Robert Sheldon is a very well known symphonic band music composer in the U.S. We listened to two works of his and we talked about how he works and how he arrived at his compositions. 

Eduardo Alonso Crespo is a neo-classical composer from Argentina and he shares with us some of his works on the ocassion of Ellie Weingarten's release of a recording of Crespo's double concerto for oboe and clarinet. 

Professor David Lefkowitz teaches composition and music theory at UCLA. We collaborated on a project called "David", which is an oratorio about the life of the biblical King David. We both form part of the Hefner composer group, which did the work and I wanted to share his story and some of his music with you. His music is contemporary classical, which entails an interesting use of dissonance while being melodical too. Kind of a modern post-modern. We took one piece and we stopped it at 2 spots to break down what was happening. It's the first time I do that and I think it worked. I hope you enjoy the podcast. 

Shawn is well known as a choral composer, arranger and also as a songwriter. We talked with him about his different hats and his approach on music.  This is the last episode of Season 1, which was the initial season. We will continue in 2021 with season 2. 

In this episode we talk about composing music and we listen to 3 different works by Kurt Knecht: an organ work, a choral work and a chamber piece for piano and cello. Kurt has a very definite and distinctive style of writing and we chat about composing classical music at this time, we share experiences and we also share a few laughs.

Alex Shapiro is a composer that, these days, writes primarily electroacoustic music for band but that has composed in many styles and genres, from film music to TV music to chamber music to symphonic band music. We talk about her carreer and about combining musicians performing live with a prepared track.

Robyn Lana is the founder and artistic director of the Cincinnati Youth Choir, which in a normal year has 900-1000 singers. I talked with her about running a youth choir during this pandemic and also about programming music for youth and children's choir in general. The podcast ends with a beautiful rendition by the Cincinnati Youth choir  of the work We Will do Miracles by Dominic DiOrio, composed for them. (The music comes in after we say our good byes. )

In this podcast I talk with Proffesor Mark Kligman. director of the Department of Ethnomusicology at UCLA,  about Middle Eastern Music, particularly about the use of two extra tones that do not figure in Western music scales, one which would be between E and Eb and another that would be between B and Bb and how the use of those 2 tones gives Middle Eastern music its unique character.  

Composer Gernot Wolfgang was nominated for a Grammy award in 2016 for his CD Passing Through.  He lives in L.A., writes chamber music and his music uniquely mixes classical and jazz elements, making it original, interesting and accesible. 

In this episode composer Adam Wernick talks with composer Sergio Barer about writing music for the theatre, its peculiarities, its difficulties and its triumphs. We hear several segments of Adam's music- which has been performed in or by The Guthrie Theater, The Shakespeare Theatre Company, The Kennedy Center,  Classic Stage Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, Denver Center Theatre Company, Red Bull Theater, The Wilma Theater, Old Globe Theatre and The Royal Shakespeare Company- and the stories associated with them. It was a lighthearted and fun conversation.