Paul Simon has always been attracted to new kinds of sounds. From his early band Simon & Garfunkel in the 1960s through solo albums like Graceland and Rhythm of the Saints in the '80s and '90s, up through his recent albums So Beautiful or So Wh

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith's 'Clouds Forming Over Mount Baker'

Jun 12th, 2017 15m 47s

We began last week’s episode digging into the music of one particular electronic musician - the synthesist, producer and composer Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith.Today we’re thrilled to bring you a song that you won’t hear on any of Kaitlyn’s albums. Cl

The Producer

Jun 5th, 2017 1h

What happens when a composer writes music without pen and paper, using machines? How does that change the creative process? How does it morph the art itself? Today on Meet the Composer, our producer Alex Overington — usually behind the studio

Bryce Dessner's 'Wires,' Performed by Ensemble Intercontemporain

May 22nd, 2017 21m 56s

For today’s Bonus Track, we’re thrilled to bring you the world-premiere recording of Bryce Dessner’s Wires, performed by Ensemble Intercontemporain!Last week, we dug into a particularly contentious moment in classical music’s history. This wee

New Music Fight Club

May 15th, 2017 44m 10s

It was composer pitted against composer: uptown vs. downtown, tonal vs. atonal, left brain vs right brain, and these musicians were NOT pulling any punches. Composers were antagonizing each other, questioning each other's validity, and bad-mout

Henry Threadgill’s Zooid, Live at the Village Vanguard

May 8th, 2017 20m 24s

Henry Threadgill’s music and community can’t be separated; there is no boundary: challenge and failure and growth in music are the same as challenge and failure and growth in life. This Meet the Composer bonus track shares an exclusive performa

Henry Threadgill: Dirt, and More Dirt

May 1st, 2017 41m 48s

1967, Fort Riley, Kansas. Henry Threadgill is 23 years old. Knowing he’s going to be drafted into the military, he joins the Army Concert Band, hoping to focus on his passion: writing music. As he surrounds himself with new ideas, he works his

Bonus Track: John Adams' 'Coast,' Unplugged

Mar 21st, 2017 13m 28s

Today's bonus track is an exclusive arrangement of a nutso, sci-fi-y electronic piece John Adams wrote in 1993. Originally part of a larger work, Hoodoo Zephyr, Coast was never intended to be performed live. However, the 20-person chamber ensem

Splitting Adams: John Adams' Chamber Symphonies

Mar 20th, 2017 36m 27s

What happens when the composer shows up to the first rehearsal of his brand-new piece? Would a living Beethoven sue for intellectual property? Are you the hit, or are you in the hole? For this episode, we collaborated with the 20-member chamber

Bonus Track: Pauline Oliveros' 'Tuning Meditation'

Mar 16th, 2017 25m 2s

Today's Bonus Track is an extended cut of Pauline Oliveros' "Tuning Meditation," recorded live at the Fuentidueña Chapel at the Met Cloisters on Jan. 20, 2017. Recorded in 3D-sounding binaural audio, it's an immersive experience in which we wou

The Performer: Part Two, Pauline

Mar 14th, 2017 33m 15s

We continue our investigation of the odd, wrong-side-of-the-tv-set role of The Performer with a deep dive into the "Sonic Meditations" of pioneering American composer Pauline Oliveros. Pauline manages to smudge at the distinction between compos

Bonus Track: JACK Quartet Performs Georg Friedrich Haas' String Quartet No. 9

Mar 7th, 2017 51m 42s

We are thrilled to bring you a WORLD PREMIERE recording as our first bonus track of Season Three!Our previous episode, The Performer: Part One, featured, among other things, a fascinating conversation with the Austrian composer Georg Friedrich

The Performer: Part One

Mar 6th, 2017 46m 17s

We're kicking off Season Three with a look beyond the composer to the performer, that unusual intermediary between the artist and the audience. How do performers from different cultures, who speak different languages, come together to perform t

From the Vaults, Part Five: Meet the Composer With Leonard Bernstein

Mar 3rd, 2017 13m 23s

We conclude the week-long ramp-up to our next and third season with an interview with the legendary, charismatic Leonard Bernstein. Though mostly known for his work as a composer (West Side Story) and conductor (New York Philharmonic), Leonard

From the Vaults, Part Four: Meet the Composer With Libby Larsen

Mar 2nd, 2017 10m 56s

A blast from the past featuring the composer Libby Larsen. Larsen explains how living in Minneapolis facilitated her success as a composer, and how federal regulations in Title IX provided an uplift to women composers in the U.S. This week, we'

From the Vaults, Part Three: Meet the Composer With Otto Luening

Mar 1st, 2017 11m 13s

Otto Luening was a forefather of experimental electronic music and a life-long educator, flutist and composer. In this 1985 interview with host Tim Page, from the original WNYC program called Meet the Composer, Luening tells the story of his fi

Scrapbook Radio - Tim Page

Feb 28th, 2017 11m 38s

Meet the Composer with Nadia Sirota – Q2 Music's podcast about the musical creative process – returns for its third season on Monday, March 6. Pre-game for the new season with a week of clips from the original WNYC radio program. Meet the Compo

From the Vaults, Part Two: Meet the Composer With John Cage

Feb 28th, 2017 12m 28s

We continue the week-long ramp-up to our next and third season with an interview with the widely influential patriarch of 20th-century experimental music John Cage. In this conversation with host Tim Page, Cage explains how his strenuous connec

From the Vaults, Part One: Meet the Composer With Tim Page

Feb 27th, 2017 11m 46s

As we build up to the launch of our third season next Monday, we thought we'd look back at the original WNYC radio program Meet the Composer from the mid-'80s, hosted by the illustrious music critic Tim Page. We'll share excerpts of his intervi

Watch 360-Degree Video: Meet the Composer at the Met Cloisters

Jan 10th, 2017

On Friday, Jan. 20 at 3 pm, Meet the Composer and host Nadia Sirota welcomed audiences to the Met Cloisters for an afternoon of radio- and music-making. Over one hundred people gathered to sing Pauline Oliveros's Tuning Meditation in the illust

Kickstart Season Three of Meet the Composer

May 10th, 2016 3m 35s

Help us make a third season of the Peabody Award-winning podcast about the creative musical process, with host Nadia Sirota. Learn more about our ambitions for next season and help make Season Three a reality by backing our Kickstarter campaign

Download: 'Viola Concerto: Part II' by Nico Muhly

Dec 28th, 2015 10m 2s

I'm so excited to share today's Meet the Composer bonus track with you. Last October, I traveled to Detroit to perform the US premiere of Nico Muhly's viola concerto with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Leonard Slatkin. The orchest

Nico Muhly: I. Trial By Fire

Dec 11th, 2015 22m 7s

Nico grew up in Providence, but spent odd corridors of his youth abroad, acquiring languages quickly and setting the tone for his current, punishing travel schedule. He was a child chorister who became deeply obsessed with the American minimali

Nico Muhly: Community Theater

Dec 11th, 2015 1h 2m

First, a disclaimer. I wanna make something clear right off the bat here: I'm completely in the tank for Nico Muhly. We went to college together and he has been one of my best friends and most frequent collaborators ever since. But! He is deepl

Nico Muhly: II. Working Together

Dec 11th, 2015 14m 59s

Nico has worked with film directors, librettists, clarinet players and choreographers, and has written arrangements for an impressive roster of bands and songwriters. His love of communication in all forms, warts and all, lends itself beautiful