Composer and sound designer Hannis Brown has created and mixed music for podcasts and radio programs including Death, Sex & Money, Trump, Inc., The Anthropocene Reviewed, A Piece of Work with Abbi Jacobson, There Goes The Neighborhood: LA, The United States of Anxiety and Morning Edition. He was awarded a 2015 Peabody award for production on WQXR’s Meet the Composer and has been commissioned by the ETHEL String Quartet, the Colorado Symphony, Barneys New York and the new-music collective Hotel Elefant. He currently works on podcasts with the WNYC Narrative Unit.
Hannis Brown appears in the following:
Keeping Score: Part 1
Thursday, June 09, 2022
Two sports programs – rivals under a single roof – are set to merge. Students ask what it will take for the building to live up to its new motto: “We Are One.”
Fighting to Remember Mississippi Burning
Thursday, May 19, 2022
At the height of Freedom Summer, the KKK killed three civil-rights workers in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Now, reporter Ko Bragg searches for memories in a town that would rather forget.
P.S. I Love You: Renée Fleming Sings Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin
Wednesday, December 01, 2021
For the Season 3 finale, star soprano Renée Fleming explores what it’s like to be in love, vulnerable, and courageous enough to hit “send.”
Potion, Emotion, Devotion: Wagner's Tristan und Isolde
Wednesday, November 03, 2021
In the vast catalogue of great, doomed love affairs, the story of an Irish Princess, a Cornish Knight, and a potion switcheroo takes you to a whole new realm.
Blanchard's Fire Shut Up in My Bones: A Boy of Peculiar Grace
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
Sometimes the journey to self-acceptance begins when you find the strength to face your past and leave it the road.
Verdi's Nabucco: By the Rivers of Babylon
Wednesday, September 29, 2021
With text from the Book of Psalms and an unforgettable melody, Giuseppe Verdi proved that there’s no place like home, especially when you can never return.
Once More Into the Breeches: Joyce DiDonato Sings Strauss
Wednesday, September 15, 2021
Love and great art have the power to transform you, especially when you’re wearing pants.
Breaking Mad: Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor
Wednesday, August 25, 2021
A woman loses her grasp on reality and finds the only freedom available to her in murder and madness.
Crisis in the Kremlin: Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov
Wednesday, August 11, 2021
A tsar comes to power, but quickly realizes he’s powerless.
Only the Good Die Young: Verdi's La Traviata
Wednesday, July 21, 2021
A great woman dies, and lives forever.
The Great Seed Panic of 2020
Thursday, July 15, 2021
Last summer, home deliveries of unsolicited Chinese seeds sent Americans into a panic. Writer Chris Heath has discovered an explanation that many, including the USDA, don’t believe.
Guys and Dolls: Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann
Wednesday, July 07, 2021
What separates humans from machines is our ability to love, to dream, and to believe in an illusion.
How the Right’s Anti-Trans Hate Machine Works
Monday, June 28, 2021
More than 100 anti-Trans bills have been introduced across 30 states since January. We find out what’s happening — both in the courts and in society — and what still needs to be done.
Strauss's Elektra: Waltzing With a Vengeance
Wednesday, June 23, 2021
Sometimes the most terrifying thing in life -- and in opera -- is to be alone with your thoughts. In her solitary moments, Richard Strauss's Elektra is consumed by one, dark obsession.
Why We Must Vote
Monday, June 21, 2021
New York City faces a consequential election. We look at the history of our local election laws. Plus, the mastermind behind new voting restrictions nationally.
David Dinkins vs. the NYPD
Monday, June 14, 2021
How NYC’s first Black mayor tried to balance concerns about public safety with demands for a more accountable police force -- and the violent resistance he faced from the police union.
Puccini's Tosca: Death is But a Dream
Wednesday, June 09, 2021
What will you think about before you die?
The Dawn of ‘Anti-Racist’ America
Monday, June 07, 2021
Ibram X. Kendi reflects on a shifting political culture -- and the fierce backlash against it. Plus, a remembrance of the 1921 Tulsa massacre.
The ‘Big Bang’ in Jazz History
Monday, May 31, 2021
Composer Jason Moran takes Kai on a musical journey back to 1918, when a group of Black soldiers reinvented American music.
How NYPD ‘Kettled’ the Spirit of Reform
Monday, May 24, 2021
New Yorkers reacted to George Floyd’s murder with mass protests demanding police accountability. NYPD met them with targeted violence and abuse.
