The Cello Sherpa Podcast

Lights, Camera, Cello - An Interview with Cellist Nick Canellakis, Faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music

• Joel Dallow • Season 5 • Episode 23

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What if the thing that makes people laugh at your art is the same thing that makes them listen closer? That’s the tension—and the opportunity—at the heart of our conversation with cellist and filmmaker Nick Canellakis, whose viral sketches and serious performances are two sides of one craft. We dig into the roots: a musical family, early piano, and the moment the cello took hold. Then the parallel story: childhood home videos evolving into a full-fledged filmmaking habit, culminating in a Curtis holiday “skit night” that became a real short film. Nick walks us through his modern toolkit—single-camera iPhone shoots, simple mics, thoughtful coverage, and Adobe Premiere—to show how cinematic instincts can thrive without massive crews. The secret isn’t chasing trends; it’s writing what you know: the anxious, funny, fiercely devoted inner life of musicians.
That creative momentum has reshaped his concertizing. Nick shares how a five-minute live sketch can prime an audience for Tchaikovsky or Dvorak without diluting the music’s weight. We talk about the Orlando Philharmonic collaboration, the balance between entertainment and excellence, and why he refuses to become “a comedian who plays cello.” The music leads, the comedy widens the door, and both raise the stakes for connection.
We also explore his role on the Curtis Institute faculty and a fresh teaching model where students study with multiple mentors, including visits from artists like Gary Hoffman. It’s a system built for synthesis: different bowings, fingerings, and philosophies that invite players to own their choices and find their sound. Finally, Nick offers grounded advice for young musicians—swing bigger, don’t sell yourself short, and choose paths for love, not fear. If you’ve wondered how to blend passions without losing rigor, this one maps the territory.

If this conversation moved you, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review so more musicians and creators can find it. 

For more information on Nick Canellakis: https://www.nicholascanellakis.com/biography

You can also find Nick Canellakis on Instagram and Facebook: @nick.canellakis_cellist

If you are looking for in person/virtual cello lessons, or orchestral repertoire audition coachings, check out www.theCelloSherpa.com

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Threads & YouTube: @theCelloSherpa

For more information on our sponsor: www.CLEAResources.com 

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Cello Sherpa podcast, where we explore all aspects of the climb to the summit from intermediate musician to the professional stage. Check us out online at thecello sherpa.com or follow us on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube at the Cello Sherpa. I'm Joel Dallow, your host. I joined the cello section of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in 1999 and founded the Riverside Chamber Players based in Roswell, Georgia in 2003. If you're looking for a bit of extra help on learning your orchestra or solo repertoire, perhaps we can help. Visit www.thecello sherpa.com and drop us a line. We offer virtual or in-person lessons. Today's episode is sponsored by Clear Resources, your premier resource for compliance, legal, ethics, and risk. For more information, visit them online at clearesources.com. Today's guest is cellist Nick Canalakis. A sought-after and multifaceted artist, Nick has forged a unique voice combining his talents as soloist, chamber musician, curator, filmmaker, and a composer-arranger. Thank you so much for joining us today on the Cello Sharpa podcast.

SPEAKER_02:

Thanks, Joel. Good to be here.

SPEAKER_00:

I know your sister Karina is a violinist and conductor. Was music the family business growing up? Yep.

SPEAKER_02:

It certainly was. My parents met at the Juilliard School as young undergraduate lovers in the 60s. They were with pianists at Juilliard. My dad became a conductor, and my mom taught piano for many years. So that's the four of us. Yeah. Very tight-knit musical family.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow. And how did you end up picking the cello?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, first of all, I was exposed to all the instruments through my dad's orchestras. Okay. So I was around all of them. I saw Yo-Yo Ma and Mr. Rogers. That's a kind of common story for people of my generation. Yep. Cellous of my generation. But I think also probably there was an element of wanting to do what my family did, what my sister does, but also be a little different.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And how old were you when you picked it up then? Seven. Seven. Okay. Did you play anything before that? Yeah, piano.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. Yeah. Same here. What age did you start that? I think probably five. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

You know.

SPEAKER_00:

Same story.

SPEAKER_02:

But but it's like we got two pianos in a small apartment in New York City. Like I was probably banging on the thing long before age five, you know?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Yep. I grew up in a house with two grand pianos too. So I get it. There it is. Same story.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, two grand. Ours was one grand and one upright. But you grew up where?

SPEAKER_00:

In Plainfield, New Jersey.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, that's what you said. Yeah, in Plainfield, New Jersey. Cool.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So what orchestras was your dad conducting? I didn't actually realize he was a conductor, so this is good info.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, at that time he was conducting an orchestra called the Westchester Symphony, and he taught at Queensborough Community College. So he he conducted the orchestra that was affiliated with that school.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02:

But he had a number of groups. He was sort of very active in the 70s and 80s in New York, Brooklyn Symphony, Queens College Symphony, and things like that. A lot of different orchestras like that, and sort of in the tri-state area.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And it seems like since everybody went into music, was it expected, or did you just really gravitate that way because it felt supernatural growing up in that way?

SPEAKER_02:

My memory is very much that it was just natural and not pushed on me. But I think that it was just sort of inevitable because my parents were tried and true musicians. My dad in particular doesn't care about anything but music. He's sort of the purest musician of all of us. So no, it wasn't forced, but it was inexorable and inevitable.

SPEAKER_00:

And at what point in your life do you remember thinking this was the path you were going to go? Or did you always think that?

SPEAKER_02:

I think it was not linear. It was, it went in waves. I think like when I was like eight years old, after playing for one year, I feel like I was very confident that this is what I wanted to do for my life. And then when I got to like eighth grade, I was like, I don't know. You know, I I like other things. And then and then once I got to high school, I went to a math and science school. Doing all that homework kind of solidified it for me. No, no, no, no, no. I'm a cellist. I this is not academics are not me. Yeah. But you know, I think the love of the music was always there. I think I picked that up from my dad. The I would just come to life listening to music, listening to cello music, even at a very young age.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Again, it was inevitable and inexorable.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Well, many people obviously know you as a celloist, but also for your work as a filmmaker and many more people know me probably as a filmmaker. It's actually funny that you say that because I noticed one of the videos where you were playing the just beautiful ending to Devorjak, and it was so exquisitely played. And so many of the comments I was reading underneath said, gosh, I was waiting for the joke. Where's the punchline? Instead, it ended up being this beautiful playing song. Yeah, you can't win. You can't win. Well, I'm curious, how did that interest develop? Was it in creation of social media or was it something else that started you there and then you turned it to social media? How did all this begin?

SPEAKER_02:

Most certainly 100% the latter. Filmmaking goes way back for me. And you know, you asked about, you know, would I, in terms of my pathway to being a musician and from my family life. I think that maybe in different circumstances, I would have not been a musician and chosen to be a filmmaker. I mean, the passion is close to equal. I think music still beats it out at the end of the day, but you know, I have actually always loved filmmaking. But if I'd grown up in a filmmaking family, I'm sure that that's what it would have been. And I don't exactly know why, because there's not really a lot of that within my family, but it goes all the way back to making little video like home movies and for like at Christmas time with my sister. My mom always still has a tape of me being Mr. Rogers, like hosting the Mr. Rogers show on videotape when I was like three. And I think the real, I mean, I like acted a little bit like in school plays when I was like 12 and 13. Yeah. Actually, more than a little bit. I'm very proud to say that I was in one musical in my life when I was 13. I played Conrad Birdie and Bye bye Birdie, for those of you that know that musical.

SPEAKER_00:

Nice.

SPEAKER_02:

I hold that beard to me. It actually, the the real like impetus happened when I was at Curtis, there was something called the annual holiday party, which was basically this like skit night. And I was put in charge of it in my third year. And I think I'm it's safe to say I took it more seriously than it'd ever been taken in the history of the school. I match. And I actually, we had access to the A V department and all the camera equipment, and I put together like a little film crew of students, and we made a movie, a 22-minute film called The Shining of the Curtis, which was a spoof of the shining. If instead of taking place in the Overlook Hotel, it took place at the Curtis Institute of Music. And I played the Jack Nicholson character and I progressively went crazier and crazier at this school. And we spent all semester on it. It was one of the most fun things I ever did. We learned how to edit my friend Jose and I like we bought books from Barnes and Noble, like how to make a movie, how to edit, you know, how to do digital editing, you know, and this was like 2004. And we made this thing, and I was like, oh my God, we like kind of made a movie. And then from then on, I was like, I gotta make more. And so then honestly, since then, sporadically, I've got, you know, it hasn't been consistent. I've dabbled in making these little shorts, and then I've put it out there. I had a about a decade ago now. My first kind of like online popularity, if you will, and modest popularity was I had this interview show called Conversations with Nick Kenelagas, where Michael Stephen Brown and I would interview stars of the classical music in a satirical way and kind of like a Jiminy Glick style way or between two ferns style way. Yeah. Where I played a jerky interviewer. And then I took some time off from that and then started taking an acting class in New York when I was about 30 years old. That was when I was like, you know what? I really do kind of want to do this. And maybe I should like actually try to get real about it. So I got hooked up with this incredible acting coach and took his acting class for five years. Met a whole lot of people, including my wife in that class. And then in the last six years or so, I started, I made a couple of short films. A couple of them went to festivals. And then in the last two years, I started doing this, you know, just churning these things out on Instagram. And that's when it really kind of seemed to hit a nerve and get very popular, which was very gratifying for me because it's not like it was just like, you know, two years ago I decided to make an Instagram video and it was a success. It wasn't, it was actually a long journey. Yeah. And so it's it's gratifying for me that finally people seem to be responding in kind of large numbers very positively.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Well, and I love the long answer. That's what I was looking for. And I'm sure our audience wanted to hear about the growth of this too and the genesis of it all, because you do it better than pretty much anybody else that I can think of as far as the humor goes molded into the cellist and the world that we live in and merging all those things together. I think it's just hilarious. I think it's great, and I think it's good comedy too. So I have a bunch of questions now about that process. So the first thing I'm curious about is you said you made this movie in Curtis. What were you filming on back then that you were editing?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, if you want to get technical, if your listeners care, there we had an HDV camera, which was a little digital cassette tape. Okay. But you know, I mean, this was kind of the, in some ways, the early days of digital filmmaking, right? Like it was like a big production camera with digital cassette tapes called HDV tapes. And somehow we got that onto the hard drive and then learned how to use Adobe Premiere. Even Adobe Premiere, I think it was like Adobe Premiere 2. You know, now it's like God only knows how many versions there have been, you know, since then. So that's what we used then.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. And now are you doing all your recording just on a regular phone and then editing that way?

SPEAKER_02:

Depends on what the project has been. I mean, I made a film and made a fairly serious short film in 2019 called Thin Walls, which is on Amazon Prime now. And there I like did at like as a proper filmmaker. I hired a small crew and I had a DP and he had a beautiful uh Ari Alexa camera, you know, which is like the highest end, you know, indie filmmaking kind of camera. And I did something sort of in between for my short film My New Cello. Yeah. Smaller crew, but it's still like a nice camera, a nice Canon, canon, a cinema camera. For Instagram, 95% of the time it's iPhone. Okay. And the iPhone is so good now. Yeah. That if you know what you're doing a little bit, I mean, I'm no DP, but I've learned a little bit from my projects, you can kind of make it look good. And you know, the iPhone's an amazing tool because it makes filmmaking less precious. You know what I mean? Filmmaking is such a gargantuan undertaking. It requires so many people and light gaffers and grips and DPs and sound people. And that can hurt the process because you're not free to just like the the amazing thing about the iPhone, if you're willing to like let go of like the perfection of cinema world, which is what Instagram lends itself towards, people don't go onto Instagram to watch Roger Deakin cinematography. They go there to be entertained. Yeah. The ability to just be with my wife and have no one else around and put a camera on an iPhone stand, I attach a tiny little microphone to it. Okay. And then shoot back and forth with each other and be free and improvise and be, you know, in the moment, it actually adds a layer of freedom and creativity that I think makes it potentially even better. And then to be able to do that, turn it around and get hundreds of thousands or sometimes millions of views, it's just like the turnaround time is so fast, you know. Yeah. Which is, I think, an exciting part of the process for me.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Okay. So when you have this iPhone camera set up, do you only record with one? Because I know sometimes you're flipping back and forth between you and your wife having a dialogue. How does that work logistically?

SPEAKER_02:

Generally, I do it with a single iPhone because the idea is I treat these for better or for worse as short films. Like I'm kind of exercising some form of my filmmaking chops while I'm doing it. So this is single camera cinema style filmmaking. Okay. You know, where like we set one shot, okay, we do a few takes of that, put punch in for a close-up, do a few takes of the close-up, then we turn around the universe, film the other side, punch in, do close-up, do a wide shot for the two of us or whatever, whatever I've decided to do, and that's all single camera. Yeah. And then I spend time editing to make it all seamless and yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, so then a couple more questions. How do you know that you're staying in the frame when the camera is looking at it?

SPEAKER_02:

It's not always easy. It's not always fun to do that, but we we keep an eye on each other. When I do it with my wife, we keep an eye on each other. Yeah, she keeps an eye on my shot and I keep an eye on hers. And, you know, occasionally, like when I've done it, I've done a couple with like I did one with Ray Chen. I've done many with my partner in crime, Michael Brown, uh-huh. And Arabella, my wife has filmed those. So that's a little easier. At least we have a freaking cameraman for that one. You know, camera woman. But sometimes, yeah, Arabella and I just like figured out ourselves.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And then what process are you using for editing? What program do you use?

SPEAKER_02:

I edit these in the same way that I would edit, like, we're actually working on a feature film right now, Arabella and I, and same program, like Adobe Premiere. Okay. It's what you know people use on every level of production.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, okay. That's good to know. And you said you met her in acting class. Yes. Which is fitting because again, I've seen a lot of comments that your wife deserves. She must be a professional actress, is what people say.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. She is. I mean, she's not really necessarily pursuing a career as a professional actress at this point, although she does act, but she is a professional actress, yes. She's also a wonderful filmmaker of her own, and she has a degree in mental health counseling, so she has her feet in a lot of fires.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's great. Well, how did you develop such a large following on Instagram? Was it just by nature of putting these videos out there, or did you do something special to try and curate a following?

SPEAKER_02:

No, it was purely from the videos. It really happened because we made a short film called My New Cello, which my intention, you know, it was like a 12-minute film. I sent it to film festivals and stuff, and you know, I didn't have in social media on the brain, but I posted a clip from it right before our New York film festival debut. We went to a little film festival in New York and I posted a clip from it on Instagram, and it like I guess went viral, sort of, you know. And I have to admit, yeah, when I saw that, I was like, well, that's kind of cool. I wonder if I could do that again. And then I did another clip and I did. But for the most part, it is without sounding. I hope this doesn't sound pretentious, but I do feel that part of the success of them is that I'm not trying to chase Instagram followers or like algorithms or jump on trends. I really am just trying to like think what's funny to me, what do I think people would respond to? Like, I just really get a lot of joy out of making like short form comedic filmmaking content. You know, they say, write what you know. It's about the neurotic life of the musician, you know? Yeah. That's my genre.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Well, I mean, it's a good genre. You got it down. Yeah. So do you think that the social media, let's call it, fame that you've developed has done more for your career on the cello, also? Has that been part of it, or has that all just kind of gone along at the same rate, regardless of that?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, that's a very good question. I'll give you another long answer, and you can always just tell me this is that I'm too long-winded. But the answer is I think it's helped me a great deal. I think my career is evolving in a really interesting way right now. And I think a lot of it is due to that. There's a few elements that are that. The most obvious of which is like, you know, it's giving me a little more fame, a little more just people know who I am, and seem to be some people are very interested in seeing how I could, you know, merge these different sides of my life into something. Like, I well, I just did a show with the Orlando Philharmonic and my good friend Eric Jacobson, who's a cellist, by the way. He's been on the podcast, actually. Oh, he has. Fantastic. So you know, Eric. Yes. And he approached me because he loved the videos about trying to like have me come do a little concerto of some sort and have like a little comedy portion. Okay. You know, and so I did this like live sketch. You know, I don't want to be the next Victor Borga. Like, I'm not turning into just like a comedian musician. But the idea of, you know, doing something like that is like very appealing to me, where the music isn't sacrificed at all. We did Tchaikovsky Rococo and Andante Cantabile, but we opened the show with a five-minute comedy sketch that led it. Yeah. That was very exciting to me, you know? Yeah. So that's a very tangible example of how like my career is benefited or is is finding new avenues from this. In a much more kind of simplistic way, there's something to be said for, you know, I lure people in with comedy, and then, like you said, they're like, oh, he's actually really good, or whatever it is. Then people see my playing and it gives some more visibility to me as a cellist, even as a serious cellist. So what I was gonna say was actually one of the reasons that I stopped my old YouTube show 10 years ago, the interview show, was because I was worried that it would overshadow my me being a serious cellist. And that was always the most important thing to me. The music is still the most important thing to me. I I don't want to just be a clown. Yeah. You know what I mean? A musical clown. So I have in the past been very careful and maybe a little bit overly controlled about, in some ways, keeping the brakes on a little bit going too far in that direction. Yeah. Now I'm 41, I feel more confident just than I did, let's say, a decade ago, that I've put in my time, I've put in my bones. People who know me know me. And I feel a little bit more confident that if I, you know, do my fun stuff, really go as far forward with my filmmaking and comedy as I can, I don't feel a lot of fear that people are going to forget that I'm actually a serious cellist. You know what I mean? I just feel more confident that I can do both now. That makes sense. It's an exciting place to be. And I don't know exactly where things go from here, but I feel excited about those possibilities.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And I think the variety that people can find in their lives is really important because when you do one thing, like for example, I play in an orchestra. If that's all I do, I might go a little crazy. I need something else. And like you, I like talking about the business of music, the path that people take. That's why I started a podcast. So I think we all have different things that we like to put our energy towards that gives a little more variety than one specific thing. And obviously, you need to create, it's part of who you are, and you're very good at it, and people love what you're producing. So you might as well keep putting it out there.

SPEAKER_02:

So yeah, I can't not at this point, and and I think that's a really good point. And maybe you can relate to this. The good thing for people like you and me, I believe, is that I think now this pathway is not only accepted, the idea of, let's say, wearing multiple hats, doing what seem maybe like disparate things, although when you look closer, they're not disparate. Like your life as a podcast host is not disparate from your life as being in an orchestra, nor are my films disparate from that that different from my life. I think that in the past, maybe there would have been more like, no, you can't that that's a distraction. Like you need to just do this one thing, otherwise, you won't be taken seriously. Yeah. Not only now is I think is it accepted, but it's desired in the field for people to have a larger kind of artistic output or just output in general.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Well, I want to talk about you joining the faculty at Curtis, speaking of wearing many different hats. How did this opportunity come about?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, well, this came about. I mean, first I was asked to give, I know, I went to Curtis, I studied with Orlando Cole and Peter Wiley, and and Peter Wiley has been the sort of main teacher there for the last 20 years, like sort of since David Sawyer and Orlando Cole passed away. And there have been a couple others, uh, but Pete's, I think, been kind of the main honcho there. And Pete actually invited me to give a master class three years ago, which in and of itself was an honor. I think I didn't think that it was any kind of you know job interview per se, but I suppose there was some element of that. So yeah, it really came about, and then I eased in. Uh, I think uh Pete Wiley expressed some interest in possibly cutting back a little bit and bringing some younger voices into the fray, people that he trusted that came from his world. And so then the next year I came and I taught three times throughout the year. And then that summer, the president Roberto Diaz invited me to join the faculty officially. So it's actually it really is a dream come true. It's been the kind of like a pipe dream position for me. And I absolutely adore it, honestly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So I'm curious then because all the years that I was paying attention earlier, it generally was to teachers. So for a long time it was Orlando Cole and David Sawyer. And then I know that when Peter started there, eventually Carter Bray was teaching there for a little while. Well, now there's multiple Chelison faculty, more than just two. So how does that work at Curtis? What are your responsibilities? How you know?

SPEAKER_02:

It took a little bit of time to figure out exactly how this was going to shake out, but I think we've got it something, a really interesting, kind of exciting new idea here. You know, basically, none of the faculty come every week. So every student has a share. Some, and in many ways, it's mostly up to the students to decide what they'd like. Many have actually chosen to study equally with four teachers. Wow. Some are just two, but even the ones that only study with two end up kind of asking for lessons from others and things. You know, it's it's a system of sharing and community that I think is very unique. And Gary Hoffman comes, even though he's not like one of like the main faculty, he's coming once a semester and works with every student once a semester and their master classes. So the kids are getting a lot of input and they seem to like it very much.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. What's it like though, if you have a student? Because I have my system. I teach about a half a dozen students outside my orchestra job, and it's mostly middle school and high school students getting them ready for college. Yeah. So I have my system of the way that I like to teach them and the things that I like to work on. If you have four different teachers, how does that work that you all don't step on each other's toes and you get somebody on a path that they're trying to go down and getting different advice? I mean, that seems like it would be a little cumbersome, but at the same time, I love the idea of that type of collaboration.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, you're right. And I don't know that I have the answer for you. I think, well, like for example, we have a one or two younger students and they don't study with as many. I think like we have one young student who just studies with has two teachers. And where I've noticed it is like the older students, the ones that stay for masters, are the ones that really seem to benefit and desire just kind of like more input because they're already kind of on their own, getting close to being on their own anyway. Yeah. You know what I mean? With some of the younger students, what I can say is I think that the four of us, we all come from the same kind of musical tradition and background. I like to think that we're not being overly that I would be surprised if we would be extremely at odds with each other.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

But at the same time, obviously we are individual. We'll have different fingerings, we'll have different bowings, we'll have different ways of looking at things. And I don't know, in a in a school like Curtis, the students are so gifted that I think they can, you know, find their own way. I mean, you get students who often end up doing what none of us tell them to do because they want to do their own thing. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_02:

At the moment, I have not seen any real conflict in that way. It doesn't mean that it's gonna happen at some point, but so far, so good.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Well, looking back, is there anything you wish you had figured out earlier in your journey?

SPEAKER_02:

There's a lot. I mean, like I said, I mean, in some ways, there's a part of me that wonders if I had been willing to embrace my filmmaker side earlier, you know, like not been such a tunnel vision cellist for so many years, what that would have changed. I don't overly dwell on that, honestly. I think that when I was younger, I sold myself short a little bit as uh what the possibilities of my playing could be and maybe even my career.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

I think when I was in my 20s, I didn't feel confident that I had like solo chops or was really cut out for that type of playing. And I regret that because I ended up falling into getting a manager and getting, you know, I I play so, you know, that type of repertoire now in my career, but I didn't pursue that path heavily, like in my 20s, really. And I think that I would tell myself to like swing harder, swing bigger and dream bigger. Don't sell yourself short, like work harder and like take bigger swings. Don't just think like maybe it's not for me, so I'll take the cautious path.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So when you say cautious path, what did that look like for you in your 20s where you focus more on chamber music and that type of repertoire?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, but I mean chamber music is not cautious. I mean, it's been a great life. I mean, it's been it's a good, I don't I'm not sure there would have been any necessarily, or that I even have like tangible like career pursuits that I would have done differently or or regret. I think I'm really talking about just like a mindset of like actually not thinking highly enough of what my possibilities were as a cellist and as an artist, maybe. Yeah. At that age. Yeah. I don't know what that literally that would have changed, you know, but well, okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, then let me ask you one other question, and it might be the same answer. What advice would you offer to young musicians who might want to follow in your footsteps?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I think it would have to be like, don't sell yourself short and dream big. You know, I mean, I don't want to lead students down a path of misery and disappointment, though, you know, but if someone wants to get into an orchestra, then they should do that. If someone doesn't want to do that, then I would say then don't. You know what I mean? Like I think it's that simple. You know, like if someone wants to get a doctorate, then get it. But if they don't want to get a doctorate but are doing it just because, then I'd say, well, then don't get a doctorate. You know what I mean? I mean, it sounds so simplistic, yeah, but actually people don't make choices that way.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, but maybe I think what you're talking about in your early 20s and the choices that you made were based on your level of self esteem and confidence in what your abilities are. And you didn't have a full belief that your abilities are what they actually are. And I think if you translate that again to younger musicians thinking they may A, not really understand what their abilities are. Are where their limitations are or where they aren't. And B, it's really hard to know what you're going to do with your life and how you're going to do it and what path you're going to be on until you can look backwards and see how you could have done it differently.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, that's 100% true. Of course, it's easier in hindsight.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Of course. But you asked just about advice. I'm not saying I would have the magic pill for them. Yeah. You know what I mean? But I would just say it's like that simple. Yeah, like follow your heart, at least while you have the chance. I mean, things change when you get older. Yeah. You don't want to live in like fantasyland forever. But I think you can live in fantasy land for a little while. Certainly in your twenties.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. It's the best time to live in fantasy land, I think. Yeah, I think so.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I think so. This has been great meeting you and chatting with you, especially all about Instagram and learning about how you make your hilarious videos. So if anybody wants to check out your videos, I'm going to put all of the links in the show notes where people can find you. I want to thank you so much for joining us today on the Cello Sherpa podcast. Thank you, Joel.

SPEAKER_02:

Thanks for doing this podcast to keep cellos in the forefront of the conversation, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you so much to Nick Canalakis for joining us today and sharing his story with us. And thank you for listening to another episode of the Cello Sherpa Podcast. For more information on Nick and any of the links we spoke about today, check out our show notes by scrolling down on the episode. Be sure and catch our next episode where violinist Eunice Kim joins us. Eunice is a member of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and also maintains a robust solo and chamber music performance schedule outside of the orchestra. We're here to serve you, so if you have questions or topic suggestions you would like us to cover in future episodes, please use the contact page on our website, thecelloSherpa.com. You will also find information about the specific services we offer on the website. Don't forget to follow us and rate us on whatever platform you get your podcasts. This helps us climb the rankings so other people can find us. Today's episode was edited by Eric Biget at Red House Productions and produced and recorded by me, Joel Dallow.