Our special guest for today is Ion Zanca, a violist and the principal founder of the Dallas String Quartet.
In October 2022, Zanca charted at #2 on the Classical Album and Classical Crossover Album Billboard Charts with DSQ's latest album, "Love Always." Under Zanca’s tutelage, The group has played for multiple sitting U.S. presidents, the NFL, the NBA, performed at the wedding of music legends Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton, released a collaboration with The Piano Guys, charted on Billboard, and acquired over 50 million streams on Spotify.
As of November 2021, the group has more than 600 million streams on Pandora, 6.2 Million views on YouTube, and over 5.8 million listeners on Spotify.

What You’ll Learn
In this episode, Ion shared why he chose to go to the US rather than stay in Romania. He also explained why he used to hate the phrase “starving artist”.
Ion also has this concept of improvisation in music and the stacking of talents that we need to hear.
Another important takeaway is what Ion believes. He doesn't even care how good you are. If you come unprepared and you're on time, that’s a big X.

Things We Discussed
23ANDME DNA test -  a DNA test with the most comprehensive ancestry breakdown, personalized health insights, and more.
Fake book - a collection of lead sheets. These sheets will have the chord symbols, the basic melody, and notated chords/harmony, generally no more than one or two sheets of music per tune. A fake book could contain hundreds of such sheets, making it a very economical way to learn tunes or bring music to a gig.

Connect with Ion Zanca
Website (Dallas String Quartet)
Youtube ( Dallas String Quartet
Instagram
Spotify

Connect with Jason Tonioli
Website
Facebook
YouTube
Instagram
Spotify
Pandora
Amazon Music
Apple Music