2007 numbers

In the spirit of last year's numbers, here are some stats for 2007:

Seven
The number of interviews I've already done for the next season of Composing Thoughts, starting March 23rd, 2008.

Vistor #25,911 (please no Guiliani jokes please about 911)
Dec 24 2007 8:51:31 am Hastings on Hudson, NY from http://www.therestisnoise.com/2004/11/music_blogs.html

Ninety-seven
The number of personalities interviewed in 2007

Composers (43)

John Harbison
Roxanna Panufnik
Lisa Bielawa
Libby Larsen
Robert Pound
Tigran Mansurian
Ralph Lehman
Peter Schickele
Jennifer Higdon
Derek Bermel
Eric Ewazen
James Brody
David Little
Richard Danielpour
Victoria Bond
David Chesky
Sebastian Currier
BJ Liederman
Daniel Asia
James Primosch
Robert Capanna
Daron Aric Hagen
Steven Stucky (seen right)
Scott McAllister
Mark O'Connor
Robert Beaser
Karel Husa
Andrew Bishop
Lukas Ligeti
Avner Dorman
Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR)
Yehudi Wyner
Krzysztof Penderecki
Pero Šiša
Peter Boyer
Buzz Jones
Chris Whittaker
John Orfe
Pierre Jalbert
Jeremy Gill
Augusta Read Thomas
Mark Hayes
Scott Eggert

Conductors (11)
Donald Runnicles
Gerard Schwarz
JoAnn Falletta
Jose Serebrier
Rossen Milanov
Shizuo Kuwahara
Zlatan Sržić
Norman Nunamaker
Lewes Pedell
Robert Natter
Stuart Malina

Musicians (38, 41 if you count multiple interviews)
Janine Jansen
Helene Grimaud (below left)

Lisa Batiashvili
Christopher O'Riley
Karen Gomyo
Andrew Russo
Paul Neubauer
Andre-Michel Schub
Andrew Janss
Daniel Matsukawa
Elvira Galioulline
Elinor Frey
Neva Pilgrim
Chee Yun
student Alexander Englert
Ara Gregorian
Harold Robinson
Clipper Erickson
Claremont Trio (twice!)
Alison Balsom
Joshua Bell (twice!)
Quartetto Gelato
Arnold Steinhardt
Rolf Smedvig
Lucy Parham
Fry Street String Quartet
Gerard Reuter
Ernesto Tamayo (twice! on air and onstage!)
Lincoln & Shari Mayorga
Nathan Gunn
Simone Dinnerstein
Daniel Phillips
Jennifer Frautschi
Newstead Trio
Audobon Quartet
Five Browns
Wu Han
Kings Singers

Other personalities (5)
Alex Ross
Klaus Heymann
Paula Poundstone
poet Deborah Larsen
Sensei Tony Stultz

Just in

It's official!

Read the article here: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/50221.html

Make your voice heard now and vote in another radio poll...Vote for your favorites now at WITF's 89.5 Classix! (Might I suggest to write in Jennifer Higdon, Augusta Read Thomas, Walter Mays, Joan Tower, Steven Stucky or Paul Moravec?)

Get Carter

What a great discussion going on over at Classical Notes! There is also another posting at New Music Box.
This is my response to Don Lee's post:
Don and his non-broadcasting friend bring up an interesting point, that a "concert performance engaged him in a way that a radio broadcast of the piece would not have done."
There are several questions to about why this was more engaging...is it the visual side to music making or seeing the performer? Is it sitting in a wonderful hall with fine acoustics? Is it knowing you're one of many audience members enjoying the music?
Also, how often do you "put down the op-ed pages, turn up the radio and just listen?" with any radio broadcast: music or news?
Is radio meant to be background or foreground? Is it art or business?
Let's take a piece from the early 20th Century not as challenging as the Messiaen or Carter, Poulenc's Concerto for Two Pianos as an example. If you listen to it on the radio or from your cd/ipod/musical device, you'll hear the notes played by performers X & Y with Z orchestra. Yet you won't see the interaction of the brilliant orchestration of Poulenc when pianist X plays with the violins on the right side of the stage and pianist Y play with the cellos on the left side of the stage. It really is stunning to see, besides hearing it. So should you only enjoy the Poulenc in a live performance and not a recording? You may not be as engaged by it.
Violinist Joshua Bell is currently on tour with a recital, and soon to be playing on tour with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. He is a performer who communicates brilliantly on his recordings, yet seeing him play live is another level. His recital partner on the current tour, Jeremy Denk is someone who is constantly communicating with Bell on stage. Yet both shouldn't be missed on recording or the radio, or in the hall.
I truly believe if radio stations played Carter as much as they play Stamitz, Mozart and Vivaldi that it would not be the case that a 14 minute piano & orchestra work by Elliott would be more engaging in the concert hall, or while reading the business ads of the Star Tribune. Engaging music is engaging music.
We should always ask ourselves why. Why is live music engaging on Performance Today? Why is the programming engaging from the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra? Why is a break engaing on Classical 24? Why interview a composer for Composing Thoughts? If it is not engaging, why isn't it? Perhaps it is not the music. I'll take Carter anyday over Vivaldi.
[pictured above right, Poulenc; pictured above left, Carter]

Composer Interview

It was great to catch up and pick the musical mind of Michael Torke on Saturday afternoon in Manhattan for WITF.
We had met previously in Las Vegas for an interview for 20/20 Hearing back in October 2003. Back then, he was in town on vacation and it happened to work out for him and I to do the interview at our studios - I interviewed and engineered from the booth and he was in the next room. Afterwards I dropped him off at the Bellagio. It was novel at the time because a) we had just debuted the all classical station that day; and b) all of the next two years of the show, only one other composer interview was in person, the rest were over the phone.

This time, we talked at Torke's apartment in the village - I know the neighborhood well as I eat and drink at Shopsin's and Mr. Dennehy's quite often - and it turns out Michael's apartment is just around the corner! It was also nice that we had an engineer so I could focus solely on the interview. Keep an eye for it on Composing Thoughts this spring!