The Regal and Rollicking Camille Saint-Saëns
Camille Saint-Saëns had a career that lasted longer and covered more ground than most child prodigies. He started at the Paris Conservatory as a boy and grew up to write in virtually every corner of...
View ArticleCamille Saint-Saëns's Musical Souvenirs
Even in his 80s, Camille Saint-Saëns didn’t slow down. He practiced the piano two hours a day and still managed to travel the world, creating musical sketches of his adventures. Claude Debussy and a...
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A Deaf Composer Holds Out for Science
Note: This episode originally aired on November 3, 2015.Jay Alan Zimmerman discovered he was losing his hearing when he was in his early 20s, trying to make it as a musician on Broadway in New York. As...
View Article150th Anniversary of the Birth of Erik Satie
Tomorrow is the hundred fiftieth anniversary of the birth of the French composer Erik Satie. As WNYC's Sara Fishko tells us, Satie's music and thinking were more in tune with our time than with his...
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Leonard Bernstein in 1948 on Gershwin and the Israel Philharmonic
In a typical breathless whistle-stop visit, Leonard Bernstein drops by the studios of New York classical music station WQXR to promote his 1948 recording of Gershwin's An American in Paris, celebrating...
View ArticleThe Loser
A frustrated concert pianist is the subject of a new opera by David Lang. More from WNYC’s Sara Fishko, in this week's Fishko Files.The Loser premieres at the Next Wave Festival at BAM on Wednesday,...
View ArticleToday in Jonathan Schwartz History: Happy Birthday, Jerome Kern!
Today in Jonathan Schwartz History, Jonathan celebrates Jerome Kern!
View ArticleTerms of Art: Film Composer Lingo with Carter Burwell
Even if you don’t know Carter Burwell’s name, you probably love his music. He’s scored nearly all of the Coen Brothers' films, and has worked with Martin McDonagh, Todd Haynes, Charlie Kaufman, and...
View ArticleTwin Peek
This week, we head back to “Twin Peaks.” “Fargo” showrunner Noah Hawley talks about the impact of David Lynch’s cult TV show. Plus, what it was like growing up where the show was filmed, and the...
View ArticleThe Music of "Twin Peaks"
It’s impossible to imagine “Twin Peaks” without the music of Angelo Badalamenti — but why do those languid synth ballads and cool-jazz numbers capture the essence of the show so well? “Breaking Bad”...
View ArticleElectronic Composer Jean-Jacques Perrey Hears the Future
The bouncy beat of a synthesizer-driven tune, Island in Space, provides the incongruous opening music for this 1968 installment of the usually staid series Music and the Message. The guest is...
View ArticleThe Sound of America
There are many Americas. Nowadays they barely speak to each other. But during the most perilous years of the last century, one young composer went in search of a sound that melded many of the nation's...
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Composer Wallingford Riegger 'Fesses Up' in this 1961 Interview
Wallingford Riegger working on a composition, date unknown.(unknown/Wikimedia Commons)We have just listened to a concert featuring the world premiere of Riegger's Sinfonietta. But what about the other...
View ArticleListen: World Premieres from Four Emerging Composers with the New Jersey...
From July 10-15, 2017, four young composers were awarded the opportunity to workshop new orchestral music with composer Steven Mackey, conductor JoAnn Falletta and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra as...
View ArticleFive and a Half Things I Say on the First Day of Orchestration Class
Join Q2 Music on Sunday, April 24 (with an encore presentation Tuesday, April 26) for our second annual Symphomania, a 24-hour marathon stream of music that offers a vision of orchestral repertoire...
View ArticleWatch: Inside Tristan Perich's Home and '1-Bit' Studio
We visited the home and work space of Tristan Perich, a New York-based sound, visual and installation artist whose music blends a composer's interest in acoustic classical instruments and electronic...
View Article#4095: With David Garland, 'Verdancy'
Hear music by songwriter and multi-instrumentalist David Garland, who presents music from his latest work - a 4-CD set called Verdancy. The music is a celebration of nature, time, and expanded sense of...
View Article#4122: Music from Guitarist-Composers
Hear some new approaches to guitar music from guitarist-composers on this New Sounds. The guitarist-composer Fabi Reyna is the founder and editor of the magazine "She Shreds" which bills itself as the...
View ArticleGet Inside Max Richter’s Head: Highlights from the ‘Black Mirror’ Composer’s...
In the latest episode of Fast Company’s Creative Conversation podcast series composer Max Richter explained his method: “I’m looking for things that feel inevitable and sort of pre-existent, almost;...
View Article#4154: With Tyshawn Sorey, from the 2018 Music Now Festival
Hear music by and an interview with composer, improviser, drummer, trombonist, and pianist Tyshawn Sorey. A 2017 MacArthur Fellow, Sorey makes music that is wonderfully hard to pin down and floats best...
View Article'Take Back the Harbor,' Exorcisms, 'Imagine It Forward,' 'Halfway to Dawn,'...
Roger Ross Williams and Kristi Jacobson discuss the documentary, "Take Back the Harbor." Clemency Burton-Hill offers her classical music recommendations for the day. Mike Mariani talks about his recent...
View ArticleBilly Strayhorn: Unsung Jazz Great, African Diaspora International Film...
Beth Comstock joins us to talk about her newest book, Imagine It Forward: Courage, Creativity, and the Power of Change. The book offers advice on how to grapple with the challenges to change we face...
View ArticleMatthew Aucoin
What does it really mean to make opera in the 21st century? That’s the question that keeps the artists of American Modern Opera Company up at night, and those of us that love the art form should all be...
View Article#4095: With David Garland, 'Verdancy'
Hear music by songwriter and multi-instrumentalist David Garland, who presents music from his latest work - a 4-CD set called Verdancy. The music is a celebration of nature, time, and expanded sense of...
View ArticleStrauss's Ideal Birthday: How Would The Composer Spend His 155th?
June 11th, 2019, marks the 155th anniversary of Richard Strauss’s birth. You can tell a lot about a person from the way they spend their birthday. While some let the day pass with no obvious...
View Article'OCTET', a New Show From Dave Malloy
Composer, playwright, and lyricist Dave Malloy joins us to talk about “OCTET,” his new musical at the Signature Theatre. The show plays through June 30.
View Article#4122: Music from Guitarist-Composers
Hear some new approaches to guitar music from guitarist-composers on this New Sounds. The guitarist-composer Fabi Reyna is the founder and editor of She Shreds, a magazine dedicated to women guitarists...
View ArticleThe Sound of America
There are many Americas. Nowadays they barely speak to each other. But during the most perilous years of the last century, one young composer went in search of a sound that melded many of the nation's...
View Article#4154: With Tyshawn Sorey, from the 2018 Music Now Festival
Hear music by and an interview with composer, improviser, drummer, trombonist, and pianist Tyshawn Sorey. A 2017 MacArthur Fellow, Sorey makes music that is wonderfully hard to pin down and floats best...
View ArticleComposers and Their Songbirds
Music, in essence, is just organized sound waves moving through air. Instrumentalists and vocalists strike and vibrate c(h)ords to give voice, as it were, to black dots upon the page. Composers rely on...
View ArticleJulianna Barwick's Stormy Record 'Will' (From the Archives)
Julianna Barwick has been a repeat visitor in the studio (April 2013, Spring 2018.) In 2013, she was teasing songs from the protean, beautifully hazy Nepenthe, to which Sigur Rós's producer Alex Somers...
View Article#4095: With David Garland, 'Verdancy'
Hear music by songwriter and multi-instrumentalist David Garland, who presents music from his latest work - a 4-CD set called Verdancy. The music is a celebration of nature, time, and expanded sense of...
View Article#4122: Music from Guitarist-Composers
Hear some new approaches to guitar music from guitarist-composers on this New Sounds. The guitarist-composer Fabi Reyna is the founder and editor of She Shreds, a magazine dedicated to women guitarists...
View Article423- Sean Exploder
As you might know, we have our own composer here at 99pi named Sean Real who works with the producers to score our episodes with original music that she writes and records right here in Oakland. She...
View Article#4154: With Tyshawn Sorey, from the 2018 Music Now Festival
Hear music by and an interview with composer, improviser, drummer, trombonist, and pianist Tyshawn Sorey. A 2017 MacArthur Fellow, Sorey makes music that is wonderfully hard to pin down and floats best...
View ArticleThe 2021 Oscar Nominees for Best Original Score
Most of us probably haven’t purchased a movie ticket and an $11 tub of popcorn since Bong Joon-ho’s masterpiece Parasite made history at the 2020 Academy Awards. Nevertheless, 2020 persevered and...
View ArticleAaron Copland's Sound of America
There are many Americas. Nowadays they barely speak to each other. But during the most perilous years of the last century, one young composer went in search of a sound that melded many of the nation's...
View ArticlePoet, Composer, Stutterer JJJJJerome Ellis Creatively Shapes Time
Poet, sax player, electronic music producer, storyteller, and composer JJJJJerome Ellis is a stutterer. On his 2021 album The Clearing, he takes speech disfluency and considers how it affects one’s...
View ArticleNicholas Britell on the Art of the Film Score
Nicholas Britell has emerged as one of the most in-demand film composers working today, creating original music for projects that hew to no style or model. He wrote the infuriatingly catchy theme of...
View ArticleA Closer Look at the 2022 Oscar Nominees for Best Original Score
The Academy Awards are just a few days away and the nominees for this year’s Best Original Score feature an impressive and competitive group of composers. The Power of the Dog is nominated for 12...
View ArticleSon Lux On Their 'Everything Everywhere All At Once' Score
In their new feature film, "Everything Everywhere All At Once," former music video directors the Daniels recruited the experimental band Son Lux to compose the score. Their soundtrack also features...
View ArticleSteve Earle's Music In The Play 'Coal Country'
[REBROADCAST FROM May 20, 2020] Steve Earle discussed his album Ghosts of West Virginia, including songs he wrote for the play"Coal Country." The interview features the exclusive premiere of Earle's...
View ArticleMaking the Music of 'The Lord of the Rings' Series
The original "Lord of the Rings" trilogy earned composer Howard Shore--who also scored "The Hobbit" films--two Academy Awards for Best Original Score and three Grammy's for Best Score Soundtrack Album....
View ArticleThe Composer Charles Strouse on “Annie,” and Working with Jay-Z
The Broadway composer Charles Strouse has written music for shows like “Applause” and “Bye Bye Birdie,” and the theme to Norman Lear’s “All in the Family,” but he is best known for the musical...
View ArticleFilm Composer John Williams Returns to “Raiders”
Generations of moviegoers have grown up on the music of John Williams, which have been featured in “Jaws,” “Star Wars,” “Harry Potter,” as well as many of Steven Spielberg’s films. He has been writing...
View ArticleA Year of Change for a North Dakota Abortion Clinic, and the Composer John...
A year ago, the staff writer Emily Witt visited Fargo, North Dakota, to report on the Red River Women’s Clinic—the only abortion provider in the state. The Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision had just come...
View Article542- Player Piano
This week we're featuring an episode of The Last ArchiveThe Last Archive is a history show. Our evidence is the evidence of history, the evidence of archives. Manuscripts, photographs, letters and...
View ArticleIcons Day Part 2: Henry Threadgill's Life in Music
[REBROADCAST FROM May 16, 2023] Over the last fifty years, Henry Threadgill has been one of the most renowned American composers, never afraid of leaning into innovation and experimentation. He's one...
View ArticleA Preview of the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition &...
Jazz at Lincoln Center's 29th annual Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival is May 9–11! We receive a preview of the event from JLCO’s longtime sax player, Sherman Irby,...
View ArticleThe Brooklyn Museum Hires a Composer-in-Residence
For the first time ever, the Brooklyn Museum has hired a composer-in-residence to make original music to accompany their exhibitions. Cellist and composer Niles Luther joins us to discuss taking on...
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