Episode 84: Joel Pierson of The Queen’s Cartoonists

Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of speaking of the arts. 

I’m your host Mike Epstein and I’m excited to tell you about today’s episode. We’re featuring Joel Pierson. 

Joel is the founder, bandleader, and arranger for The Queen's Cartoonists, an ensemble that performs music from cartoons.

Joel had this great idea to combine his passion for animated film, and live music to create a really unique experience for audiences, so he’s cultivated over 100 years worth of animation from all around the world and has largely by himself, transcribed the scores to these films and then put together a great ensemble to perform them.

There are a few different versions of the show that we talk about. One is Simply called "Ages 2 to 102" which is a program that's really for all ages and it’s a lot of fun. Another version of the show is a holiday program which has a singer and animation with live music, but obviously focusing on holiday content. There is also a version of the show where they feature international cartoons and one more version of the show that features the ensemble with cartoons and with symphony.

 It was really fun to talk to Joel about how he came up with the idea for the ensemble and some of the things that audiences can expect during a performance.  Please enjoy my conversation with Joel Pierson of The Queen’s Cartoonists.