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Evening Music

Saturday, September 01, 2007
  • Ricky Ian Gordon
    Ricky Ian Gordon (Duncan Hannah)

    Spotlight on: Ricky Ian Gordon

    The New York Times describes Ricky Ian Gordon's infectious and deeply moving music as "caviar for a world gorging on pizza." The composer talks about and plays excerpts from his hugely successful operatic version of John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath." Also, Mode Records director Brian Brandt talks about his long and fruitful association with composer John Cage.

    24:33 on WNYC2: A John Cage Festival

Ricky Ian Gordon  (Photo Credit: Duncan Hannah)

Ricky Ian Gordon

The modern-day successor to Leonard Bernstein and Steven Sondheim, composer Ricky Ian Gordon's music has been performed by singers including Renee Fleming, Dawn Upshaw, Audra MacDonald, and Kristin Chenoweth. His opera with librettist Michael Korie, "The Grapes of Wrath," based on Steinbeck's novel, recently premiered in Minnesota to universal acclaim, with subsequent performances at the Utah Opera. In reviewing the opera's premiere, Los Angeles Times critic Mark Swed wrote that Gordon's "great achievement is to merge Broadway and opera... and it is greatly enhanced by his firm control over ensembles and his sheer love for the operatic voice."

view a short video documentary about "The Grapes of Wrath"

Brian Brandt

Brian Brandt

Mode Records director Brian Brandt talks about his experiences in producing John Cage's music, with a description of Cage and Merce Cunningham's 6th avenue loft.

John Cage's discography at Mode Records

The Mostly Mozart Festival on WNYC

Listen on Demand

This year's annual Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center is rife with sounds stretching the spectrum of Requiems, Metamorphoses, and Passions — including the American premiere of composer-in-residence Kaija Saariaho's tale of the sufferings of French mystic Simone Weil, who died of starvation in protest to the Nazi occupation of Paris in 1943.

Deerhoof/Metropolis Ensemble Live Webcast

Evening Music

WNYC and NPR Music team up to bring you this live webcast from the Prospect Park Bandshell, which pairs indie rock sensation Deerhoof with the progressive Metropolis Ensemble. Presented by Celebrate Brooklyn! and Wordless Music, and hosted by David Garland, the program features an ambitious re-imagining of Igor Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, The Rite: Remixed.

Related Links:
Video: Deerhoof fans perform leaked track for WNYC
View photos from the concert
Deerhoof on Spinning on Air (March 18, 2007)
NPR Music
Metropolis Ensemble
Deerhoof
Celebrate Brooklyn!
Wordless Music
Listen on Demand to more Wordless Music Concerts

Wordless Music

Concerts on Demand

WNYC presents web-exclusive concerts from the Wordless Music Series, hosted by Radio Lab's Jad Abumrad. Devoted to the desegregation of musical boundaries, Wordless Music pairs rock and electronic musicians with more traditional chamber and new music performers, to create an entirely new concert experience.

2008 American Music Festival

Listen on Demand

Hosts Terrance McKnight and David Garland curate the 68th annual American Music Festival, featuring "America's Classical Music." Guests include LD Brown a.k.a. Grey Reverend; acclaimed jazz pianist Jason Moran; composer and musicologist Gunther Schuller; culture critic John Rockwell; new music guru John Zorn, and Pulitzer prize-winning composer William Bolcom.