Charles Wuorinen: Art and Entertainment
Charles Wuorinen’s diatribes are still as polemical as ever, but he brings a passion and conviction to all of his arguments, and his remarkably prolific six-decade output as a composer is artistically and intellectually rich as well as often entertaining.
Marin Alsop: A New Perspective
Marin Alsop: A New Perspective
An American conductor makes a persuasive case for having a new perspective, exploring American music and contemporary music, and getting audiences interested in a broad range of ideas.
After School Specialists
It’s hard to imagine two ensembles as different as eighth blackbird and ICE. But both formed at Oberlin, both are devoted exclusively to new music, and both are really successful at it.
Wendy's World
From virtual orchestras and polymicrotonality to pioneering ambient music and switching on Bach, Wendy Carlos has created several musical worlds.
Defining Nico Muhly
What’s it like to launch a career with Philip Glass, John Adams, and Björk cheering you on? Nico Muhly is a composer on fire.
Annie Gosfield: Ghosts in the Machine
Annie Gosfield creates surreal music that frequently uses technology to channel older, sometimes broken, or forgotten things.
Michael Daugherty: Icon Artist
Whether Michael Daugherty’s music is channeling Elvis, Rosa Parks, Liberace, or Georgia O’Keeffe, it is extremely physical and fun to play.
Elliott Sharp: Wide Awake in Alphabet City
Elliott Sharp’s music continues to defy expectations; this is part of what makes it so exciting to listen to.
Adam Guettel: On The Road
Composer Adam Guettel is trying to reinvent the musical theatre, and, if anyone out there can make such a thing happen, it’s him.
He Said, She Said: Zhou Long and Chen Yi
HE SAID, SHE SAID: Chen Yi and Zhou Long talk about how they’ve come to blend Chinese and Western classical compositional philosophies and sonorities as well as how they interact with each other as composers and spouses.
Nicolas Collins: Bending All the Rules
Whether hacking into an old radio or building software in pursuit of new sounds, composer Nicolas Collins is bending all the rules.
Orchestra Summit 2006
Orchestra Summit 2006
No one denies that we all want performances of new orchestral work that composers, musicians, and their audiences will look to with pride and satisfaction. Six key industry players discuss ways of reaching that goal and the hurdles that remain in our path.
Ned Rorem At Home
Words seem to flow effortlessly from composer and essayist Ned Rorem, as do frequently biting comments, which we discovered when we spoke with him shortly after the world premiere of his opera, Our Town.
The Unexpected Importance of Yes: Joan La Barbara
The Unexpected Importance of Yes
Joan La Barbara discusses her compositional motivations and demonstrates her battery of vocal techniques.
In Conversation with Paul Austerlitz
An interview with the author of Jazz Consciousness: Music, Race, and Humanity.
Opera Today: Mark Adamo and Tobias Picker
Opera Today
Tobias Picker and Mark Adamo revel in the staggering resources of the world’s most opulent art form.
Leonard Slatkin: Not Afraid of Anyone
Just as he can roll up his sleeves and be completely down to earth when interacting with musicians, National Symphony Orchestra Music Director Leonard Slatkin also doesn’t worry about the rank of anyone who might be sitting in the audience—even the president.
Raz Mesinai: Evading Genre, Escaping Geography
Raz Mesinai: Evading Genre, Escaping Geography
Whether he’s using a palette of electronic or acoustic sounds, notating, improvising, or at work in the studio, Mesinai has a story to tell.
Matthew Shipp: Leaving the Door Open
Matthew Shipp: Leaving the Door Open
One of jazz’s top pianists talks about why his music is jazz and why it also isn’t.
The Melting Point: Two European Composers in America
The Melting Point?
Brian Ferneyhough and Esa-Pekka Salonen are reshaping American music, but neither is sure he’s an American composer.
Steven Mackey: Outsider on the Inside
Call it the “mutt” aesthetic—Steve Mackey does, being a dog lover—but it just might be the voice of this generation.
James Tenney: Postcards from the Edge
Whether combining serialism and minimalism, reconceptualizing microtonality or ragtime, or re-assembling an Elvis recording, James Tenney’s music continues to push limits while bridging opposition.
In Conversation with Joseph W. Polisi, president of the Juilliard School
An interview with the author of The Artist as Citizen
