Artist Propulsion Lab

Cellist Zlatomir Fung presents a new audio Christmas audio drama!

This week, mezzo Briana Hunter takes us inside "At Ease," the song cycle she commissioned, with the composer Jasmine Barnes, and poet Rio Cortez.

Violinist Alexi Kenney explores the violin music of composers Samuel Barber and John Cage.

In September, Shelley Washington premiered her new saxophone quartet, “Eternal Present,” on New Sounds. Now, Shelley takes us inside how she composed it.

Mezzo Briana Hunter talks with fellow singers Martina Arroyo, Denyce Graves, and Hannah Jones about issues in opera across generations.

The Artist Propulsion Lab podcast returns with reflections on grief and music from violinist and composer Curtis Stewart.

At the start of his time with the Artist Propulsion Lab, composer and saxophonist Steven Banks set out to compose a piece of music that explores meditation and mindfulness, and in which the music and meditation were supportive partners. The result is Begin Again, created in collaboration with Ten Percent Happier meditation teacher Matthew Hepburn. Begin Again uses guided meditative exploration and musical composition to lend insight into the ways that we relate to struggles within ourselves and in the world. On the final episode of this year's Artist Propulsion Lab, Steven and Matthew take us inside Begin Again, followed by a performance of the entire piece.

Program:

Steven Banks and Matthew Hepburn: Begin Again

Steven Banks, saxophone; Matthew Hepburn, meditation; Andrew Yee, cello; Xak Bjerken, piano

Cellist and composer Andrew Yee (she/they) presents an audio memoir of identity and belonging through music. For several years, they have been exploring their identity through a recital series called Halfie. This memoir draws on their Halfie recital in the Greene Space, as well as conversations with Andrew, their dad Harry Yee, and their friend, composer and cellist Paul Wiancko.

All works performed by Andrew Yee, except where otherwise noted:

Leilehua Lanzilotti: kʻou inoa

Caroline Shaw: In Manus Tuas

Andrew Yee: The Light After

Andrew Norman: For Ashley, by arrangement with Concord Music

Andrew Yee: The Sea As It Is

Paul Wiancko: American Haiku  (with Ayane Kozasa, viola)

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II: "Oh What a Beautiful Mornin'" from Oklahoma! by arrangement with Concord Music

This episode contains discussions of syphilis. If you are concerned you have syphilis or another sexually transmitted infection, you can find information about sexual health clinics in New York City here.

This Composer is Sick wraps up with an exploration of how syphilis affected the life, works, and death of American composer Scott Joplin. Host Emi Ferguson and her guests, Joplin biographer and ragtime scholar Edward Berlin, and syphilis researcher Sheila Lukehart, look at Joplin's life as he battled syphilis, particularly his last years in New York, as he worked to stage a production of his opera, Treemonisha.

Recordings:

“Frolic of the Bears” by Scott Joplin, performed by The Paragon Ragtime Orchestra and Singers. From the sound recording Scott Joplin: Treemonisha. New World Records #80720-2 (p) & © 2011 Anthology of Recorded Music, Inc. Used by permission. Available here.

"The Entertainer" by Scott Joplin, performed by Benjamin Loeb, courtesy of Naxos of America

"Maple Leaf Rag" performed by the United States Marine Band

"Maple Leaf Rag" performed by Jade Simmons; "A Real Slow Drag" from Treemonisha performed by Laquita Mitchell and Joshua Rifkin, from WQXR Presents: Joplin at 150 in the Greene Space, November 2019

"Magnetic Rag" performed by Lara Downes from Scott Joplin's New York in the Greene Space, March 2022

Additional recording of "A Real Slow Drag" from Treemonisha by Emi Ferguson

Additional thanks to the NYC Municipal Archives, the National Archives, and the New York Public Radio Archives for archival audio.

This episode contains discussions of syphilis. If you are concerned you have syphilis or another sexually transmitted infection, you can find information about sexual health clinics in New York City here.

There's something strange in the last movement of Bedřich Smetana's String Quartet No. 1, "From My Own Life." In the middle of a lively finale, the quartet breaks off, followed by a mysterious high note. What does it all mean? How is it connected to his syphilis? All that and more on this episode of This Composer is Sick.

Our Favorite Smetana videos:

Featured recordings of Smetana's works:

“The Moldau" from Má vlast by Bedřich Smetana, performed by the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, cond. Antoni Wit, courtesy of Naxos of America, Inc.

String Quartet No. 1 in E Minor, "From My Own Life," 4. Vivace - performed by the Travnicek Quartet, courtesy of EMG Classical