Music is Music

You can find Emily Howell's music all over the internet, but a search for the person comes up empty. She plays no concerts, attends no events, has no email address, and not a single photo comes up under a google search. Join Music is Music host Ria Misra as she talks with composer David Cope about who Emily Howell is--and what Emily Howell means for the future of music.

Ben Lukas Boysen and Sebastian Plano--the composers who wrote the music for the videogame, Everything--join host Ria Misra for a conversation about games, music, and how to build a musical world for a videogame where you can, literally, play the universe.

At times, listening to Manu Delago play music, you might think you hear him play a steel drum, a harp, or a tabla--and yet all of those sounds are actually coming from one instrument: the hang drum. Delago brings his hang into our New York studio for a chat with host, Ria Misra.

Music is Music host Ria Misra visits composer and pianist Vijay Iyer at his home in Harlem to talk about the secret lives of instruments, the everyday art of improvisation, and also just to hear some really beautiful music.

International Space Orchestra founder Nelly Ben Hayoun and NASA Ames Flight Director (and saxophonist) Rusty Hunt are here for part 2 of our music in space series. Join us as we meet a band where you can find astronauts, NASA flight directors, and all kinds of space scientists all clustered around the same piece of music.

Composer Arthur Jeffes joins us to tell us about working with space scientists to transform black holes and exoplanets into music.

Christopher Tignor is a composer, violinist, and software engineer. His emotionally charged scores and unique focus on live, performance-based electro-acoustic practice has won acclaim within both the classical and experimental communities.

From a young age, Sam Shepherd has rejected the idea of neat, tidy musical categories. He studied classical piano growing up, but felt confined by what he calls the "dots on a page." It wasn't until he heard a performer really making a classical piece his own, breaking out of strictly classical feel, that he was hooked. Now, Shepherd writes music under the alias "Floating Points." Influences of classical, jazz, electronica, pop, and world music all blend to create a sound that doesn't fit squarely into any one style. This episode features a piece titled "Peroration Six," which Shepherd describes as careening towards and then falling into a black hole. To find out more about the music of "Floating Points," check out the website floatingpoints.co.uk. Music is Music is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Melody Parker loves to dance. When she wrote the music for her album "Archipelago," she didn't start with a catchy tune, or harmonies, or rhythm. She started with movement. On this episode of Music is Music, Melody Parker tells us all about her love of dance and movement. And we'll hear about the acoustic worlds she creates, both in her music and elsewhere. Have a listen, and hear the music that Parker describes as "chamber pop," chamber music with a catchy, pop feel. To find out more about Melody Parker, head over to her website, http://www.soundsmelodious.com/. Music is Music is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The path to becoming a Washington D.C. advisor on climate science and global warming is easy. First study piano and double bass. Then, get a degree in composition. Next thing you know, you're a climate scientist. At least, this is how it happened for Taylor Jordan. Jordan records under the name The Greatest Hoax, a name he borrowed from Senator James Inhofe's (R-OK) 2012 book. The book is a shot across the bow of mainstream science and claims of global warming. So it's fair to say Jordan, a climate scientist who advises members of Congress on climate science, has a bit of a cheeky streak. The name of his 2015 album, "Enso," has ties to Jordan's day job too. It's the acronym for El Nino Southern Oscillation, commonly shortened to El Nino. Now that you've learned something, why not have a listen? Check out The Greatest Hoax on this episode of Music is Music. To find out more about what Taylor Jordan is up to, head over to his Bandcamp page. https://vimeo.com/163992792 Music is Music is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.