{"id":433,"date":"2026-09-01T10:00:42","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T10:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/portraitsbyanselm.com\/podcasts\/shasta-ellenbogen\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T20:14:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T20:14:17","slug":"shasta-ellenbogen","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/portraitsbyanselm.com\/en\/portrait\/shasta-ellenbogen\/","title":{"rendered":"Shasta Ellenbogen"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

FINDING HOME<\/em><\/h4>\n

Shasta completed the training expected of classical musicians: conservatories in Amsterdam and London, international competitions, awards, and meticulous discipline. She even passed on this tradition abroad, teaching viola and music theory at the conservatory in India. By every conventional standard, she had made it in the world of classical music.<\/p>\n

And then she found herself outside its walls.<\/p>\n

Today, Shasta is something the classical music world doesn’t quite know what to do with: the founder of the Naked String Quartet, a rotating ensemble of twenty musicians who perform unclothed at KitKat \u2014 one of Berlin’s most private and myth-shrouded clubs.<\/p>\n

But this conversation isn’t really about nudity, not about nightlife, not even about KitKat. It’s about a woman who has left behind the notion of what a “serious” musician should look like \u2014 in search of something more honest.<\/p>\n

In this portrait, Shasta talks about the name her parents gave her, the discipline that shaped her, the door that closed behind her in classical music, and the one that opened instead \u2014 and about finding a home.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]\r\n

\r\n
<\/div>\r\n
<\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/3″][vc_icon type=”fontawesome” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-solid fa-podcast” size=”lg” align=”center” custom_color=”#000000″ background_style=”rounded” css_animation=”bounceIn” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fpodcasts.apple.com%2Fde%2Fpodcast%2Fportraits-by-anselm%2Fid6818627347″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/3″][vc_icon type=”fontawesome” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-brands fa-spotify” size=”lg” align=”center” custom_color=”#000000″ background_style=”rounded” css_animation=”bounceIn” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fopen.spotify.com%2Fshow%2F54I2JsPeCj19KMtWh10B8W%3Fsi%3D1cab62bfbb6743ec”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/3″][vc_icon type=”fontawesome” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-brands fa-youtube” size=”lg” align=”center” custom_color=”#000000″ background_style=”rounded” css_animation=”bounceIn” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2F%40portraitsbyanselm”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Note:<\/strong><\/span> <\/span>This episode contains explicit language.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] FINDING HOME Shasta completed the training expected of classical musicians: conservatories in Amsterdam and London, international competitions, awards, and meticulous discipline. She even passed on this tradition abroad, teaching viola and music theory at the conservatory in India. By every conventional standard, she had made it in the world of classical music. And then…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":698,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"h5ap_radio_sources":[],"footnotes":""},"portfolio_category":[11,12],"portfolio_tag":[],"class_list":["post-433","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","portfolio_category-episode","portfolio_category-guest-name"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/portraitsbyanselm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/portraitsbyanselm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/portraitsbyanselm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portraitsbyanselm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/portraitsbyanselm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":950,"href":"https:\/\/portraitsbyanselm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/433\/revisions\/950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portraitsbyanselm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/portraitsbyanselm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"portfolio_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portraitsbyanselm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_category?post=433"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portraitsbyanselm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_tag?post=433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}