Meet the Composer

The Meet the Composer podcasts celebrate, annotate and explore the music of contemporary composers infrequently heard even on public radio’s classical outlets, which tend to be devoutly traditional. Host Nadia Sirota, herself an acclaimed violinist, in each program takes listeners into the mind and process of someone who is creating complicated, challenging music, some of it fiercely dissonant, some of it breathtakingly beautiful. Sirota gleans not only insights about her guests’ music but also about their personal history, beliefs and influences. Ingram Marshall, billed as “a Connecticut hippie in California,” alludes to Indonesian gamelan music and Early American sacred harp singing in discussing his minimalist compositions. Anna Thorvaldsdottir explains the role of her native Iceland’s climate and volcanic topography in shaping her dark, forbidding orchestral soundscapes. Meredith Monk talks about her buddhism, her anarchist dad, her mom singing jingles on the radio. It’s not just chat and music, and definitely not a dJ show. It’s highly creative sonically, reminiscent of the Peabody-winning RadioLab in its layering and collages. The smart conversation and music come together in a mutual embrace. For merging music, interview and state-of-the-art production to create an educational, entertaining, immersive audio experience, Meet the Composer receives a Peabody Award.