On this episode, I speak with a young composer of new orchestral music, Hamish Ander.  Hamish joined me from Melbourne, Australia where he uses modern music technologies to bring new orchestral music to life.  He and I met through a mutual friend, and I was immediately impressed by his ability to create convincing simulacra of orchestral performances.  He uses a keen, classically-trained ear to navigate complex modern music technologies.  In addition to creating his own new musical works, he helps other composers get a realistic snapshot of orchestral music without the massive investment of hiring a live ensemble. His is a refreshing and genuine emerging musical voice and I know you will enjoying hearing him share about his journey into classical music on this episode.  For my composer friends, if you'd like to connect directly with Hamish to help with your work, please send me an email at [email protected] and I can connect you directly.

In this episode, I am honored to welcome composer Peter Boyer to the Anachronism podcast. 

Peter and I recorded this interview shortly before the highly successful premiere of his newest work, Balance of Power, upon which we touched in our discussion:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/lang-lang-kennedy-center-nso-concert/2021/09/19/5e146496-1945-11ec-8380-5fbadbc43ef8_story.html

Peter and I crossed paths in conservatory at the Hartt School in Connecticut when we were students. He has gone from there to become one of the most frequently performed American orchestral composers of his generation. His works have received over 500 public performances by nearly 200 orchestras, and thousands of broadcasts by classical radio stations around the United States and abroad. He has conducted recordings of his music with three of the world’s finest orchestras: the London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He has received commissions from several of the most esteemed American institutions and ensembles, including the Kennedy Center for the National Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops, Cincinnati Pops, and “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band. Other orchestras which have performed his music include the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Houston Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Nashville Symphony, and Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.

We talk about how he got started writing 'classical' music and he shares some of the human side of his journey with orchestral music.  I know you'll be enriched by our discussion.

You can learn more about him and his work at https://propulsivemusic.com 

- Photo of Peter Boyer courtesy of Danika Singfield.

We are back with some active listening. In this episode, I share a recent release, Phi. 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/1djFGNxniWf98LWVO1w5Wk

Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/album/phi-feat-peter-pejtsik-the-budapest-film-orchestra/1563857077?i=1563857078

This orchestral work derives its name from its structural reliance upon a special mathematical relationship known by the greek letter that denotes it.  This musical ratio has a long history of influence in the arts, and its manifestations in the natural world are ubiquitous. You'll note the nautilus shell in the album art...there's one clue for you. You can read about Phi and the Golden Proportion (aka the Golden Ratio or Golden Mean) here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio

To help you hear the structure of this piece, I share a poem that is built upon the same structural approach.  You will hear Phi in words and music on this episode.  

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On this episode, I share insight into my latest release Terra, the Bringer of Life. It was written for a special series of concerts commemorating the 100th anniversary of Gustav Holst's The Planets. I share snippets of the arrangement and line them up with Terra.

Spotify: 

https://open.spotify.com/track/6CY1MNTjfMqpMWydSthnya?si=16b5984ec28241ad

Apple Music:

https://music.apple.com/us/album/terra-the-bringer-of-life-single/1552408114

In part two of my conversation with Steve, we turn out attention to his work as a composer and how it was that 'classical' music entered his life. I had the pleasure of co-producing concerts in LA with Steve in 2009-2010. Here's a link to our performance of his work, With You Always

Composer Richard Wagner

This is the first of a two-part conversation with filmmaker and composer, Stephen Ashley Blake. In this episode, we discuss his current film project, Steal Away. https://stealawaymovie.com/

It is the story of how the Fisk Jubilee Singers brought the music of the Spiritual to the world. The influence of their legacy has touched almost every form of modern music making around the world.  We talk about the film and the singers' legacy.

Here are links to some of what we touch on:

The book that inspired the film Dark Midnight When I Rise

The Cubism of Picasso https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubism

Black Historian W.E.B DuBois' work The Souls of Black Folk

Composer Billy Childs' chamber jazz piece Scarborough Fair

It was a year ago that Benjamin and I spoke about his fine piano artistry on my album, The Gilded Age.  In this second half of our conversation, he plays a bit of music for us and gives us a look inside Liszt's monumental Piano Sonata in b-minor. 

You can connect with Benjamin on Instagram (@bhardingmusic), facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/benjamin.harding) and his website www.benjaminhardingmusic.com/blog

It was a year ago that Benjamin and I spoke about his fine piano artistry on my album, The Gilded Age.  With a strange year for so many of us, I wanted to reach back to him to catch up. In this episode he shares an up-close look at the challenge of learning a really challenging piano masterpiece (Franz Liszt's b-minor Piano Sonata), and shares his thoughts about it. We get a glimpse of the technical and emotional challenges such a works presents.  I divided our discussion into two parts.  In part 1, we discuss a little bit about how life has changed for performers in the last year, and we dive into the piece.

You can connect with Benjamin on Instagram (@bhardingmusic), facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/benjamin.harding) and his website www.benjaminhardingmusic.com/blog

In this episode, I welcome back composer, author, and educator Jeffrey Nytch.  Jeff and I spoke last year about his music, how he discovered the orchestral tradition, and we listened to some of his symphonic music.  In this episode, I touch base with Jeff to hear about the bi-aural audio project he was presenting in Boulder, CO, and then we turn to the impacts of our society's response to the COIVD pandemic on the art and livelihood of classical performers.  It is a conversation filled with insight, and hope, and hope you find his comments as engaging as I did.  You can keep up with Jeff at this website:  https://jeffreynytch.com

We're back after a harrowing escape from a potential lifetime of imprisonment in a mysterious musical prison (h/t The Golden Sparrow).  I had the opportunity in September to have a discussion with an outstanding composer and musician, Leanna Primiani, and that conversation is in this episode. Like all my guests, Leanna shares a bit of how she encountered 'classical' music and how it seized her imagination for a lifetime of music creation.  She composes music for media (film/tv/video games) as well as for the orchestral concert stage.  We talk about her sensitivity to the mixture of colors and how this led her to explore the introduction of electronic sounds into the fabric of the orchestra. She's an engaging guest and I know you will enjoy hearing her insights.  Take a moment to learn more about her and hear her music at her website: http://www.leannaprimiani.net/