Podcast appearances and mentions of christopher theofanidis

“Art is a form of prayer … a way to enter into relationship.”Artist and theologian Bruce Herman reflects on the sacred vocation of making, resisting consumerism, and the divine invitation to become co-creators. From Mark Rothko to Rainer Maria Rilke, to Andres Serrano's “Piss Christ” and T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets, he comments on the holy risk of artmaking and the sacred fire of creative origination.Together with Evan Rosa, Bruce Herman explores the divine vocation of art making as resistance to consumer culture and passive living. In this deeply poetic and wide-ranging conversation—and drawing from his book *Makers by Nature—*he invites us into a vision of art not as individual genius or commodity, but as service, dialogue, and co-creation rooted in love, not fear. They touch on ancient questions of human identity and desire, the creative implications of being made in the image of God, Buber's I and Thou, the scandal of the cross, Eliot's divine fire, Rothko's melancholy ecstasy, and how even making a loaf of bread can be a form of holy protest. A profound reflection on what it means to be human, and how we might change our lives—through beauty, vulnerability, and relational making.Episode Highlights“We are made by a Maker to be makers.”“ I think hope is being stolen from us Surreptitiously moment by moment hour by hour day by day.”“There is no them. There is only us.”“The work itself has a life of its own.”“Art that serves a community.”“You must change your life.” —Rilke, recited by Bruce Herman in reflection on the transformative power of art.“When we're not making something, we're not whole. We're not healthy.”“Making art is a form of prayer. It's a form of entering into relationship.”“Art is not for the artist—any more than it's for anyone else. The work stands apart. It has its own voice.”“We're not merely consumers—we're made by a Maker to be makers.”“The ultimate act of art is hospitality.”Topics and ThemesHuman beings are born to create and make meaningArt as theological dialogue and spiritual resistanceCreative practice as a form of love and worshipChristian art and culture in dialogue with contemporary issuesPassive consumption vs. active creationHow to engage with provocative art faithfullyThe role of beauty, mystery, and risk in the creative processArt that changes you spiritually, emotionally, and intellectuallyThe sacred vocation of the artist in a consumerist worldHow poetry and painting open up divine encounter, particularly in Rainer Maria Rilke's “Archaic Torso of Apollo”Four Quartets and spiritual longing in modern poetryHospitality, submission, and service as aesthetic posturesModern culture's sickness and art as medicineEncountering the cross through contemporary artistic imagination“Archaic Torso of Apollo”Rainer Maria Rilke 1875 –1926We cannot know his legendary head with eyes like ripening fruit. And yet his torso is still suffused with brilliance from inside, like a lamp, in which his gaze, now turned to low, gleams in all its power. Otherwise the curved breast could not dazzle you so, nor could a smile run through the placid hips and thighs to that dark center where procreation flared. Otherwise this stone would seem defaced beneath the translucent cascade of the shoulders and would not glisten like a wild beast's fur: would not, from all the borders of itself, burst like a star: for here there is no place that does not see you. You must change your life.About Bruce HermanBruce Herman is a painter, writer, educator, and speaker. His art has been shown in more than 150 exhibitions—nationally in many US cities, including New York, Boston, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Houston—and internationally in England, Japan, Hong Kong, Italy, Canada, and Israel. His artwork is featured in many public and private art collections including the Vatican Museum of Modern Religious Art in Rome; The Cincinnati Museum of Fine Arts print collection; The Grunewald Print Collection of the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; DeCordova Museum in Boston; the Cape Ann Museum; and in many colleges and universities throughout the United States and Canada.Herman taught at Gordon College for nearly four decades, and is the founding chair of the Art Department there. He held the Lothlórien Distinguished Chair in Fine Arts for more than fifteen years, and continues to curate exhibitions and manage the College art collection there. Herman completed both BFA and MFA degrees at Boston University College of Fine Arts under American artists Philip Guston, James Weeks, David Aronson, Reed Kay, and Arthur Polonsky. He was named Boston University College of Fine Arts Distinguished Alumnus of the Year 2006.Herman's art may be found in dozens of journals, popular magazines, newspapers, and online art features. He and co-author Walter Hansen wrote the book Through Your Eyes, 2013, Grand Rapids, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, a thirty-year retrospective of Herman's art as seen through the eyes of his most dedicated collector.To learn more, explore A Video Portrait of the Artist and My Process – An Essay by Bruce Herman.Books by Bruce Herman*Makers by Nature: Letters from a Master Painter on Faith, Hope, and Art* (2025) *Ordinary Saints (*2018) *Through Your Eyes: The Art of Bruce Herman (2013) *QU4RTETS with Makoto Fujimura, Bruce Herman, Christopher Theofanidis, Jeremy Begbie (2012) A Broken Beauty (2006)Show NotesBruce Herman on Human Identity as MakersWe are created in the image of God—the ultimate “I Am”—and thus made to create.“We are made by a Maker to be makers.”To deny our creative impulse is to risk a deep form of spiritual unhealth.Making is not just for the “artist”—everyone is born with the capacity to make.Theological Themes and Philosophical FrameworksInfluences include Martin Buber's “I and Thou,” René Girard's scapegoating theory, and the image of God in Genesis.“We don't really exist for ourselves. We exist in the space between us.”The divine invitation is relational, not autonomous.Desire, imitation, and submission form the core of our relational anthropology.Art as Resistance to Consumerism“We begin to enter into illness when we become mere consumers.”Art Versus PropagandaCulture is sickened by passive consumption, entertainment addiction, and aesthetic commodification.Making a loaf of bread, carving wood, or crafting a cocktail are acts of cultural resistance.Desire“Anything is resistance… Anything is a protest against passive consumption.”Art as Dialogue and Submission“Making art is a form of prayer. It's a form of entering into relationship.”Submission—though culturally maligned—is a necessary posture in love and art.Engaging with art requires openness to transformation.“If you want to really receive what a poem is communicating, you have to submit to it.”The Transformative Power of Encountering ArtQuoting Rilke's Archaic Torso of Apollo: “You must change your life.”True art sees the viewer and invites them to become something more.Herman's own transformative moment came unexpectedly in front of a Rothko painting.“The best part of my work is outside of my control.”Scandal, Offense, and the Cross in ArtAnalyzing Andres Serrano's Piss Christ as a sincere meditation on the commercialization of the cross.“Does the crucifixion still carry sacred weight—or has it been reduced to jewelry?”Art should provoke—but out of love, not self-aggrandizement or malice.“The cross is an offense. Paul says so. But it's the power of God for those being saved.”Beauty, Suffering, and Holy RiskEncounter with art can arise from personal or collective suffering.Bruce references Christian Wiman and Walker Percy as artists opened by pain.“Sometimes it takes catastrophe to open us up again.”Great art offers not escape, but transformation through vulnerability.The Fire and the Rose: T. S. Eliot's InfluenceFour Quartets shaped Herman's artistic and theological imagination.Eliot's poetry is contemplative, musical, liturgical, and steeped in paradox.“To be redeemed from fire by fire… when the fire and the rose are one.”The collaborative Quartets project with Makoto Fujimura and Chris Theofanidis honors Eliot's poetic vision.Living and Creating from Love, Not Fear“Make from love, not fear.”Fear-driven art (or politics) leads to manipulation and despair.Acts of love include cooking, serving, sharing, and creating for others.“The ultimate act of art is hospitality.”Media & Intellectual ReferencesMakers by Nature by Bruce HermanFour Quartets by T. S. EliotThe Archaic Torso of Apollo by Rainer Maria RilkeWassily Kandinsky, “On the Spiritual in Art”Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil PostmanThings Hidden Since the Foundation of the World by René GirardThe Art of the Commonplace by Wendell BerryAndres Serrano's Piss ChristMakoto Fujimura's Art and Collaboration

Hear why Ravel is a classical music master, whether capturing the sensuous allure of Spain in Rapsodie espagnole or summoning “the Greece of [his] dreams” in his ravishing suite from Daphnis and Chloe. Barber's Second Essay reflects the turbulent emotions of wartime. CSO Principal Clarinet Stephen Williamson solos in the world premiere of Indigo Heaven, a work written for him by American composer Christopher Theofanidis. Learn more: cso.org/performances/24-25/cso-classical/ravel-daphnis-and-chloe

Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha is one of the great novels of the twentieth century and a prime example of literature that transforms the deeply personal into something universal. For Phil and JF in this episode, the novel serves as the foundation for a discussion on spiritual journeying, the ideal of enlightenment, and the challenge of living in an ensouled universe. Sign up for JF's new Weirdosphere course on the supernatural (http://www.weirdosphere.org), starting on February 6th, 2025. Purchase tickets to the Weirdosphere screening of Aaron Poole's Dada (https://weirdosphere.mn.co/plans/1494861?bundle_token=efd897d98f0a13d7bac82f0a49af07fb&utm_source=manual) on February 1st, 2025. Support us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/weirdstudies). Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack, volumes 1 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-1) and 2 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-2), on Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com) page. Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, Cosmophonia (https://cosmophonia.podbean.com/). Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop (https://bookshop.org/shop/weirdstudies) Find us on Discord (https://discord.com/invite/Jw22CHfGwp) Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau (https://cottonbureau.com/products/can-o-content#/13435958/tee-men-standard-tee-vintage-black-tri-blend-s)! REFERENCES Herman Hesse, Siddhartha (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780553208849) Christopher Theofanidis and Melissa Studdard, Siddhartha Gustav Holst, [The Planets](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThePlanets)_ Richard Wagner, Parsifal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsifal) G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781511903608) Colin Wilson, The Outsider (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780399173103) Adam Kirsch, “Herman Hesse's Arrested Development” (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/11/19/hermann-hesses-arrested-development) Dogen, Genjakoan (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780992112912) Chögyam Trungpa, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781570629570)

"In choir we have a chance to learn to embody a different culture through its language. When you're singing pieces in another language, there's a moment where you have to feel that you speak that language if only for a few words, if only a few moments. I think that has the capacity to create a kind of empathy regardless of whether that's your culture or not. To embody it does create this empathy that I really believe in as a way to make our world a little closer for the right reasons."Indian-American composer Reena Esmail works between the worlds of Indian and Western classical music, and brings communities together through the creation of equitable musical spaces. Esmail's life and music was profiled on Season 3 of PBS Great Performances series Now Hear This, as well as Frame of Mind, a podcast from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.Esmail divides her attention evenly between orchestral, chamber and choral work. She has written commissions for ensembles including the Los Angeles Master Chorale,  Seattle Symphony, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Kronos Quartet, and her music has featured on multiple Grammy-nominated albums, including The Singing Guitar by Conspirare, BRUITS by Imani Winds, and Healing Modes by Brooklyn Rider. Many of her choral works are published by Oxford University Press.Esmail is the Los Angeles Master Chorale's 2020-2025 Swan Family Artist in Residence, and was Seattle Symphony's 2020-21 Composer-in-Residence. She also holds awards/fellowships from United States Artists, the S&R Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Kennedy Center.Esmail holds degrees in composition from The Juilliard School (BM'05) and the Yale School of Music (MM'11, MMA'14, DMA'18). Her primary teachers have included Susan Botti, Aaron Jay Kernis, Christopher Theofanidis, Christopher Rouse and Samuel Adler. She received a Fulbright-Nehru grant to study Hindustani music in India. Her Hindustani music teachers include Srimati Lakshmi Shankar and Gaurav Mazumdar, and she currently studies and collaborates with Saili Oak. Her doctoral thesis, entitled Finding Common Ground: Uniting Practices in Hindustani and Western Art Musicians explores the methods and challenges of the collaborative process between Hindustani musicians and Western composers.Esmail was Composer-in-Residence for Street Symphony (2016-18) and is currently an Artistic Director of Shastra, a non-profit organization that promotes cross-cultural music connecting music traditions of India and the West.She currently resides in her hometown of Los Angeles, California.To get in touch with Reena, you can find her on Instagram (@reenaesmail) or check out her website: https://www.reenaesmail.com.Choir Fam wants to hear from you! Check out the Minisode Intro episode from September 16, 2022, to hear how to share your story with us. Email choirfampodcast@gmail.com to contact our hosts.Podcast music from Podcast.coPhoto in episode artwork by Trace Hudson from Pexels

The transcript for this episode is available here. About Molly Joyce Composer and performer Molly Joyce has been deemed one of the "most versatile, prolific and intriguing composers working under the vast new-music dome" by The Washington Post. Her music has additionally been described as "serene power" (New York Times), written to "superb effect" (The Wire), and "unwavering" and "enveloping" (Vulture). Her work is concerned with disability as a creative source. She has an impaired left hand from a previous car accident. The primary vehicle in her pursuit is her electric vintage toy organ, an instrument she bought on eBay that suits her body and engages her disability on a compositional and performative level. Her debut full-length album, Breaking and Entering, featuring toy organ, voice, and electronic sampling of both sources was released in June 2020 on New Amsterdam Records, and has been praised by New Sounds as "a powerful response to something (namely, physical disability of any kind) that is still too often stigmatized, but that Joyce has used as a creative prompt." Molly is a graduate of The Juilliard School (graduating with scholastic distinction), Royal Conservatory in The Hague (recipient of the Frank Huntington Beebe Fund Grant), and Yale School of Music. She holds an Advanced Certificate in Disability Studies from CUNY School of Professional Studies and is an alumnus of the National YoungArts Foundation. She has studied with Samuel Adler, Martin Bresnick, Guus Janssen, David Lang, Missy Mazzoli, Martijn Padding, Christopher Theofanidis, and has served on the composition faculty of New York University, Wagner College, and Berklee Online, teaching subjects including Disability and the Arts, Music Technology, Music Theory, and Orchestration. She is currently a Dean's Doctoral Fellow at the University of Virginia, focusing on Composition and Computer Technologies. Related Links: Molly's Website "Perspective" Album on Bandcamp Molly Joyce on Spotify Molly Joyce on Apple Music RAMPD: Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities This episode's Ask Judy question came from @otto_types on Instagram. If you'd like to submit a question for Ask Judy, send it to media@judithheumann.com or DM Judy on Instagram or Twitter. Check out the video version of this episode on Judy's YouTube channel.  Intro music by Lachi. Outro music by Gaelynn Lea.

Reena Esmail joins us to chat about integrating her Western and Hindustani roots in her composition and throughout her work as artistic director of Shastra. We chat about how she prepares listeners with less experience for musical experiences that are new to them. She speaks about her work as composer-in-residence of Street Symphony, a non-profit organization bringing music to Los Angeles-based homeless and incarcerated populations on Skid Row and beyond. And, we talk about her methods for introducing Western musicians to primarily aural traditions. Indian-American composer Reena Esmail works between the worlds of Indian and Western classical music, and brings communities together through the creation of equitable musical spaces. Esmail's work has been commissioned by ensembles including the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Kronos Quartet, Imani Winds, Richmond Symphony, Town Music Seattle, Albany Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, San Francisco Girls Chorus, The Elora Festival, Juilliard415, and Yale Institute of Sacred Music. Upcoming seasons include new work for Seattle Symphony, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Amherst College Choir and Orchestra, Santa Fe Pro Musica, and Conspirare. Esmail is the Los Angeles Master Chorale's 2020-2023 Swan Family Artist in Residence, and Seattle Symphony's 2020-21 Composer-in-Residence. Previously, she was named a 2019 United States Artist Fellow in Music, and the 2019 Grand Prize Winner of the S & R Foundation's Washington Award. Esmail was also a 2017-18 Kennedy Center Citizen Artist Fellow. She was the 2012 Walter Hinrichsen Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (and subsequent publication of a work by C.F. Peters). Esmail holds degrees in composition from The Juilliard School (BM'05) and the Yale School of Music (MM'11, MMA'14, DMA'18). Her primary teachers have included Susan Botti, Aaron Jay Kernis, Christopher Theofanidis and Martin Bresnick, Christopher Rouse and Samuel Adler. She received a Fulbright-Nehru grant to study Hindustani music in India. Her Hindustani music teachers include Srimati Lakshmi Shankar and Gaurav Mazundar, and she currently studies and collaborates with Saili Oak. Her doctoral thesis, entitled Finding Common Ground: Uniting Practices in Hindustani and Western Art Musicians explores the methods and challenges of the collaborative process between Hindustani musicians and Western composers. Esmail was Composer-in-Residence for Street Symphony (2016-18) and is currently an Artistic Director of Shastra, a non-profit organization that promotes cross-cultural music connecting music traditions of India and the West. The transcript for this episode can be found here. For more information about Reena Esmail, please visit her website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

The album is a breathtaking collection of globally inspired compositions and collaborations, with each composer sharing their own personal interpretations of folk music. Works include a title track by Vietnam War veteran J. Kimo Williams with a performance by electric violinist Tracy Silverman, Pamela Z's The Unraveling, What is the Word? by Christopher Theofanidis and Mark Wingate, new arrangements of a trio of Armenian folk songs by pioneering Armenian composer Komitas, and Eve Beglarian's We Will Sing One Song for duduk, string quartet, percussion, and track. The Pamela Z, Theofanidis and Wingate, and Beglarian pieces are part of Apollo's 20x2020 project, launched in 2014 with a mission to commission 20 new multicultural works before the end of the decade.With Malice Toward None Track List1. J. Kimo Williams — With Malice Toward None (2020) [13:23]Pamela Z — The Unraveling -- 20x2020 No. 16 (2019)     2. I. Joni [4:11]     3. II. Lord I'm One [3:45]   4. III. Travis [5:10]     5. IV. Microbus [4:45]   Pamela Z, voice and electronics Christopher Theofanidis & Mark Wingate — What is the Word? -- 20x2020 No. 11 (2017)     6. “What is the Word” (poem) [1:31]     7. I. Extroverted [2:06]     8. II. Edgy [0:43]     9. III. Mercurial [2:04]     10. IV. Noble [2:20]     11. V. Very Fast [1:42]     12. VI. Euphoric [3:00] Komitas/Aslamazyan (arr. Matthew J. Detrick/Apollo Chamber Players) — Themes of Armenian Folksongs (1915/2021)     13. Festive Song [1:23]     14. The Crane [2:42]     15. Echmiadzin Dance [2:14]   Joan DerHovsepian, guest viola16. Eve Beglarian — We Will Sing One Song -- 20x2020 No. 19 (2020) [17:54]   Arsen Petrosyan, duduk     Pejman Hadadi, percussion (tombak, kuzeh, dayereh, bam-dayereh, senj, kanjira)     Joan DerHovsepian, guest viola     Eve Beglarian, digital track Purchase the music (without talk) at:http://www.classicalsavings.com/store/p1394/With_Malice_Toward_None.htmlYour purchase helps to support our show! Classical Music Discoveries is sponsored by La Musica International Chamber Music Festival and Uber. @khedgecock#ClassicalMusicDiscoveries #KeepClassicalMusicAlive#LaMusicaFestival #CMDGrandOperaCompanyofVenice #CMDParisPhilharmonicinOrléans#CMDGermanOperaCompanyofBerlin#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofBarcelonaSpain#ClassicalMusicLivesOn#Uber Please consider supporting our show, thank you!http://www.classicalsavings.com/donate.html staff@classicalmusicdiscoveries.com This album is broadcasted with the permission of Katy Solomon from Morahana Arts and Media.

Two-time GRAMMY award-winning Albany Symphony launches its annual American Music Festival celebrating cutting-edge composers and musicians Thursday, June 10 through Sunday June 13 at the Palace Theatre in Albany, New York. The four-day event will feature William Kanengiser and Scott Tennant of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet as well as composers Clarice Assad, Molly Joyce, Christopher Theofanidis, Alexis Lamb, Nina Shekhar, and other outstanding musicians. The Festival also includes a performance by the popular Dogs of Desire; the First Draughts reading session, which give the public a glimpse into the weeklong Composer Workshop for emerging creators; outdoor neighborhood performances and family activities. ASO Maestro David Alan Miller joins us.

"Jesus is the great kintsugi master." "Something that's broken is already more valuable than when it's whole." "The imagination creates, through the fractures, a river of gold, a mountain of gold." Makoto Fujimura joins Miroslav Volf to discuss Art & Faith: A Theology of Making. Fujimura is a painter who practices the Japanese art of nihonga, or slow art. His abstract expressionist pieces are composed of fine minerals he grinds himself and paints onto several dozens of layers, which take time and close attention both to make and to appreciate.Mako and Miroslav discuss the theology and spirituality that inspires Mako's work, the creative act of God mirrored in the practice of art, the unique ways of seeing and being that artists offer the world, which is, in Mako's words "dangerously close to life and death." They reflect on the meaning of Christ's humanity and his wounds, the gratuity of God in both creation from nothing and the artistic response in the celebration of everything.Show NotesMakoto Fujimura's Art & Faith: A Theology of MakingIlluminated Bible by Makoto FujimuraMary, Martha, & LazarusGenesis Creation NarrativeArt follows in the footsteps of the creatorThe reasons for God's creationWhy would an all-sufficient God create anything?God as "a grand artist with no ego and no need to create."Communicating about art and theology outside the boundaries of the institutional churchReconciliation between art and faithGod's gratuitous creation doesn't need a utilitarian purposeCreating vs makingIn artistic creation, something new does seem to emerge"God is the only artist"The scandal of God's incarnation: In becoming incarnate, God's utter independence is flipped to utter dependence.Psalmist's cry to GodHow art breaks the ordinaryThe artist's way of seeing and beingSeeing as survivalSeeing with the eyes of your heart"Artists stay dangerously close to death and life"Getting beyond the rational way of seeingLetting the senses become part of our prayerWilliam James on conversion: everything becomes new for the convertedSeeing with a new frame of beautyFaith and the authenticity of seeing with the eyes of an artistEmily Dickenson on the "tender pioneer" of JesusHartmut Rosa on resonance—in modernity, the world becomes dead for us, and fails to speak with us, but we need a sense of resonanceKandinsky and Rothko—artists' intuitive sense of resonance that has escaped the church in the wake of mid-century destructionMary's wedding nard oil and the gratuitous cost of artThe non-utilitarian nature of artUsing precious materials in artTear jarsMiroslav's mother regularly weeping and crying: "I wonder why God gave us tears? Only humans are the animals who cry."Helmut Plessner's Laughing and Crying: Weeping as relinquishing self-possession and merging the self with the flesh (as opposed to reason/ratio or technique/techne)N.T. Wright—the greatest miracle is that Jesus chose to stay human.Jesus's remaining woundsCo-mingling our tears with Christ's tearsKintsugi and Japanese Slow ArtAccentuating the fracture"The imagination creates, through the fractures, a river of gold, a mountain of gold."This is the best example of new creation."What would happen to our scars? That's a question with no answer."Through his wounds, our wounds would look differentJesus is the great kintsugi master, leading a path of gold along the fractures of lifeThe permanence of scarsIs it possible to be in the good and be truly joyous?"God is not the source of beauty. God is beauty."Fundamental "new newness": So new that it evades understandingGoodness, truth, and beautyGod loved the world so much, it wasn't enough to merely admire it—he had to join it.What is a life worthy of our humanity?Fujimura's practice of art as an attempt to answer that question."Our lives as the artwork of God, especially as a collaborative community in the Body of Christ."About Makoto FujimuraMakoto Fujimura is a leading contemporary artist whose process driven, refractive “slow art” has been described by David Brooks of New York Times as “a small rebellion against the quickening of time”. Robert Kushner, in the mid 90's, written on Fujimura's art in Art in America this way: “The idea of forging a new kind of art, about hope, healing, redemption, refuge, while maintaining visual sophistication and intellectual integrity is a growing movement, one which finds Makoto Fujimura's work at the vanguard.”Fujimura's art has been featured widely in galleries and museums around the world, and is collected by notable collections including The Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, The Huntington Library as well as Tikotin Museum in Israel. His art is represented by Artrue International in Asia and has been exhibited at various venues including Dillon Gallery, Waterfall Mansion, Morpeth Contemporary,  Sato Museum in Tokyo, Tokyo University of Fine Arts Museum, Bentley Gallery in Phoenix, Gallery Exit and Oxford House at Taikoo Place in Hong Kong, Vienna's Belvedere Museum, Shusaku Endo Museum in Nagasaki and Jundt Museum at Gonzaga University. He is one of the first artists to paint live on stage at New York City's legendary Carnegie Hall as part of an ongoing collaboration with composer and percussionist, Susie Ibarra.  Their collaborative album "Walking on Water" is released by Innova Records. As well as being a leading contemporary painter, Fujimura is also an arts advocate, writer, and speaker who is recognized worldwide as a cultural influencer. A Presidential appointee to the National Council on the Arts from 2003-2009, Fujimura served as an international advocate for the arts, speaking with decision makers and advising governmental policies on the arts. His book “Refractions” (NavPress) and “Culture Care” (IVPress) reflects many of his thesis on arts advocacy written during that time. His books have won numerous awards including the Aldersgate Prize for “Silence and Beauty” (IVPress). In 2014, the American Academy of Religion named Fujimura as its 2014 “Religion and the Arts” award recipient. This award is presented annually to professional artists who have made significant contributions to the relationship of art and religion, both for the academy and a broader public. Previous recipients of the award include Meredith Monk, Holland Cotter, Gary Snyder, Betye & Alison Saar and Bill Viola. Fujimura's highly anticipated book "Art+Faith: A Theology of Making" (Yale Press, with foreword by N.T. Wright, 2021) has been described by poet Christian Wiman as "a real tonic for our atomized time".Fujimura founded the International Arts Movement in 1992, now IAMCultureCare, which over sees Fujimura Institute. In 2011 the Fujimura Institute was established and launched the Four Qu4rtets, a collaboration between Fujimura, painter Bruce Herman, Duke theologian/pianist Jeremy Begbie, and Yale composer Christopher Theofanidis, based on T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets. The exhibition has travelled to Baylor, Duke, and Yale Universities, Cambridge University, Hiroshima City University and other institutions around the globe.Bucknell University honored him with the Outstanding Alumni Award in 2012.Fujimura is a recipient of four Doctor of Arts Honorary Degrees; from Belhaven University in 2011, Biola University in 2012, Cairn University in 2014 and Roanoke College, in February 2015. His Commencement addresses has received notable attention, being selected by NPR as one of the “Best Commencement Addresses Ever”. His recent 2019 Commencement Address at Judson University, was called “Kintsugi Generation”, laying out his cultural vision for the next generation.Production NotesThis podcast featured artist Makoto Fujimura and theologian Miroslav VolfEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaProduction Assistance by Martin Chan & Nathan JowersA Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/aboutSupport For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give

Grammy Winners Richard O’Neill and David Alan Miller talk about creating the Best Classical Instrumental Solo of 2021. In a conversation with HMM's Andrea Cunliffe, O'Neill talks about the Contemporary ‘Concerto for Viola and Chamber Orchestra’ by composer Christopher Theofanidis and how it was recorded at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall.

Soprano Tony Arnold joins us to chat about hopping careers from orchestral conductor to international superstar vocalist, her varied interests in how sound is made and how to harness sound to make it into something else, and the way her interests have helped in collaborations with all sorts of instrumentalists and in teaching composers how to help performers lift music off the page . We speak about how she developed the working knowledge necessary to decipher contemporary scores, the close connection between chamber music and contemporary music, and learning how to fit into the deeply intimate and idiomatic language of a string quartet with a long history that no longer required verbal communication. She shares about how her connection to George Crumb deepened on a trip to Charleston, WV and how community- and network-building play in forming long-lasting professional connections. We discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the impact of digitization on the shaping of the musical world and the importance of separating music-making from money-making as best as one can. Celebrated as a “luminary in the world of chamber music and art song” (Huffington Post), Tony Arnold is internationally acclaimed as a leading proponent of contemporary music in concert and recording, a “convincing, mesmerizing soprano” (Los Angeles Times) who “has a broader gift for conveying the poetry and nuance behind outwardly daunting contemporary scores” (Boston Globe). Her unique blend of vocal virtuosity and communicative warmth, combined with wide-ranging skills in education and leadership were recognized with the 2015 Brandeis Creative Arts Award, given in appreciation of “excellence in the arts and the lives and works of distinguished, active American artists.” Ms. Arnold's extensive chamber music repertory includes major works written for her voice by Georges Aperghis, George Crumb, Brett Dean, Jason Eckardt, Gabriela Lena Frank, Josh Levine, George Lewis, Philippe Manoury, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, Christopher Theofanidis, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, and numerous others. She is a member of the intrepid International Contemporary Ensemble, and enjoys regular guest appearances with leading ensembles, presenters and festivals worldwide. With more than thirty discs to her credit, Ms. Arnold has recorded a broad segment of the modern vocal repertory with esteemed chamber music colleagues. Her recording of George Crumb's iconic Ancient Voices of Children (Bridge) received a 2006 Grammy nomination. She is a first-prize laureate of both the Gaudeamus International and the Louise D. McMahon competitions. A graduate of Oberlin College and Northwestern University, Ms. Arnold was twice a fellow of the Aspen Music Festival as both a conductor and singer. She was the 2015-16 Kunkemueller Artist-In-Residence at the Boston Conservatory, and currently serves on the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory and the Tanglewood Music Center. The transcript for this episode can be found here. Resources discussed in this episode: Tony Arnold sings George Crumb's Ancient Voices of Children For more information about Tony Arnold, please visit her website, www.screecher.com.

Ep. 118: Christopher Theofanidis, composer Let's Talk Off The Podium with Tigran Arakelyan. In this episode Mr. Theofanidis talks about his collaborations with Robert Spano, Sarah Chang, his most performed work the Rainbow Body, and working with soloists on a commissioned works. He also talks about scuba diving, cooking, having pieces performed more than once and much more. CHRISTOPHER THEOFANIDIS (b. 12/18/67 in Dallas, Texas) has had performances by many leading orchestras from around the world, including the London Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, the Moscow Soloists, the National, Baltimore, St. Louis, and Detroit Symphonies, among many others. He has also served as Composer of the Year for the Pittsburgh Symphony during their 2006-7 season, for which he wrote a violin concerto for Sarah Chang. Mr. Theofanidis holds degrees from Yale, the Eastman School of Music, and the University of Houston, and has been the recipient of the International Masterprize, the Rome Prize, a Guggenheim fellowship, a Fulbright fellowship to France to study with Tristan Mural at IRCAM, a Tanglewood fellowship, and two fellowships from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2007 he was nominated for a Grammy award for best composition for his chorus and orchestra work, The Here and Now, based on the poetry of Rumi, and in 2017 for his bassoon concerto. His orchestral work, Rainbow Body, has been one of the most performed new orchestral works of the new millennium, having been performed by over 150 orchestras internationally. Mr. Theofanidis’ has written a ballet for the American Ballet Theatre, a work for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra as part of their ‘New Brandenburg’ series, and two operas for the San Francisco and Houston Grand Opera companies. Thomas Hampson sang the lead role in the San Francisco opera. His work for Houston, The Refuge, featurs six sets of international non-Western musicians alongside the opera musicians. He has a long-standing relationship with the Atlanta Symphony and Maestro Robert Spano, and has just four recordings with them, including his concert length oratorio, Creation/Creator, which was featured at the SHIFT festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. this year with the ASO, chorus, and soloists. His work, Dreamtime Ancestors, for the orchestral consortium, New Music for America, has been played by over fifty orchestras over the past two seasons. He has served as a delegate to the US-Japan Foundation’s Leadership Program, and he is a former faculty member of the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University as well as the Juilliard School. Mr. Theofanidis is currently a professor at Yale University, and composer-in-residence and co-director of the composition program at the Aspen Music Festival. For more information about Christopher Theofanidis please visit: https://www.theofanidismusic.com/index.html © Let's Talk Off The Podium, 2020

Today we have with us Bruce Herman, a painter and writer whose art has been exhibited internationally across the US and in Canada, as well as in Israel, Italy, England, Hong Kong, and Japan. Herman taught from 1984 to Spring of 2020 at Gordon College, where he currently holds the Lothlórien Distinguished Chair in Fine Arts and curates exhibitions for the art gallery. https://www.bruceherman.com Collaborations (from most recent to older):1. 2018—present "Ordinary Saints" - with Malcom Guite and J.A.C. Redfordhttps://ordinary-saints.com 2. 2011–2013 “QU4RTETS" - with Makoto Fujimura, Christopher Theofanidis, and Jeremy Begbiehttps://iamculturecare.com/projects/qu4rtets 3. 2005–2007 "A Broken Beauty" - with Canadian curator David Goa, and L.A. curator Gordon Fuglie along with fifteen other artists (including Vancouver artists Erica Grimm, David Robinson, and Toronto's Stephen DeStaebler)https://lagunaartmuseum.org/exhibitions/a-broken-beauty-figuration-narrative-and-the-transcendent-in-north-american-art/ 4. Scott Album Challenge: https://spark.adobe.com/page/5LmHwgmDWnIzp/Support the show (https://www.twu.ca/donate-now)

On this episode of Encore Houston, we go back to a 2011 performance from the Texas Music Festival, featuring a piece inspired by Tibetan Buddhism and a monster of a late Romantic symphony. Music in this episode: CHRISTOPHER THEOFANDIS: Rainbow Body ANTON BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 7 in E major Carl St. Clair, conductor Performance date: 6/25/2011 Originally aired: 6/20/2020 New episodes of Encore Houston air Saturdays at 10 PM, with a repeat broadcast Sundays at 4 PM, all... Read More

Robert Ambrose is the director of bands at Georgia State University, the conductor of the Atlanta Chamber Winds and the National Chamber Winds, founder of the Digital Director's Lounge, and is the chair of the CBDNA Covid-19 Response Committee. Topics: Robert’s journey from guitarist to college band director and all of the people who took an interest in his career and helped to push him along. Having the courage to ask for what you want and a brief discussion of impostor syndrome. The band program at Georgia State, the Atlanta Chamber Winds, and the National Chamber Winds. The CBDNA Covid-19 Response Committee and the Digital Director’s Lounge. Links: Robert Ambrose CBDNA Covid-19 Committee Report Atlanta Chamber Winds National Chamber Winds Mozart: Serenade for 13 Winds in B-flat major, K. 361 "Gran Partita" Maslanka: Symphony no. 4 Biography: Conductor Robert J. Ambrose enjoys a highly successful and diverse career as a dynamic and engaging musician. His musical interests cross many genres and can be seen in the wide range of professional activities he pursues. Dr. Ambrose studied formally at Boston College, Boston University and Northwestern University, where he received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in conducting. Dr. Ambrose has conducted professionally across the United States as well as in Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. His interpretations have earned the enthusiastic praise of many leading composers including Pulitzer Prize winners Leslie Bassett, Michael Colgrass and John Harbison. He has conducted over two dozen premiere performances including works by Michael Colgrass, Jonathan Newman, Joel Puckett, Christopher Theofanidis and Joseph Turrin. Dr. Ambrose has conducted Arnold Schoenberg's landmark piece Pierrot Lunaire several times in three different countries and a recent performance of Igor Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms under his direction has been given repeated airings on Georgia Public Radio. Dr. Ambrose is founder and music director of the Atlanta Chamber Winds a professional dectet specializing in the promotion of music by emerging composers as well as lesser-known works of established composers. Their premiere compact disc, Music from Paris, was released in 2009 on the Albany Records label and has received outstanding reviews in both Fanfare and Gramophone magazines. As a guitarist, Robert Ambrose has performed in dozens of jazz ensembles, combos, rock bands and pit orchestras. His rock band "Hoochie Suit," formed with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, received rave reviews throughout the Chicago area and performed for such distinguished guests as Yo-Yo Ma and Daniel Barenboim. Dr. Ambrose currently serves as director of bands, associate professor of music and associate director of the School of Music at Georgia State University, a Research I institution of 32,000 students located in Atlanta, Georgia. As director of bands he conducts the Symphonic Wind Ensemble, maintains a highly selective studio of graduate students in the Master of Music in wind band conducting degree program, and oversees a large, comprehensive band program comprised of four concert ensembles and three athletic bands. Robert Ambrose lives in Peachtree City, Georgia with his wife Sarah Kruser Ambrose, a professional flute player, and daughters Isabelle and Hannah. ------- Are you planning to travel with your group sometime soon? If so, please consider my sponsor, Kaleidoscope Adventures, a full service tour company specializing in student group travel. With a former educator as its CEO, Kaleidoscope Adventures is dedicated to changing student lives through travel and they offer high quality service and an attention to detail that comes from more than 25 years of student travel experience. Trust Kaleidoscope’s outstanding staff to focus on your group’s one-of-a-kind adventure, so that you can focus on everything else!

Ep. 97: Martin Kuuskmann, Estonian-born bassoon virtuoso Let's Talk Off The Podium with Tigran Arakelyan Grammy nominated Estonian-born bassoon virtuoso, Martin Kuuskmann’s charismatic and commanding performances throughout the world have earned him repute as one of the leading solo instrumentalists of his generation. Kuuskmann has appeared with conductors Neeme, Paavo and Kristjan Järvi, Robert Spano, Tõnu Kaljuste, Risto Joost, Nikolay Aleksejev, Anu Tali, Mihhail Gerts, Kirk Trevor, Leonid Grin, and with orchestras such as Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, National Orchestra of Chile, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Lukes, Estonian Festival Orchestra, Porto Alegre Symphony Orchestra, Macao Orchestra, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of the Norrlandsoperan, and many others. Constantly pushing the boundaries for new artistic and technical possibilities, Kuuskmann has premiered 11 bassoon concertos, all written and dedicated to him by some of the foremost composers of our time, including Erkki-Sven Tüür, Christopher Theofanidis, Eino Tamberg, Tõnu Kõrvits, Ülo Krigul, Gene Pritsker, David Chesky, Gregor Huebner and Charles Coleman. In this podcast we talk about Martin's start in music and specifically bassoon, collaborating with artists with various genres, repertoire and inspirational figures. We also talk about teaching and performing during Covid-19, concertos and life changing moments. For more information about Martin Kuuskmann please visit: http://kuuskmann.com/ © Let's Talk Off The Podium, 2020

Acclaimed young composer Viet Cuong joins the show to share his thoughts about band music, his work as a composer, and how growing up in the Lassiter band helped him fit in and find his place in the world. Topics: 
Viet’s background and how he got his start as a musician, percussionist, and composer. How band and music helped Viet “find his place” in the world and the importance of band as a place where kids who are struggling to feel accepted have a place where they can fit in and grow. Growing up in the legendary Lassiter Band Program under the baton of Alfred Watkins. Thought about what band directors can do to support young musicians who are writing music or want to become composers. Thoughts about academic music, new music for band, and some insights into building design at Princeton. The Blue Dot Collective Links: Viet Cuong, Composer The Blue Dot Collective Cuong: Diamond Tide Cuong: Moth Stravinsky: Rite of Spring Biography: Called “alluring” and “wildly inventive” by The New York Times, the “ingenious” and “knockout” (Times Union) music of Viet Cuong (b. 1990) has been performed on six continents by musicians and ensembles such as Sō Percussion, Eighth Blackbird, Alarm Will Sound, Sandbox Percussion, the PRISM Quartet, JACK Quartet, Gregory Oakes, Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, Albany Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, and Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, among many others. Viet’s music has been featured in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Aspen Music Festival, New Music Gathering, Boston GuitarFest, International Double Reed Society Conference, US Navy Band International Saxophone Symposium, and on American Public Radio’s Performance Today. He also enjoys composing for the wind ensemble medium, and his works for winds have amassed over one hundred performances by conservatory and university ensembles worldwide, including at Midwest, WASBE, and CBDNA conferences. Viet holds the Curtis Institute of Music’s Daniel W. Dietrich II Composition Fellowship as an Artist Diploma student of David Ludwig and Jennifer Higdon. Viet received his MFA from Princeton University as a Naumburg and Roger Sessions Fellow, and he is currently finishing his PhD there. At Princeton he studied with Steve Mackey, Donnacha Dennehy, Dan Trueman, Dmitri Tymoczko, Paul Lansky, and Louis Andriessen. Viet holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, where he studied with Pulitzer Prize-winner Kevin Puts and Oscar Bettison. While at Peabody, he received the Peabody Alumni Award (the Valedictorian honor) and the Gustav Klemm Award for excellence in composition. Viet has been a fellow at the Mizzou International Composers Festival, Eighth Blackbird Creative Lab, Cabrillo Festival’s Young Composer Workshop, Copland House’s CULTIVATE emerging composers workshop, and was also a scholarship student at the Aspen, Bowdoin, and Lake Champlain music festivals. Additionally, he has received artist residencies from Yaddo, Copland House, Ucross Foundation, and Atlantic Center for the Arts (under Melinda Wagner, 2012 and Christopher Theofanidis, 2014). Viet is a recipient of the Barlow Endowment Commission, Copland House Residency Award, ASCAP Morton Gould Composers Award, Suzanne and Lee Ettelson Composers Award, Theodore Presser Foundation Music Award, Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra Call for Scores, Cortona Prize, New York Youth Symphony First Music Commission, Boston GuitarFest Composition Competition, and Walter Beeler Memorial Prize, among others. In addition, he received honorable mentions in the Harvey Gaul Composition Competition and two consecutive ASCAP/CBDNA Frederick Fennell Prizes. Scholarships include the Evergreen House Foundation scholarship at Peabody, a 2010 Susan and Ford Schumann Merit Scholarship from the Aspen Music Festival and School, and the 2011 Bachrach Memorial Gift from the Bowdoin International Music Festival.

 Today on the program, and into the next episode, Michael is speaking with Mako Fujimura, visual artist, author, thought leader, and cultural-shaper who was recently appointed Director of The Brehm Center at Fuller Seminary. His paintings have been exhibited around the world and he is one of the first artists to paint live on stage at New York City’s legendary Carnegie Hall.  A popular speaker, he has lectured at numerous conferences, universities and museums, including the Aspen Institute, Yale and Princeton Universities, Sato Museum and the Phoenix Art Museum. Fujimura founded the International Arts Movement in 1992, a non-profit whose “Encounter” conferences have featured cultural catalysts such as Dr. Elaine Scarry, Dennis Donoghue, Billy Collins, Dana Gioia, Calvin DeWitt and Miroslav Volf.  Fujimura’s second book, Refractions: A Journey of Faith, Art and Culture, is a collection of essays bringing together people of all backgrounds in a conversation and meditation on culture, art, and humanity. In celebration of the 400th Anniversary of the King James Bible, Crossway Publishing commissioned and published The Four Holy Gospels, featuring Fujimura’s illuminations of the sacred texts. In 2011 the Fujimura Institute was established and launched the Four Qu4rtets, a collaboration between Fujimura, painter Bruce Herman, Duke theologian/pianist Jeremy Begbie, and Yale composer Christopher Theofanidis, based on T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets. The exhibition will travel to Baylor, Duke, and Yale Universities, Gordon College and other institutions around the globe. 

The pianist and composer Conrad Tao seemed remarkably relaxed when he sat down at the Yamaha to perform his Café Concert at WQXR. The calm demeanor might seem at odds with the heavy load Tao has been carrying. Having recently given a recital to a packed house at Le Poisson Rouge, on Tuesday, he inaugurates the Unplay Festival, a three-day event that he is organizing at Powerhouse Arena, a bookstore and art space in Dumbo, Brooklyn. Also on Tuesday, Tao releases "Voyages," his full-length debut album on EMI, a collection of his own music as well as pieces by Rachmaninoff, Ravel and Meredith Monk. By no coincidence, he also turns 19 that day. Tao is the first to acknowledge the “incestuous cross-promotion” in the way events came together. “It happens,” he said, with a wry smile. “I must acknowledge that.” But after several years on the concerto-and-recital circuit – and now a student in the Juilliard-Columbia double-degree program – Tao is also at a point where he wants to explore bigger ideas around classical music and its place in society. Tao has had a considerable past decade. A native of Champagne, Illinois, he gave his first recital at age four. At nine, he and his parents moved to New York and he began studying piano in Juilliard’s pre-college division with Yoheved Kaplinsky. Around the same time, he began composition lessons with Christopher Theofanidis, an in-demand composer who now teaches at Yale. Tao signed with professional management and, by age 16, orchestras were calling, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony and Detroit Symphony. Awards also poured in, including eight Ascap Morton Gould Young Composer Awards; a 2012 Gilmore Foundation Young Artist Award; and a U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts recognition. Tao has studied the violin, has written pop songs and is currently working on a commission for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, about the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination, slated to premiere in November. Yet Tao clearly isn’t content with the post-prodigy treadmill and admits to a restless, oppositional streak. The Unplay Festival he said “is about what does music and do musicians occupy. I was interested in how I could find performers who are engaging in this act of ‘unplaying’ insofar as they’re dismantling certain basic traditional ideas of what it means to be a classical performer.” Those performers will include Sideband (an ensemble using laptops and speakers), the violinist Todd Reynolds, the Face the Music Ensemble, Iktus Percussion and ThingNY, a multimedia ensemble. Programs will explore ideas of genre-blurring and the use of technology in performance (Tao himself has written music for piano and iPad). "Since so much of the intellectual process of music is unlearning what you take for granted to be true a lot of this is about applying this to my own practice of being a performer," Tao said of the festival's title. Planning the festival has taken Tao some 18 months, during which time he's had to juggle his studies at Columbia, where he is pursuing a concentration in ethnicity and race studies. “It’s a lot,” he said. “Sometimes it’s easy to justify because I really love everything I’m doing and sometimes it’s harder. It is ultimately about galvanizing all these different things.” Video: Amy Pearl; Audio: George Wellington; Text & Production: Brian Wise

Conductor Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra have created a thriving community of composers who have come to be known as “The Atlanta School”. They include Jennifer Higdon, Christopher Theofanidis, Osvaldo Golijov, and Michael Gandolfi, and this week we'll listen to their music. Hosted by Seth Boustead Produced by Jesse McQuarters Michael Gandolfi: The Garden of Cosmic Speculation, I-III Christopher Theofanidis: Drumsound Rises from The Here & Now Osvaldo Golijov: Second Wave & Aria fr. Oceana, Luciana Souza, voc. Jennifer Higdon: On a Wire, Eighth Blackbird

We’re featuring double bassist, composer, and conductor Peter Askim on today’s episode of Contrabass Conversations. A former member of the Honolulu Symphony and an internationally acclaimed composer, Peter currently serves as music director and composer-in-residence for the Idyllwild Arts Academy. His Eight Solitudes for Double Bass won the 2002 International Society of Bassists Composition Competition. Learn more about Peter at his website peteraskim.com. There are some excellent opportunities for high school bassists at the Idyllwild Arts Academy. Bassists study with Chris Hanulik (Los Angeles Philharmonic Principal Bass) and Jeremy Kurtz (San Doego Symphony Principal Bass) and recieve a great deal of attention from Peter as well. Learn more about this program atidyllwildarts.org. Enjoy!   About Peter: Active as a composer, conductor and bassist, Peter Askim is the Music Director and Composer-in-Residence of the Idyllwild Arts Academy. He has been a member of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra and served on the faculty of the University of Hawaii-Manoa, where he directed the Contemporary Music Ensemble and taught theory and composition. As a composer, he has had commissions and performances from such groups as the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, the Honolulu Symphony, the International Society of Bassists, the Yale Symphony Orchestra, the Idyllwild Arts Orchestra, the Portland Chamber Music Festival, and Serenata Santa Fe, as well as by performers such as flutist/ conductor Ransom Wilson, Metropolitan Opera soprano Lauren Flanigan, Grammy-nominated soprano Judith Kellock and violinist Timothy Fain. His compositions are published by Liben Music Publishers and the International Society of Bassists, and his music is recorded on the Gasparo and Albany labels. His compositions have been performed at the Aspen, Bowdoin, Music At the Anthology, June in Buffalo and Bang On A Can festivals, among others, and have frequently been broadcast on WNYC and Hawaii Public Radio. Mr. Askim won the 2002 International Society of Bassists Composition Competition for Eight Solitudes and is a frequent recitalist for the International Society of Bassists, the Hawaii Contrabass Festival and the World Bass Festival in Wroclaw, Poland. He performed and recorded his bass concerto Islands at the International Society of Bassists convention under the direction of flutist/ conductor Ransom Wilson. As a conductor, Mr. Askim has served as Music Director of the Branford Chamber Orchestra and makes frequent guest conducting appearances, including the Sewanee Philharmonia, the Oregon Festival of American Music, the Wroclaw (Poland) Chamber Orchestra Sotto Voce and the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra. He has premiered numerous works, including by composers Richard Danielpour and Christopher Theofanidis and has collaborated with such artists as the Miró String Quartet, ‘cellist Matt Haimovitz, violinists Ian Swensen and Todor Pelev and ‘cellist John Walz. He has also received critical praise as a jazz artist in such publications as Jazztimes, the New York Post and New York Newsday. He studied at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna and holds bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees from Yale University, where he graduated with Distinction in Music. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Composition from the University of Texas at Austin. He studied composition with Dan Welcher, Donald Grantham, Anthony Davis, Jan Radzynski, Syd Hodkinson and David Finko, and double bass with George Rubino, Diana Gannett, Donald Palma, Wolfgang Harrer and Ludwig Streicher. Music Performed: Islands (double bass concerto) from “Moving, Still” About Moving, Still: Moving, Still – CD New CD features compositions of Peter Askim and such artists as Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center flutist/conductor Ransom Wilson, conductor Naoto Otomo and the Tokyo Symphony, members of Orchestra Asia-Japan, pianist Douglas Aschcraft and Peter Askim as conductor and bassist. Links: http://www.idyllwildarts.org/ http://peteraskim.com