In this episode, we explore Snider's unique musical style, her inspirations, and the stories behind her compositions. From ethereal orchestrations to poignant vocal melodies, Snider's music transcends boundaries and touches the depths of the human experience. Tune in as we uncover the essence of her artistry and the intricacies of her creative process. Whether you're a seasoned music aficionado or just discovering Snider's work, this episode promises to be a journey through the harmonies of the soul.

Composer's Jeffery Scott and Peter Askim discuss the upcoming performances of their new works. 
'Anatomy of an Embrace' (World Premiere) by Peter Askim and  'Pesadelos 1' and 'Songs' by Jeffery Scott will be perfomed by Mallarme Music on Friday, February 2, 2024, 7:30 p.m. at the PSI Theatre, Durham Arts Council, Durham NC.

If you live nearby, we hope to see you there. 

Mara Keen's talents shine through in her music, particularly when it comes to capturing the essence of time and motion. Her compositions are uniquely attuned to the emotions depicted on screen, seamlessly blending with the language of film.

Son of Saul Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qOl7HtZc1c

From algorithms to Youtube, Thomas Little bridges the intuition of a composer with the heart of a teacher. With a deep understanding of music and music history, Little is not only a prolific composer but also an influential educator who shares his knowledge and passion for music with others on his successful Youtube channel Classical Nerd.  

Composer, flutist, choreographer, sound artist, and radio broadcaster Annie Nikunen's music is an embodiment of her humanity. Join Tarik and Anna for an exploration of the physicality of sound with this lovely, creative spirit. 

From the kind-natured city of Buffalo, NY to the vibrant energy of Long Island; from being the Head Chorister in the Choir of Men and Boys at St. Pauls Cathedral to being the 2004 recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in Music, Music has always been at the heart of who Paul Moravec is.

In this episode of the Composer's Studio, Moravec speaks so eloquently about the personal intention of his music, its lyricism and the connection he feels to some of his most important pieces. 

With a fascination with language and mythos, Douglas Boyce composes music that draws on Medieval and Renaissance traditions but sits firmly within a modernist aesthetic. Building rich rhythmic structures that shift between order, fragmentation, elegance, and ferocity, many of his works have a direct historical touchstone. Other works draw on sources from antiquity,   literature, and philosophy. Join Tarik and Anna for a deep dive into a fascinating, modernist mind. 

Award winning Composer Christopher Dietz is a stargazer, his compositions moving through the darkness of spacetime in whirling constellations of sound. With instruments standing in for celestial bodies, Dietz engages in a philosophical contemplation of dualities and opposition, changing seasons, beginnings and endings. The individual, in relief against the unfathomable mass  of the Universe, turns from the broader view to the comforting safety of self-made limitations. Dietz’ reworking of The Rifleman’s Creed is a sympathetic, yet unflinching examination of humanity’s rigid, defensive attachment to its personal manifestos, though they lead us astray or into unwinnable conflicts. Join Tarik and Anna for a conversation that takes us from the deepest depths of the Universe to the mysteries of the human soul. 

It's very mysterious how it works, this pre-verbal language that we all recognize and comprehend. It's not simplistic or concrete yet somehow it channels and resonates its way through our minds and into our souls. It is with this vision and deep understanding that Worthington composes.  Often, she may not even know the meaning behind a composition until she has finished writing it.

Rain is a self-taught composer.  Magical Realism, Reflection and Musical Angels are some of the beautiful manifestations of  her music. Impulses for new pieces have ranged from the small bits of rain cascading off of windows to the two-note expression of a sigh as well as the tragedy and heartache felt so deeply and by so many after 911.

Shanan Estreicher is a man of many accomplishments, and he has done so, not for himself but for others.  There is a Hebrew phrase "Torah Lishmah." Loosely translated, it means - a raging thirst for knowledge.  But, in Shanan's case the gift he offers is not about the knowledge he's learned but rather the knowledge he shares. With a heart of a teacher, Shanan expresses his musical voice in a passionate and honest way: an uninterrupted communication of musical language that speaks through him so deeply, encouraging every voice around him to rise up and sing.

From legendary educator at the Juilliard School to Professor of Composition and Music Theory at Vanderbilt University, Composer Samuel Zyman is one of the leading Mexican composers on the international scene today.  Known for his use of vigorous rhythmic energy and expressive lyricism, Dr. Zyman infuses the many styles that define his heritage.

From big ideas to tiny details, join us this week on the Composer's Studio as we embark on a thought provoking discussion about music, life and how harmony relates to the corner of a room.  From rock guitar to pencil and manuscript, from the Aaron Copland School of Music to City University of New York, Edward Smaldone does everything with passion and commitment.

On this special episode of Composer’s Studio, join Anna and guest host Shanan Estreicher for a fascinating dive into the music of our own Tarik Ghiradella. A master of what might be called minimalist maximalism, Ghiradella’s music undergoes astounding transformations from just a few tones-- mere molecules of sound into a dark, misty malediction, the hope of eternal life in another world, or even the love of a mother for her child. His music has been featured on the American Heroes Channel T.V. series Gunslingers and has composed for The American String Quartet, The Astoria Symphony, The Greensboro philharmonia and the Round rock symphony.  As a drummer, he has toured  Europe and North America and continues his work as a session drummer recording from his home studio. We are very lucky and proud to call him a collaborator and a friend.

Puerto Rican-born composer and multi-instrumentalist Angélica Negrón’s music is deeply personal, reflecting a sensitive, playful nature that takes nothing for granted. Even the most mundane sounds--a stapler, a calculator, crumpling paper, pots and pans become beautiful in her sound sculptor’s able hands.  Her music has been described as “wistfully idiosyncratic and contemplative,” while The New York Times noted her “capacity to surprise.” Negrón has been commissioned by the Bang on a Can All-Stars, loadbang, MATA Festival, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Sō Percussion, the American Composers Orchestra and the New York Botanical Garden, among others. We hope you enjoy her music as much as we did this week.

Composer, performer, conductor, and educator Aaron Noë is a musical hero, for he writes music not only for himself or for professional performers, but for students just beginning their musical explorations. So many composers we have spoken with on this show had their first experience with music in a school band or choral program. In this episode of Composer’s Studio, Tarik and Anna celebrate the music of a composer who has dedicated his life and work to paving the way for others. 

Composer and sound artist Jenny Olivia Johnson’s  work is a musical memoir, her multi-sensory synesthesia coloring everything she does. Her compositions and artwork range from electroacoustic chamber songs and contemplative solo works to short amplified operas and interactive sound and light sculptures. We can’t take you through one of her fascinating installations, but her music is a fascinating experience all on its own.

Composer Anthony Constantino wonders, where do I fit in the larger picture? Why does the world need another quartet, another chamber work when so much great work has already been composed? The World already has Beethoven and Stravinsky, Bartok and Shostakovich. Did they not reach the pinnacle of what is possible in classical form? Thankfully, Anthony has figured out how to shut off his doubting mind. Constantino writes everything from chamber, vocal, and electroacoustic music to large scale orchestral works and shows us that there is still plenty of room for new music in the old forms. 

Composer Peter Askim does it all. Active as a performing bassist, Conductor of the Raleigh Civic Symphony and Chamber Orchestra, Director of Orchestral Studies at North Carolina State University, he is also founder and Artistic Director of The Next Festival of Emerging Artists, fostering and mentoring young composers and performers.  A few months ago,  Peter Askim added ‘Dad’ to his distinguished list of titles. It wasn’t easy for us to get this interview, but it was well worth the wait.  Peter is not only a master of his Art, he is a warm and delightful human being. 

Anna and Tarik close out the Composer's Studio first season with a holiday special of Sacred Choral works.

Join Tarik and Anna for a deep conversation with Anthony R. Green, American composer, pianist, and social justice artist, whose solo and collaborative work have been presented in over 25 countries. A passionate activist as well as a composer, Anthony is co-founder and Associate Artistic Director of Castle of our Skins, a concert and educational series dedicated to celebrating Black artistry through music. He is currently a fellow at the Berlin University of the Arts. 

From the composer:

Composer, performer, and social justice artist Anthony R. Green (he/him) has had projects realized in over 25 countries, working with some of today's most ambitious soloists and ensembles, including Julian Otis and Veronica Williams (voice), Ashleigh Gordon (viola), Meraki, and the String Archestra (Berlin), to name a few. He is a former McKnight Visiting Composer, a past fellow at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, and associate director of Castle of our Skins: celebrating Black Artistry through Music. www.anthonyrgreen.com 

Drifting through falling air and tempests, we find ourselves in a musical world of unfinished introspection.  Do you think emotion in music is real?  Let’s find out. Join us on the Composer’s  Studio as we explore that question and more with award winning composer Douglas Knehans. 

When one of your earliest memories is of your grandfather playing at Carnegie Hall, it is hard work just to carve out a place for yourself in your own family. Our guest, Composer David Serkin Ludwig does his namesake proud. Once named by NPR Music as one of the world’s “Top 100 Composers Under Forty,”  David’s choral work “The New Colossus,” opened the private prayer service for President Obama’s second inauguration. Based in the creative cauldron of Philadelphia’s hot contemporary music scene, David Serkin Ludwig is chair of composition at The Curtis Institute of Music where he is also director of Ensemble 20/21 and Curtis SummerFest. He holds positions and residencies with nearly two dozen orchestras and music festivals in the US and abroad, and still makes time for his wife, acclaimed violinist Bella Hristova, and their four cats.

Composer David Kirkland Garner’s music is borne of an obsessive urge to take things apart, separate out the fragments of color, emotion, rhythm, and then reassemble it in a way that reveals new meaning and relevance. Grappling with the legacies of everything from the intimidating dominance of Beethoven’s place in the canon, to the confusing shame and nostalgia of his family’s Confederate past, Garner crafts exquisitely wrought transformations of everything from Bach violin sonatas to crackly field recordings from the Appalachian foothills. 

Composer Elainie Lillios creates electroacoustic soundscapes reflecting her fascination with observing and manipulating the qualities of sound itself.  Come with Tarik and Anna on a journey to a world of dreams and memory at the edge of the Immeasurable Distance where those we have loved and lost reside. 

We are so excited about the new release of Andrea Edith Moore's debut recording of Daniel Thomas Davis’ haunting and humorous work, Family Secrets: Kith & Kin. Set to texts of seven internationally renowned authors of the New South: Frances Mayes, Daniel Wallace, Allan Gurganus, Lee Smith, Randall Kenan, Michael Malone, and Jeffery Beam,  this series of interconnected dramatic portraits tell of murder, gossip, humor, regret, solace and ultimately…forgiveness. Get the inside story on this wonder new recording.

Learn more and get the album here: https://www.andreaedithmoore.com/copy-of-family-secrets

Much of composer Chiayu Hsu’s music revolves around the poems, myths, States to hone her craft as a composer. She has found great success in the U.S., but her music reflects a divided heart. It is a collage of imagery and mood, telling stories and painting images full of affection for the place and the people she misses at home, while exploring the kaleidoscope of cultures and creative synergies that makes life and music making in the U.S. so irresistible. Join Tarik and Anna for this fascinating conversation about the sometimes uncomfortable journeys on which our musical dreams take us. and images she left behind when emigrating from Taiwan to the United 

Beloved Raleigh pianist, pedagogue, and composer Lanette Lind did not set out to be a composer, but one commission led to another, and another, and another. As a masterful pianist, competent in many styles, Lanette does not subscribe to any one compositional technique or ethos--just that the music must serve the story. Whether writing for children or adults, she approaches her task like a storyteller looking for the  words that will cut through the distractions of the mind and reach straight into the heart.  What higher compliment can a composer receive than to capture the imaginations of children?

Founding member of the New York based ensemble, Rhymes With Opera, composer George Tsz-Kwan Lam was born in Hong Kong, brought up in Massachusetts, and studied in some of the finest composition programs in North America. George’s music is all about exploring and documenting the musical aspects of place, whether in a tobacco factory turned performance space in Durham, North Carolina, or through interviews with emigrant musicians adapting their musical traditions to their new homelands. Joining Tarik Ghiradella and Anna Linvill from Hong Kong, George opens up about his fascination with places, individual journeys, and the relationship between language and music. We find out that the Medieval Latin poems of The Carmina Burana sound exquisite in Cantonese.

Join Tarik and Anna for a great conversation with composer, Juan Pablo Contreras, a Latin GRAMMY®-nominated composer from Guadalajara, Mexico. In his music, Juan Pablo explores his joyful but complicated relationships with history, place, and his love for both Western classical and Mexican folk music, resulting in a musical journey full of joy, humor, and just a touch of violence. His works have been performed by major orchestras throughout Mexico, including, the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, the Salta and Córdoba Symphonies in Argentina, the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and many others.

Innovative North Carolina-based composer, artist, and educator, Brittany J. Green’s work explores new ways of looking at the relationships between audience and composer, sound and movement, form and function. Join Anna and Tarik for a generative discussion of computer programming in composition, music as metaphor, the productive dichotomy between tradition and disruptive new ideas, and how she, as a black, female composer, amplifies the unheard voices of her community through her work.

“In times of crisis and peril, we have but the reliance of faith - from the profound faith in humanity, faith in love, and faith that we will persevere and get through this with dignity” -Composer Vivian Fung

On Composer’s Studio this week:

JUNO Award-winning Canadian composer Vivian Fung’s new work, Prayer, was composed with a young child at home 24/7, a bronchial infection, and a very tight timeline to complete the piece in a manner feasible for COVID remote performance requirements. Known for the theoretical complexity and virtuosity required to play her compositions, Vivian has taken a different approach to this piece, bearing her heart completely with a directness that allows the listener to transcend our current moment, if only for a few minutes. Join Anna and Tarik on Composer’s Studio, Sunday, September 20 at 4pm ET on WHUPfm.org, composersstudio.net, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe today!

Allison Loggins-Hull is a composer and producer with roots in classical, urban art pop, hip-hop, electronic programming, and R&B.  The flute duo, Flutronix, she and collaborator Nathalie Joachim founded has been described as  “a unique blend of classical music, hip-hop, electronic programming, and soulful vocals reminiscent of neo-R&B stars like Erykah Badu.” Flutronix has collaborated with an impressive range of artists and ensembles including legendary hip-hop producer Ski Beatz, electronic music sensation Dan Deacon, and the International Contemporary Ensemble. Take a deep dive into Allison Loggins-Hull's fascinating music and genre defying career with Anna and Tarik.

At just 19 years old, Grammy award winning Iranian American Jewish-Christian composer Richard Danielpour had a strange mystical experience that left him awed and shaken, but with new clarity in his faith and life’s purpose as a composer. His powerful and deeply spiritual music made him one of the most beloved and recorded composers of his generation, yet he still struggled to complete the spiritual quest assigned to him during that epiphany those many years ago--to tell the story of the last hours of Jesus of Nazareth from the perspective of his Middle Eastern Jewish followers--not that of his later European interpreters.  After more than 25 years of internal struggle, Danielpour’s magnum opus, The Passion of Yeshua, an oratorio written in both Hebrew and English, had its premier in 2018. On this episode of CS, Richard Danielpour joins Tarik and Anna to tell his story and share some of his favorite moments from the new Naxos recording of this monumental work, released in March 2020. Special thanks to Naxos Records and Bill Holab and Lean Kat Music (BMI) for allowing us to play this recording.

https://www.naxos.com/feature/Danielpour-The-Passion-of-Yeshua.asp

Danielpour, The Passion of Yeshua

Copyright © 2017 by Lean Kat Music (BMI). All Rights Reserved.

Sole Agent: Bill Holab Music.

A composer with a deep love of the English language and a secret dramatic streak, Juliana Hall is one of the most prolific Art Song composers alive today.  Juliana ventures out of her monastic studio to join Anna and Tarik for a rare conversation about the relationship between poetry and music, her habit of mining other people’s letters for material, and the real reason Lady Godiva rode naked through the streets. Enjoy a sneak peek into her upcoming album, Bold Beauty, on Griffin Records, set to come out this fall.

Composer Daniel Bernard Roumain doesn’t ask for permission. He is a revolutionary, changing the world of concert music and opera by creating unapologetically black music--opera, string quartets, a YouTube requiem--all for black audiences. Taking the classical music world by storm, DBR is challenging some of the most powerful names and revered institutions in the classical music world to examine their repertoire and their hearts. Why in spite of blind auditions are there so few black musicians in the world’s orchestras? Why are classical music audiences so white? Are the orchestras and opera companies racist? Maybe. Or maybe it’s the repertoire. Well, not anymore. Join Tarik and Anna for an important conversation about the future of American concert music. 

How can the act of creating transform fear and anger into courage and hope? Composer Adrienne Albert harnesses the mysterious emotional power of music to strengthen the spirit and change the heart. An artist who has had an extraordinary life in music, Adrienne started out as a singer working with  such luminaries as Igor Stravinsky and Leonard Bernstein before taking up the composer's pen three decades ago. Join Tarik and Anna for an uplifting, music packed hour with this gifted artist and lovely human being.

What makes a life? After the early death of her younger brother, Andrew Blue, this question consumed composer Jennifer Higdon. Her beloved orchestral work, Blue Cathedral was her creative answer to that question. Blue…like the sky.  Where all possibilities soar.  Cathedrals…a place of thought, growth, spiritual expression…serving as a symbolic doorway into and out of this world.  Join Amy Scurria this week for a very personal conversation with Pulitzer prize and 3 time Grammy award winning composer, Jennifer Higdon about her life, her meteoric rise to prominence in the music world, and how she has adapted to pandemic life.

* List of works played on this episode:
1. The Shallows for string trio and orchestra, from Jennifer Higdon's "Concerto 4-3", commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony, and the Wheeling Symphony. Performed by Time for Three and The Fort Worth Symphony with Miguel Harth-Bedoya conducting.
2. Our Beautiful Country for men's chorus, from Jennifer Higdon's opera, Cold Mountain based upon the novel by Charles Frazier with a libretto by Gene Scheer. Commissioned by the Santa Fe Opera, Opera Philadelphia, and the North Carolina Opera. Performance by Chanticleer from their CD, Heart of a Soldier.
3. Pale Yellow from Jennifer Higdon's Piano Trio. Commissioned by the Bravo-Vail Music Festival. Performed by Anna Akiko Meyers on violin, Alisa Weilerstein on cello, and Adam Neiman on piano. This work is available for purchase on the Naxos CD: "Jennifer Higdon: Piano Trio, Voices, Impressions"
4. Blue Cathedral for full orchestra. Commissioned by the Curtis Institute of Music. Performed by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra with Robert Spano conducting. This work is available for purchase on the Telarc CD: "Rainbow Body"

As a guitarist, composer Andrew McKenna Lee blends virtuosic classical technique with a Rocker’s hard driving passion for rhythm and originality. As a composer, he defies categorization. A self-admitted perfectionist, Andrew’s music is not your typical two rehearsal and done type of music, a quality, he says, has not made his musical journey an easy one. Still, with accolades from the likes of Steve Reich, we think he has done rather well for himself. On CS this week, Andrew opens up to Tarik and Anna about his musical education and mentors,  his quest to get everything he can from his instrument, and his struggle against self doubt that eventually led him to create music that has been described as the best synthesis of classical and rock music yet attempted.

On CS this week, Amy is reunited with an old friend and collaborator, Emmy Award-winning composer, Steve Heitzeg. A lifelong peace and environmental activist, Steve’s music often features found instruments that reflect the theme of his work such as stones, driftwood, Joshua Tree branches, manatee and beluga whale bones, found bullets, and prosthetic limbs. A composer who believes in the power of children’s voices, Steve explains some of the unique challenges and considerations he takes into account when writing for these delicate performers. After he tells Anna whose score he is currently keeping under his pillow, we hear excerpts of Heitzeg’s 75-minute Nobel Symphony, commissioned to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Prizes Finally, we hear his recent trumpet concerto American Nomad, a sonic journey across America, written for trumpet virtuoso Charles Lazarus. How did an armature from the Statue of Liberty happen to become a percussion instrument in this piece? You’ll have to listen to find out.

"This is where your world and my world meet." - Tashi Tsering, Royal Tibetan Court Singer in Lo Mothang, Nepal. 

 When composer Andrea Clearfield accepted a commission from Network for New Music to collaborate with visual artist Maureen Drdak on a new work, she didn’t know it, but her life was about to change forever. As part of the commission, Maureen invited Andrea to join her and  anthropologist and ethnomusicologist Katey Blumenthal to travel to the remote, restricted northern Himalayan region of Lo Monthang, Nepal to research and record the area’s indigenous Tibetan folk music. The royal court singer of Lo Monthang was aging, and with no willing heirs to learn his repertoire, songs passed down orally for generations were being lost. Under the auspices of the Rubin Foundation, the three women recorded 130 songs previously undocumented that were then sent back to the village on horseback with boom boxes, cassette tapes, headsets and batteries so that the children could learn the music. Their recordings are now part of The University of Cambridge World Oral Literature Project, dedicated to the preservation of endangered languages. 

 This experience and this music has become an inextricable part of Andrea’s music. Join Amy Scurria and Anna Linvill this week as we speak with Andrea Clearfield about this powerful experience and its impact on her work.

* Recordings with performances by: 

- Lung-Ta commissioned and performed by Network for New Music, Linda Reichert in collaboration with artist Maureen Drdak and Group Motion Dance Company; 
- Tse Go La commissioned by The Mendelssohn Club and the Pennsylvania Girlchoir. Commissioned by The Mendelssohn Club, the Pennsylvania Girlchoir, and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia conducted by Alan Harler.
- MILA, Great Sorcerer commissioned by Terry Eder and Gene Kaufman. Libretto by Jean-Claude van Itallie and Lois Walden. Directed by Kevin Newbury. Performed by New York Virtuoso Singers with the Knights Orchestra conducted by Manoi Kamps.

Stephen Downing is a North Carolina based composer currently earning his PhD in music composition at Duke University. Stephen's music travels from the traditional to the absurd. Though Stephen draws from more traditional compositional sounds, he utilizes the material in modern and decidedly untraditional ways - inviting the listener to travel through a sonic world that is both familiar and delightfully surprising. 

In this episode of Composer's Studio, composer and Duke professor Anthony Kelley takes us on a tour through his musical family tree. From Ghanaian dance music to Bach, Scott Joplin to Aaron Copland, Kelley’s music is defined by a constant push and pull, a blending and a breaking apart. His piano concerto, Africamerica, begins on a slave ship and takes us on a journey punctuated by moments of jarring contrasts–the violence of a whip and dancing rhythms of Ghanaian percussion along with the elegant structure of European orchestral music, all rolling together on a tempestuous sea of virtuosic jazz-classical improvisation. Out of this terrible chaos comes a new musical language, a new culture scarred by its past,  but beautiful in moments of harmony and consonance. Ultimately, Anthony’s music is about seeking  peaceful repose, where the noise recedes and everything suddenly becomes clear and simple, leaving us pensive but hopeful about the world we are building together.

Mark Engebretson, composer and professor out of Greensboro, NC, writes music that is driven by  a desire for fresh, engaging forms and modes of musical expression in which performers are asked to face and overcome novel technical and musical challenges. Listen as Mark explains and performs his piece The Outside,  live in the WHUP studio. Based on a poem by Greensboro, NC poet Brian Lampkin, the computer listens, responds, suggests, interrupts, and challenges the saxophone and poet much like a regular collaborator might, revealing the opportunities and questioning the implications of our increasingly close relationship with computer technology, especially artificial intelligence. We discuss what Mark means when he says he is a recovering modernist in a piece based on Gertrude Stein’s The Making of Americans. Finally, we close out the show with Luminous, a work inspired by the light filled art installations of artists like Olafur Eliasson, that uses the audience’s smartphones as sound sources, revealing new possibilities for the relationship between the composer, performers, and the audience. We barely scratched the surface on this one! Mark left us all wishing we had a two hour show.

Composer Kenneth Frazelle has had work commissioned and performed by such prominent artists as Yo-Yo Ma, Jeffrey Kahane, Dawn Upshaw, jazz vocalist Cassandra Wilson, and now the Triangle’s own Andrea Edith Moore. On CS this week, we are treated to a sneak preview of Ken Frazelle’s new song cycle, Through the Window, drawing inspiration from his mother’s life and the music of his native North Carolina. The work, performed by Andrea Edith Moore with the Mallarme Players will premiere online June 20th. This is a rare treat!

Take a step into nature, into the love of a wife and mother, and the strength of a young woman. Be inpsired by the tenacity of young trees. Award winning composer Jenni Brandon’s optimistic music explores the small things–often the things that really matter. Jenni’s music appears on over 20 albums, and has been awarded the Sorel Medallion, American Prize, Paderewski Cycle, Women Composers Festival of Hartford International Composition Competition, and Bassoon Chamber Music Composition Competition among others.

On the Composer’s Studio this week, Tarik and Amy take a deep dive into composer Jesse Ayers’ opera Beneath Suspicion, based on historical accounts of the friendship between two abolitionist women in Virginia during the civil war–one an emancipated slave, the other a white former slave owner. Their powerful story encourages us to have faith in the face of adversity, choose right in the face of opposition, and to lean into one’s destiny even when that destiny involves great risk. Closing with Jericho, an epic tour de force of percussion and brass, we are left triumphant and optimistic about the future we are planning to build together.

In this powerful episode, Tarik and Amy discuss music and American history with Brent Michael Davids, composer and co-director of the Lenape Center in Manhattan. An American Indian citizen of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of the Mohican Nation, his heritage is a major influence on his work. Brent experiments with traditional Native American singing and instruments, always pushing boundaries. In his music, we hear an Apache violin played with bows strung with unsual materials like silk and leather, and a flute made of quartz crystal, which was fabricated at a scientific glass blowing workshop.  To cap it all off, we are treated to a moving preview of his work in progress, Requiem for America, featuring traditional and Native American choirs.

Brent Michael Davids has received awards and commissions from ASCAP, National Endowment for the Arts, Rockefeller Foundation, Smithsonian Institution, Emmy Awards, US-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission, Joffrey Ballet, Park City Film Music Festival, Kronos Quartet, National Museum of the American Indian, School for Advanced Research, Chanticleer, Meet-The-Composer, Miró Quartet, National Symphony Orchestra, Bush Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Jerome Foundation, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from prestigious Indian Summer Festival.

Marianna Filippi, a bright young composer from Maine, is at her core, a storyteller. Composing for theater and film as well as chamber groups and solo artists, Marianna’s music is proving popular with performers and audiences alike. Beginning with improvisation to form her initial melodic and harmonic material, she lets her work evolve organically, like a good piece of prose. Rich with celtic and japanese folk influences, and inspired by stories and abstract images, Marianna’s tone painting draws you in to a poetic world full of oracles, falling feathers, heroic trials, jeweled beetles with shimmering wings, and planets coming into alignment. We feel like the planets must have been in lucky alignment to bring Marianna Filippi to the Composer’s Studio.

Award winning virtuoso pianist and composer Lucia Caruso’s musical journey has taken her across four continents, and through over a dozen countries with performances in such renowned landmarks as the Versailles Palace, the Louvre Museum, and Jardin des Tuileries in Paris, France. She has graced the stages of Lincoln Center, Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall,  and the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. Her most recent project is a feature documentary, “Forte”, a film about three groundbreaking women in the arts. As part of the documentary,  Lucía is followed during the process of writing music for the film. We at the Composer’s Studio, can’t wait to see it.

Dr. Pedro Henriques da Silva is a Portuguese composer, multi-instrumentalist, professor, and lecturer in various fields of music, arts, and sciences; whose numerous awards include the 2015 and 2016 American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers Plus Award, the 2017 International Portuguese Music Award for Best Instrumental Performance, and the Best Emerging Filmmaker Documentary Award at the American Pavilion at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. He is a member of the New York University faculty in composition, classical guitar, mandolin, banjo, and sitar. Bridging the space between classical, folk, and popular music, his music defies categorization and breaks down artificial barriers erected between genres.

Composer Daniel Thomas Davis’ wide range of musical activities has taken him from the stages of Carnegie Hall and the Royal Opera House to monasteries in the Horn of Africa to directing new-music festivals in the rural South. In the past year, he has enjoyed the premieres of two new operas – SIX. TWENTY. OUTRAGEOUS, in an American Opera Projects/Symphony Space co-production directed and designed by polymath artist Doug Fitch, and Family Secrets (or Kith & Kin) with North Carolina Opera in Raleigh. With a special connection to Hillsborough, home of WHUP radio, Daniel’s music holds a special place in our hearts.

Practicing good Coronavirus social distancing, the Composer’s Studio phones it in with Steven Spiel, a composer who paints with sound. Steven has written music for large and small ensembles, choir, film, and even jazz combos. We talk with Steven about how music in film manipulates our emotional response to the image, what it is like to write music for film, and why he decided that the film industry was not for him. Steven’s music has something for everyone. Gather the kids to listen to Steven’s musical rendition of the story of the Three Little Pigs. Can you hear the wolf threaten to huff and puff and blow the house down? Then in his choral setting of the poem Invictus by William Earnest Henley, he reminds us that even during dark times, we are the captains of our own souls. Closing with Adonai Roi, an orchestral work inspired by The Lord’s Prayer, Steven’s music provides comfort and hope when we need it most.

In this premiere episode, Amy Scurria, Anna Linvill, and Tarik Ghiradella find humor, wit, deep intelligence, and a deeply down-to-earth rarity in Steven Bryant. With music chiseled in its structure and intent, fusing lyricism, dissonance, silence, technology, and humor into lean, skillfully-crafted works, Steven’s music enthralls listeners and performers alike. His seminal work Ecstatic Waters, for wind ensemble and electronics, has become one of the most performed works of its kind in the world, receiving over 250 performances in its first five seasons.