web01.fireside.fm Sat, 04 Apr 2026 03:07:00 -0500 Fireside (https://fireside.fm) SoundLives - Episodes Tagged with “Composer Conversation” https://soundlives.fireside.fm/tags/composer%20conversation Thu, 20 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0400 SoundLives, a NewMusicBox podcast, is brought to you by New Music USA, the resource for adventurous creators and listeners in the US and beyond. This program is funded in part by: the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts; the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs – and listeners like you. en-us episodic SoundLives, a NewMusicBox podcast, shares insights and stories from people who dedicate their lives to new music. Frank J. Oteri SoundLives, a NewMusicBox podcast, is brought to you by New Music USA, the resource for adventurous creators and listeners in the US and beyond. This program is funded in part by: the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts; the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs – and listeners like you. no Frank J. Oteri box@newmusicusa.org Episode 23: inti figgis-vizueta: the ability to grow https://soundlives.fireside.fm/23 51e1219e-2123-4e34-8b8b-b50288b845c2 Thu, 20 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0400 Frank J. Oteri full Frank J. Oteri inti figgis-vizueta likens her compositions to plants and creates music that carefully balances experimentation and practicality. 59:39 no inti figgis-vizueta creates music that carefully balances experimentation and practicality. In her conversation with Frank J. Oteri, she likens her compositions to plants which have the ability to grow and change when different people performing them. And in the last few years inti's music has been championed by an extremely wide range of musicians from Roomful of Teeth to Ensemble Dal Niente to the Kronos Quartet. NewMusicBox, New Music USA, experimental music, chamber music, extended durations, emerging composers, Kronos Quartet, Roomful of Teeth inti figgis-vizueta creates music that carefully balances experimentation and practicality. In her conversation with Frank J. Oteri, she likens her compositions to plants which have the ability to grow and change when different people performing them. And in the last few years inti's music has been championed by an extremely wide range of musicians from Roomful of Teeth to Ensemble Dal Niente to the Kronos Quartet.

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]]> inti figgis-vizueta creates music that carefully balances experimentation and practicality. In her conversation with Frank J. Oteri, she likens her compositions to plants which have the ability to grow and change when different people performing them. And in the last few years inti's music has been championed by an extremely wide range of musicians from Roomful of Teeth to Ensemble Dal Niente to the Kronos Quartet.

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]]> Episode 19: Tania León: The Rhythm of Life https://soundlives.fireside.fm/19 a86c2c19-3e5c-483b-aea1-30b495807cfe Wed, 07 Dec 2022 14:45:00 -0500 Frank J. Oteri full Frank J. Oteri The new music community has been impacted, inspired and transformed by Tania León as a musical creator--as well as an interpreter, educator, and organizer--for decades. 52:20 no The new music community has been impacted, inspired and transformed by Tania León as a musical creator--as well as an interpreter, educator, and organizer--for decades. In the last two years, the rest of the world has caught up with her. In 2021, she received the Pulitzer Prize for Music for her extraordinary orchestral composition Stride which was given its world premiere performance by the New York Philharmonic just a few weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic reached New York City. And in December 2022, she was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors along with George Clooney, Amy Grant, Gladys Knight, and the four members of the Irish rock band U2; to mark the occasion all were greeted at The White House by U.S. President Joe Biden. Back in 1999, Tania León was the very first composer featured in a one-on-one conversation for NewMusicBox; with this new SoundLives podcast recorded more than 23 years later, she is the first person ever so featured twice! New Music USA, NewMusicBox, Amplifying Voices, orchestra, Pulitzer, Kennedy Center Honors, Cuba The new music community has been impacted, inspired and transformed by Tania León as a musical creator--as well as an interpreter, educator, and organizer--for decades. In the last two years, the rest of the world has caught up with her. In 2021, she received the Pulitzer Prize for Music for her extraordinary orchestral composition Stride which was given its world premiere performance by the New York Philharmonic just a few weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic reached New York City. And in December 2022, she was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors along with George Clooney, Amy Grant, Gladys Knight, and the four members of the Irish rock band U2; to mark the occasion all were greeted at The White House by U.S. President Joe Biden. Back in 1999, Tania León was the very first composer featured in a one-on-one conversation for NewMusicBox; with this new SoundLives podcast recorded more than 23 years later, she is the first person ever so featured twice!

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]]> The new music community has been impacted, inspired and transformed by Tania León as a musical creator--as well as an interpreter, educator, and organizer--for decades. In the last two years, the rest of the world has caught up with her. In 2021, she received the Pulitzer Prize for Music for her extraordinary orchestral composition Stride which was given its world premiere performance by the New York Philharmonic just a few weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic reached New York City. And in December 2022, she was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors along with George Clooney, Amy Grant, Gladys Knight, and the four members of the Irish rock band U2; to mark the occasion all were greeted at The White House by U.S. President Joe Biden. Back in 1999, Tania León was the very first composer featured in a one-on-one conversation for NewMusicBox; with this new SoundLives podcast recorded more than 23 years later, she is the first person ever so featured twice!

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]]> Episode 17: Victoria Shen (Evicshen): The Landfill of Meaning https://soundlives.fireside.fm/17 48b615df-baff-42dc-9342-5c2336e453bd Wed, 10 Aug 2022 11:00:00 -0400 Frank J. Oteri full Frank J. Oteri Victoria Shen's needle nails technique is just one of many new approaches to making sounds she uses in her performances and installations. 45:47 yes Victoria Shen's needle nails technique, which was appropriately earlier this summer in a Beyoncé video, is just one of many new approaches to making sounds that Shen (who performs under the moniker Evicshen) uses in her provocative performances and installations. But even though all the sounds she makes, and often all the devices she uses to make them as well, are her own creations, she is ambivalent about describing herself as a composer as she tells Frank J. Oteri in this NewMusicBox podcast. To learn more about Shen and to see as well as hear more of her work, please visit NewMusicBox: https://newmusicusa.org/nmbx/victoria-shen-the-landfill-of-meaning/ experimental music, noise, performance art, sound installation, composer-performer, improvisation, post-modern Victoria Shen's needle nails technique, which was appropriately earlier this summer in a Beyoncé video, is just one of many new approaches to making sounds that Shen (who performs under the moniker Evicshen) uses in her provocative performances and installations. But even though all the sounds she makes, and often all the devices she uses to make them as well, are her own creations, she is ambivalent about describing herself as a composer as she tells Frank J. Oteri in this NewMusicBox podcast. To learn more about Shen and to see as well as hear more of her work, please visit NewMusicBox: https://newmusicusa.org/nmbx/victoria-shen-the-landfill-of-meaning/

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]]> Victoria Shen's needle nails technique, which was appropriately earlier this summer in a Beyoncé video, is just one of many new approaches to making sounds that Shen (who performs under the moniker Evicshen) uses in her provocative performances and installations. But even though all the sounds she makes, and often all the devices she uses to make them as well, are her own creations, she is ambivalent about describing herself as a composer as she tells Frank J. Oteri in this NewMusicBox podcast. To learn more about Shen and to see as well as hear more of her work, please visit NewMusicBox: https://newmusicusa.org/nmbx/victoria-shen-the-landfill-of-meaning/

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]]> Episode 15: Anthony Davis: Any Means Necessary https://soundlives.fireside.fm/15 af01f0f6-39cd-4362-a79d-a92ae1120788 Mon, 16 May 2022 18:45:00 -0400 Frank J. Oteri full Frank J. Oteri Anthony Davis uses jazz, classical, and many other styles in operas dealing with major historic events or important social concerns. 57:36 no For Anthony Davis, whose compositional aesthetics are an amalgamation of several different musical traditions (jazz, Western classical music, gamelan), different kinds of music recall different emotional states and experiences in terms of what the music implies. So it's inevitable that he has devoted so much of his compositional energies to opera, and in particular to using the operatic medium to tell stories that either deal with significant historic events or which focus on important social concerns. As he tells Frank J. Oteri in this latest episode of NewMusicBox's SoundLives podcast, "What we face now ... has made it more urgent for me, as an artist, to present things to challenge those forces." Read more on NewMusicBox: https://newmusicusa.org/nmbx/anthony-davis-any-means-necessary/. NewMusicBox, SoundLives, composer conversation, jazz, opera, social justice, X, Central Park Five For Anthony Davis, whose compositional aesthetics are an amalgamation of several different musical traditions (jazz, Western classical music, gamelan), different kinds of music recall different emotional states and experiences in terms of what the music implies. So it's inevitable that he has devoted so much of his compositional energies to opera, and in particular to using the operatic medium to tell stories that either deal with significant historic events or which focus on important social concerns. As he tells Frank J. Oteri in this latest episode of NewMusicBox's SoundLives podcast, "What we face now ... has made it more urgent for me, as an artist, to present things to challenge those forces." Read more on NewMusicBox: https://newmusicusa.org/nmbx/anthony-davis-any-means-necessary/.

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]]> For Anthony Davis, whose compositional aesthetics are an amalgamation of several different musical traditions (jazz, Western classical music, gamelan), different kinds of music recall different emotional states and experiences in terms of what the music implies. So it's inevitable that he has devoted so much of his compositional energies to opera, and in particular to using the operatic medium to tell stories that either deal with significant historic events or which focus on important social concerns. As he tells Frank J. Oteri in this latest episode of NewMusicBox's SoundLives podcast, "What we face now ... has made it more urgent for me, as an artist, to present things to challenge those forces." Read more on NewMusicBox: https://newmusicusa.org/nmbx/anthony-davis-any-means-necessary/.

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]]> Episode 14: Sarah Hennies: Getting at the Heart of a Sound https://soundlives.fireside.fm/14 fb6a4bb1-e484-4f0e-8dc1-648db3285693 Wed, 23 Mar 2022 11:00:00 -0400 Frank J. Oteri full Frank J. Oteri How we perceive sound on a psychological level as it unfolds over time is key to the sonic experiences that Sarah Hennies creates. 54:29 no How we perceive sound on a psychological level as it unfolds over time is key to the sonic experiences that Sarah Hennies creates. Despite the extremely broad stylistic range of her output, everything from her early collaborative work as part of an experimental rock band to a multimedia documentary to extended duration solo and chamber music compositions for various instrumental combinations, it all shares a concern for extremely precise sonic gestures and involves a great deal of repetition. While Sarah Hennies prides herself on scores that are extremely economical (a score for a nearly 34-minute piece is a mere two pages), the sonorities feel extremely generous. NewMusicBox, New Music USA, experimental music, chamber music, DIY, minimalism, extended durations How we perceive sound on a psychological level as it unfolds over time is key to the sonic experiences that Sarah Hennies creates. Despite the extremely broad stylistic range of her output, everything from her early collaborative work as part of an experimental rock band to a multimedia documentary to extended duration solo and chamber music compositions for various instrumental combinations, it all shares a concern for extremely precise sonic gestures and involves a great deal of repetition. While Sarah Hennies prides herself on scores that are extremely economical (a score for a nearly 34-minute piece is a mere two pages), the sonorities feel extremely generous.

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]]> How we perceive sound on a psychological level as it unfolds over time is key to the sonic experiences that Sarah Hennies creates. Despite the extremely broad stylistic range of her output, everything from her early collaborative work as part of an experimental rock band to a multimedia documentary to extended duration solo and chamber music compositions for various instrumental combinations, it all shares a concern for extremely precise sonic gestures and involves a great deal of repetition. While Sarah Hennies prides herself on scores that are extremely economical (a score for a nearly 34-minute piece is a mere two pages), the sonorities feel extremely generous.

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