Jack Hui Litster: An Inspiring Musical Journey

Conversations with Musicians, with Leah Roseman

This week’s episode is with the Canadian musician Jack Hui Litster, who has developed a satisfying creative career after some interesting twists and turns. In this episode, you’ll learn about his experiences as a jazz drummer, his pivot into international development, and his path back to composing, producing and recording music in different styles. The music included in this episode features two tracks from his album "Shining Suns”, a guzheng improvisation and an excerpt from his second opera “What is Love”. We talked about different ways to make a living as a musician, achieving a flow state, some of the positive impacts of technology, and the importance of finding a work-life balance. Like all my episodes, this is available wherever you listen to podcasts, also as a video on YouTube, and the transcript with the show notes are all linked on my website https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/jack-hui-litster Please consider buying me a cofffee; I’m an independant podcaster and I need my listners’ help: https://ko-fi.com/leahroseman Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (06:34) Shining Suns album, Jack’s return to music (11:50) Awakener from Shining Suns (15:40) Jack’s musical education, start as a drummer (19:14) St Francis Xavier (21:05) learning different instruments (22:47) jazz scene (24:27) Chinese music explorations, Master’s degree (28:18) intro to guzheng piece (29:28) guzheng improv (32:29) creative process, how Jack started composing (34:41) influence of choral music (36:46) Jack’s operas (49:13) call to action: I need my listeners’ help! (49:29) intro to What Is Love (51:12) excerpt from What Is Love, the finale (55:21) Berklee online (58:55) Shining Suns, Mark Ferguson (1:03:09) Shining Suns with Hidden track (1:09:10) Jack’s career change, dealing with burnout, work-life balance (1:18:14) flow state, creative process (1:20:57) helpful technology

photo: Curtis Perry