Music

Saturday, May 26 - Saturday, June 2 2007

WNYC hosts John Schaefer, David Garland, Brad Cresswell and WNYC’s Evening Music host Lauren Rico spearhead a week-long series of conversations and great music, joined by guest hosts Robert Spano, George Steel, and Helga Davis. Special guests also include Osvaldo Golijov, Brandon Ross, Mark Stewart, and Arlene Sierra.

In addition, our HD Channel and internet classical stream WNYC2 features round-the-clock programming that both highlights and expands our daily musical offerings, including encore episodes of New Sounds Live that showcase significant American premieres you won't hear anywhere else.

Broadcast Schedule

Saturday, May 26

9:30pm: American Music Festival Kick-off

Festival artistic consultant Robert Spano talks American Music, and David Garland presents an introduction to some of the music that will be talked about and heard in depth during the coming week.

Sunday, May 27

7pm: Spinning On Air: American Song Now (special two-hour show 7-9 pm)

For WNYC's American Music Festival, host David Garland illuminates the extraordinary vitality of current American songwriting by drawing on the show's library of unique in-studio performances. Hear daring, powerful, personal songs by genre-bending innovators Deerhoof, Dirty Projectors, Larkin Grimm, Feathers, Sufjan Stevens, Akron/Family, Lisa Germano, Death Vessel, Weird Weeds, Devendra Banhart, Wooden Wand, Diane Cluck, David Deporis, Rio en Medio, and others.

9-11pm: American Music from the Archives

David Garland spins American music from the WNYC archive, including WNYC commissions and premieres

Monday, May 28

7pm: Plugging In: The Electric Guitar as concert instrument

John Schaefer and Mark Stewart explore the concert music of composers Glenn Branca, Nick Ditkowsky, Steve Mackey, and Scott Johnson, side by side with the guitar gods and source material that inspired them, from Hendrix to Zappa.

10pm: Encore presentation of Spotlight on Brandon Ross

Guitarist Brandon Ross chats with David Garland about what inspires his compositional process and about his latest recording. Ross has been Cassandra Wilson’s musical director and guitarist, and has worked with artists ranging from Henry Threadgill to Jewel. He also has several highly acclaimed recordings as a leader, as well as a member of the trio Harriet Tubman.

Tuesday, May 29

7pm: That VOICE: A ramble through some iconic American voices

Guests host Helga Davis and WNYC’s Brad Cresswell explore the distinctly American sound of Meredith Monk, Cathy Berberian, Diamanda Galas, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Leontyne Price, Abby Lincoln, and Nina Simone.

10pm: Exclusive broadcast of the Young People’s Chorus’s Sixth Transient Glory Concert, featuring world premieres by Bruce Adolphe, Michael Gordon, Meredith Monk and Tarik O'Regan.

The program opens with "Kadrilaland" by Estonian composer Veljo Tormis and the concert is hosted by John Schaefer.

Wednesday, May 30

7pm: The New Americans

Robert Spano and Osvaldo Golijov consider music of newly-naturalized Americans, including Tan Dun, Bright Shang, Esa Pekka Salonen and Golijov.

9pm: More New Americans

Evening Music presents another new American, Björk, with highlights from her recent concert at the United Palace.

Thursday, May 31:

7pm: Turning 40 with George Steel

George Steel, a member of the generation that recently turned 40, chats with and plays the music of his coevals, including Derek Bermel, Jennifer Higdon and Jason Eckerdt. Together they will explore how pop forms such as punk, hip hop and ‘80’s rock informed the musical dialect of this generation.

10pm: Spotlight on Arlene Sierra

Join WNYC’s David Garland for a chat with composer Arlene Sierra. An American currently living in the UK, having recently been appointed Lecturer in Composition at Cardiff University, Sierra explores the interplay between structure and atmosphere in her works. She has been commissioned by the Tanglewood Music Festival, among many others, and her works have been performed by some of the world’s foremost orchestras, chamber ensembles and soloists. Sierra’s ongoing collaboration with the Anita Cheng Dance Company of New York has also led to performances with many other dance companies. We’ll talk to Sierra about her creative process, inspirations, and upcoming performances.

Friday, June 1

7pm: Kids Say The Darndest Things: American Music after the Age of Aquarius

David Garland chats with Nico Muhly, R. Luke Dubois, Payton MacDonald, and other still-emerging composers for whom amplification, sampling, digital manipulation and electronics are just part of their standard compositional toolbox.

Following the interview segment, Garland offers the chance to hear an emerging musical scene and style in which young composers are writing complex, minimalist pieces using rock instrumentation. This all-out, high-energy music is evolving and growing, and is represented by such bands as Battles, Zs, Dirty Projectors, Seductive Sprigs, Electric Kompany, and Hypercolor.

10pm: Spotlight on Montserrat Torras

The Boston-based composer Montserrat Torras joins David for a discussion of her work, which often incorporates the improvisational musical elements of her native Spain.

Saturday, June 2

8pm: The MTT Files premieres on WNYC with “What Does American Sound Like?”

9pm: American Music from the Archives

David Garland spins American music from the WNYC archive, including WNYC commissions and premieres.

Sunday, June 3

9pm: Gilbert Kaplan hosts a special edition of Mad About Music, which explores the popularity of American composers by revisiting appearances of 11 of its 55 guests who chose an American work to be played on the show – including Tom Brokaw, Alan Alda, Renee Fleming and Condoleezza Rice.