academic
learning but this kind of
You know, if there's like this boundary
of like everything that I know about
music and expression in that in that way
Like that boundary just kind of grew just
like oh, that's wonderful
From that and you know in part because I
could I was there and I was experiencing
it in person in part because
It it just struck me
Again, like how
similar it is to art making
um, and just talking to you now and um,
you know hearing hearing more about the
dynamic of it and and
What it means to be a musician
You know and what it
means to be a painter
and on on so many levels
It's
It's the same there's
a real similarity to
the creative process
And openness to surprises yes, absolutely
Yeah
um
So I'm we are going to link
Um to both bands
Can I ask?
Those those uh the
band's names do they have
meanings and what language
Yes
so
cuento nazique
cuento means
story in tagalog
Filipino
And mazique means music in
Haitian creole. Oh, okay. So this points
to the backgrounds of me and
johannard
story music
And we do that that's what we do then
aga delim
it has a uh
a long story which we
Share in our concerts, but that's also
tagalog filipino for
sunset and it literally means
The light or darkness snatching the light
but it's just become short for
um
I think snatching the darkness is
snatching the light away