Performance artist Meredith Monk. Her interdisciplinary art fuses elements of dance, film, theater and music. Her new collection of songs combines half-sounds like shrieks, sobs and moans into a unified and startling whole.
John Cage is an avant-garde musician known for his "chance compositions," which use "found" sounds. His music mixes Eastern philosophy with Western high-technology. Cage is also an expert on mushrooms. In celebration of his birthday, the Philadelphia Museum of Art is putting on an exhibition of his scores, "John Cage: Scores & Prints." Cage joins the show to discuss his art and philosophy.
Composer and pianist Ray Bryant is currently performing in Philadelphia. A native of the city, he got his start at the Blue Note club. He joins the show to discuss his career in jazz.
Composer and keyboardist Wayne Horvitz was associated with the Manhattan downtown scene of experimental composers and improvisers. Now a resident of Seattle, he fuses his diverse musical influences in a new album called The President.
Composer Saul Chaplin passed away Saturday at the age of 85. We pay tribute to Chaplin by playing a recording of a 1972 interview with Sammy Cahn at New York's 92nd St. Y. Cahn collaborated with Chaplin on many of his most known works.
Composer and writer Allen Shawn is the author of the new memoir, Wish I Could Be There. The book documents his many phobias. Shawn is deathly afraid of a lot of things, including heights, water, fields, parking lots and unknown streets.
Composer Anthony Davis's opera "X" based on the life of Malcolm X, and has just come out on CD. It premiered in 1986. Terry talks with David about what Malcolm X meant to him and why he decided to compose an opera on his life. Davis has received international recognition for his compositions as well as his performances as a solo pianist and the leader of the ensemble Episteme.
Composer Antonio Carlos Jobim, who introduced America and Europe to bossa nova, the sensual, urbane musical idiom of Brazil. Before he started composing bossa novas in the 50s, he wrote symphonies, drawing from his training as a classical musician. His most widely circulated works include "The Girl from Ipanema" and "Desafinado."
Composer and jazz musician Ornette Coleman and his son, producer Denardo Coleman. They've just collaborated on a new album, "Ornette Coleman & Prime Time: Tone Dialing." It's on a new label that Coleman has founded: Harmolodic (a division of Verve Records). In 1959 Coleman he started the era of "free jazz." Since then Coleman has been one of jazz's most innovative and controversial composers. In 1994 Coleman was a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship Award
Composer Erran Baron Cohen's latest CD offers a new take on traditional sounds. He talks about the album — and about collaborating with his brother Sacha Baron Cohen on the movie Borat.
Composer and Broadway director Cy Coleman talks about working with Dorothy Fields in the 1960s and 70's with Dorothy Fields. They collaborated on the Broadway shows "Sweet Charity," and "Seesaw." Coleman is the composer and director of the current Broadway show, The Life.
Composer Allen Shawn's twin sister, Mary, was diagnosed with autism and sent to an institution when they were 8 years old. He writes about his relationship with Mary — and his feelings of survivor's guilt — in a new memoir, Twin.
Composer John Morris is film director Mel Brooks' longtime collaborator. In addition to writing the music for comedies, Morris also scored David Lynch's The Elephant Man.
Composer and clarinetist John Carter's music takes its cues from a variety of American traditions, including jazz, folk songs, and the works of fellow composers Charles Ives and Morton Feldman. Kevin Whitehead reviews Carter's new album, Fields.
Composer Alf Clausen is the man behind the music of "The Simpsons." There's a new compliation CD of music from the animated cartoon TV series, "The Simpsons: Songs in the Key of Springfield" (Rhino).
Composer Bela Bartok was also an accomplished pianist. A new CD features a 1940 recital he gave at the Library of Congress with his longtime friend and collaborator, violinist Joseph Szigeti. Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz says it's amazing the recording exists at all; it opens the door to all great performances of the past.
Composer, director, and writer Elizabeth Swados. She's written a memoir about her family, "The Four of Us." Much of it has to do with her brilliant but schizophrenic brother, Lincoln, and how his illness affected the family. Her brother became a street person, and later died. (published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux).
Composer John Harbison recently won the Pulitzer Prizer. Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews a new CD featuring songs inspired by the poet Mirabai.
Legendary composer, producer, arranger and performer Brian Wilson, formerly of the Beach Boys. He's just come out with his first solo album of new material in ten years. It's "Imagination" (Giant).
