In conversation with Aliya Ultan: Cellist, Composer, Singer, and Community Builder on Appalachia, the music industry, what conservatories won’t teach you, and why the long road is the only road worth traveling. Recorded April 17, 2026. Hope in Kuala Lumpur; Aliya in the hollers of eastern Kentucky.
Aliya Ultan — cellist, composer, singer, community builder — joins Hope from the hollers of eastern Kentucky, a beautiful conversation follows.
They talk about what conservatories won't tell you, why the box-checking version of a music career is a trap, and what it actually costs to be a woman in underground art-making. About mushrooms, animal medicine, the year of the horse, streaming, scarcity, and choosing the slow road.
And at the center of it all: what does it mean to live your art — not perform it, not sell it, but live it?
Aliya's new album Looks Far Woman drops June 26. Release show at Roulette Intermedium, NYC, June 24.