The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Art and Science Platform Valle Venia Connects People Through Music and More

Episode Date: April 2, 2024

Art and Science Platform Valle Venia Connects People Through Music and More Valle-venia.de About the Guest(s): Johanna Michel and H. L. P. Schmidt, are the founders of Valle Venia, an art and science platform. Leo is an orthopedic surgeon, while Johanna is an anesthesiologist and intensive care specialist. They both have a passion for art and music, and have been involved in various artistic endeavors throughout their lives. Leo has a background in rock music and classical music composition, while Johanna plays the drums and piano. Together, they combine their medical expertise with their artistic talents to create a unique platform that explores the intersection of art and science. Episode Summary: In this episode, Chris Voss interviews Johanna Michel and H. L. P. Schmidt, the founders of Valle Venia. Valle Venia is an art and science platform that combines Leo and Johanna's medical backgrounds with their passion for art and music. They discuss their journey from the medical field to the world of art, and how they use their platform to connect different fields and bring researchers out of their ivory towers. They also talk about the importance of connection and empathy in today's society, and how their work aims to bridge the gap between different cultures and backgrounds. The episode is filled with insights on the power of art and science to shape our world and create meaningful connections. Key Takeaways: Valle Venia is an art and science platform founded by Johanna Michel and H. L. P. Schmidt, two medical professionals with a passion for art and music. The platform aims to connect different fields and bring researchers out of their ivory towers, making their findings accessible to the public. Leo and Johanna emphasize the importance of connection and empathy in today's society, and how their work aims to bridge the gap between different cultures and backgrounds. Valle Venia features artists from various disciplines, including music, fine arts, photography, films, architecture, sculpture, and land art. The platform also engages in social projects, supporting causes such as education and orphanages in India. Notable Quotes: "Connection means conviviality. Being together, not asking for anything at all, not wishing something. And this is how the world is." - H. L. P. Schmidt, "Encounters, coincidences. It's nothing predictable. It's just there. And this is how we feel. And this is what the world needs right now, to overcome gradual disease and so on." - Johanna Michel

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast. The hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show. The preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries, and motivators. Get ready. Get ready. Strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times, because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, folks. It's Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com. There you go, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the big show. We certainly appreciate you guys. For 16 years we've been bringing you the Chris Voss shows.

The most smartest people on the planet. The CEOs, the billionaires, the White House presidential advisors, the Pulitzer Prize winners. All the great authors and all the great minds sharing their stories of life, their visions, etc, etc. Today we have two amazing people on the show with us today. We're going to be talking to them about their venture and what they've decided to do with their lives and how they're going about doing it and we're going to be getting into it with them before that make sure that you refer the show to your family friends and relatives go to goodreads.com for chest christmas linkedin.com for chest christmas youtube.com fortress christmas all the crazy places on the internet we have with us today leo smith and johanna michelle michael michelle

michelle there you go on the show talk to us about the company valavina welcome to the show folks how are you fine if you ask seriously today our donkey and our horse escaped but they are back and white green meadows a little creek with pure water, but you know, they're curious as human beings are, so they are back. So there you go. It's good to have them back. We love animals here on the show. I have Huskies that like to escape all the time. So give us your dot coms. Where can people find you on the internet? It's VALLEVENIA. So you spell it V-A-L-L-E-V-E-N-I-A.com. There you go. So give us a 30,000 overview of what your company is, So you spell it V-A-L-L-E-V-E-N-I-A.com.

There you go. So give us a 30,000 overview of what your company is and what you guys do there. The company is actually a platform, an art and science platform. We are MDs. So we come from the medical side. And Joanna is an anesthesiologist, intensive care specialist. I'm an orthopedic surgeon. And we run a center for the treatment of chronic pain disease.

So this is our background. But before, so many things happened. And we do art at the same time from the beginning, from the very beginning, fine arts, music compositions, and so on. There you go. And looking at your website, you focus on a lot of different things. What was the proponent that made you decide you wanted to launch this? I don't know whether I started with my lifeline or Anna, Joanna started with hers. Perhaps now it's different, it's totally different. So I came originally from rock music and a school band, I was an opener for great trade bands like Deep Purple and they were much older than I am.

And then I had a severe disease and I was in quarantine for almost a year. So I had to internalize myself. So I went into classical music, compositions and so on and led a quite adventurous life. Crossing North America, hitchhiking everywhere and playing in bars whatsoever. On the road, Kerouac is pretty one-to-one with my life, what I experience, Alaska, jumping on freight trains whatsoever. But finally I decided to study medicine, coming back to Europe and studied in the French faculty, always keeping up, composing, painting and art. And of course, because of our magic profession, we came to neuroscience and to the basics of neuroscience,

identity and this is, and to actually more quantum physics and all over so this is our passion and this passion matters in art still remains and we keep on going so this is my part more or less and now i give up to normally ladies first but okay that's how it is. Yeah. My family position is a very, very big thing in my family. And I have three brothers. All of them are playing instruments and my sisters too. And me, I'm playing drums and piano. But not for stage. No.

And I let play. I compose. And as I've told you, recording and performing, I leave it back to others. Since the school band, I never performed on stage anymore. So that's that. And that's, yeah, the live night, many countries, many experiences, adventures all over. And the adventures are still there in exploring art and, and of course science and applying it to daily life.

This is our passion and there are lots to apply. Things connecting also different fields and getting researchers out of their ivory tower because what they research and the findings are really important for the societies of today. And they don't reach the public this is a problem there you go when it comes to art and science you guys seem really in tune in this why did you why do you balance the website and the and the and the different things you have on there with art and science together that's that feels we're working in so i wouldn't i wouldn't miss anything you you know. It comes from

different sides. So my father was a businessman, not he was a controller, not a businessman, a controller, but he would have been a great architect and he paints. So he taught me painting in like Renaissance painting in different layers over layer painting so this is this side and music came for itself and the different forms of artists they have different means of expressing yourself this is this is a the great gift from also from outside it's not my my merits it's it's just there and you can you know there's non-verbal art there's verbal art, poems, and so there's lots of different means of expressing yourself and expressing your feelings and the feelings of others of course too. So this is how it is and I would never neglect either or. So it's all there and there we work with

different professionals from all over the world together to realize it. And now we are about 26 different nations. It doesn't mean nations. It means cultural backgrounds. This is what I mean. Coming from and it all comes together in an amazing way. And there are no borders. There's nothing.

You know, there's nothing which keeps us back. And there's no misunderstanding. And this is a great gift to experience that too. There you go. Now, tell us about some of the artists that you have profiled on your website. The artists are mainly actors and musicians. And we work with the great, from the classical part, it's the, well, young is really relative,

but the young members of the great German or Berlin orchestras, Berliner Philharmoniker included, I just sang the music there and that's great. So we're going to perform that. So it happens that way. And there'll be more than, proud is also a very, very tricky, tricky term, but you know, we're we're really yeah we feel honored

that they perform our own music on my music so when those with the other things in north america sent us over they didn't know who we are so then that's great so we're going to do that and they're with the studios also in canada so we work together and yeah we have the main studios on the east coast in canada for for the songs classical parts we record in Berlin That's where's the company based out of we actually based we are based in in Germany and in Canada East-coast Canada. There you go. There you go. And you do the studios there I noticed that there's different types of art that's on your website you have music fine arts photography films architecture sculpture land art events deep relax deep relaxation and then you

guys also have some social projects i guess that where you do some where you do some charity work yeah let's let's you panic because your mother was born in india ah my mother was born in India. Ah, my mother was born in India. It's one of the projects. It's one of the projects and we sent. They ran an orphanage. Actually they ran an orphanage and they still exist. So we support that. We support other things, children education and everything to get people to education too. My grandfather was the founder. Founder of the orphanage in India? Yes, and it exists now, and it's for girls, only for girls. Okay, there you go. And it looks like you guys run a medical care center there

for pain therapy and different things, I guess. You mean in India or no? I'm not sure. i'm going through your website on social projects and different things so i guess i'm hopping around here on the music at the end of this interview we'll be playing i think one of the videos or music from one of your artists and stuff what sort of what sort of music will people find on the website is there a certain genre or is it various? I compose contemporary music. It's classical, new, and then songs, of course. It depends on the language.

Now we are in France right now. So I write in French, Italian, German, and English. Also Spain. I'm not able to speak Spanish fluently, but we work together with Cuban singers who live at their private and professional base in Berlin. So we have great, great artists from Cuba. So this is the Spanish side. And then, of course, a new East Canada performance like Owen Lee, whose family comes from Jamaica, Jesse Brown and others.

And the great singers from Finland and a French singer from Paris. So this is just how we met. And it's all by accident. I and I'm emphasized. The crew is really, it's a stable crew. And we work together for years, for years. And everybody is totally independent and has its own career whatsoever. And we gather for projects for performances for

recordings and we stick together and it's it's not only it's it's it's a deep bond which unifies us too i mean this is international music would you call it international type music yeah we call it because diving into every in every atmosphere you know. And we have been in Cuba many times. We adopted, we really swallowed the atmosphere there. My family used to go back to France, Burgundy, so where we are. And I grew up with French music since my childhood, Italy as well. And, of course, I was very, very early at the age of 16 in the U.S. and 19 in Canada. And two of 16 in the US and 19 in Canada.

And two of our girls went to school there in Canada. So there's a deep bond to Canada. So we are part-time Canadians, part-time French, part-time Italians, and so on. And we once throughout the year, so we go all to the spots where we already work where we have friends and we are deep connected and this is how it is and so diving into the atmosphere also will let me create the songs typically lyrics lyrics included about adopting that the atmosphere of course i let control myself and avoid the natives if you call them them afterwards and they say it's good, then it's good. There you go.

So you guys have films and architecture and photography. Tell us about some of the work that's being done there. The photography is just a dream because we have been traveling all around the world. So it's not,

most of them are snapshots. It's just to gather the moment which might last for a lifetime, you know, and just we have the right moment, the right time, the right light, and then that's what we did. And so together also you see them on photography. Yeah, encounters too. That's one thing which is very important, encounters, coincidences. And this is also our topic that, just a little detail of quantum physics, to understand the world more is,

there's no need of causality, no cause. It just happens and you have to let it go. And the world is chaos if you figure out, if you learn more about quantum physics and that's how the world works. So encounters, there's nothing predictable, it's just there. And this is how we feel and this is, so just let it go and let, just walk along and let's, and just keep your eyes open and your heart open and your hands open, and then you experience a lot more than if you confine yourself. There you go.

So what is your hope or vision for the website and what it's trying to accomplish? The vision is to bring the different aspects together. For instance, just one thing, because everybody talks about connection, connecting, connecting, connecting. But you know, this should be apart from utilitarian connections, which are useful for career, money and fame. But it's just connection means conviviality, being together, not asking for anything at all, not wishing something and this is

how the world is and to the there's a we do also anxiety project pre-detection and therapy anxiety disorder disorders mental diseases within university of ottawa the mental health department that they had is a friend of ours george Nordhoff. He is a philosopher and a neuroscientist, and he holds degrees in all those things. He's a genius. So his approach to identity, and this is what we want to really spread, is the world brain connection,

the relationship between the individual brain and the world. That means locations, people, family, coincidences, and this is how we shape each other. And that means also being responsible for how we act, what we say, and the way we say it, because we have a great impact on people who are just in front of us. There you go. And that will change the world

and have an effect on everything that goes on there. Any final thoughts on the website? What you guys are trying to do? Are you trying to recruit more artists to come and showcase themselves on the platform? No, the thing is we did several events. And the events, we were invited first of all at the Film University, University for Film and Theory in Berlin, because we did some films in France and all over with the cameraman. He became a professor, so he invited us. So the event are, it's like, imagine Pink Floyd and TED Talks. So this is just to have an idea, but the TED Talks are also cineastic.

So there's a lot to experience. It's not a frontal lecture. It's just all over. It is empathy. It is just, how can I say, yeah, it's just a feeling really with the whole crowd feeling, experiencing the whole thing together. And it's an orchestra on stage, big choir, a band and a very internalized song. So that's it. Just imagine. And that's what we want to do. That's what we would do in the US and Canada and all. There you go. Give us your final thoughts and pitch out for people to check out the

website as we go out. Oh, I didn't catch you. Give us your final thoughts and where people can check out the website and get involved reach out to your services and check you out okay so hopefully that yeah that people are more connecting and that there are the borders that we can cross in our lives and not only between different categories of research and art so just connecting and with the heart not only intellectually and so let it go and that people in these times will evolve. And this adds something to the coherence

of the societies, which is very important, where you all over discover that societies break apart. And this is our, really, it's not a vision. It's a must to overcome those boundaries and those limits and not confining themselves also. Hyper individualism also leads to confining themselves. And you have to go out. You have to get in contact with other people, not virtually, really in person, physically. That's what we, and touching each other. There should be hugging, really.

And this is what the world needs right now. Overcome prejudices and so on. Least is love. There you go.. Overcome prejudices and so on. List is long. There you go. There you go. So check it out. Give us the.com of the website one more time. Valerian, V-A-L-E-L, sorry, once again, V-A-L-E-L-E-N-I-A.com.

So we got it. There you go. Thank you very much for coming on the show. For those of you listening to the show, we're going to be playing at the end of the show a cut of one of the artists for his music. So be sure to stay tuned for that. Folks, thanks for everyone for tuning in

and be sure to check out the music right after this. Thank you, Grace. Thank you. When you leave us here tonight Try to stay yourself Though it's not often easy Keep us all a bit in mind Going parts of this stone road Perhaps together On your own, perhaps together.

Hope to see you once again. Open your heart and your hands for those who need you. And if you're getting out of sight Lost not knowing where to go There will be someone to let you know When you leave us here tonight Try to stay yourself Though it's not often easy

Keep us all a bit in mind Go in parts of this stony road, perhaps together Perhaps together. You may stumble, even fall. There might be chasms, might be woes. Rely on those who love you. When you leave us here tonight, oh, try to stay yourself. Though it's not often easy Keep a soul open in mind Going parts of this stony road

Perhaps together Hope to see you once again Open your heart and your hands For those who need you And if you're getting out of sight Plus not knowing where to go There will be someone to let you know When you leave us here tonight

Try to stay yourself Though it's not often easy Keep us all a bit in mind. Going parts of this stony road. Perhaps together. Hope to see you once again. Open your heart and your hands For those who need you Thank you. I'm