Meditations on Samuel Barber and John Cage

This past year, I was one of several musicians selected to be a part of the Artist Propulsion Lab, a program created by New York City’s classical radio station, WQXR. This program offered the opportunity to create content for the radio medium, something which I’d never done before.

I chose to create a podcast episode that centers around American composers Samuel Barber and John Cage, for which I wrote the script and performed the musical selections. The process was a fascinating one. In the episode, discuss the philosophies of these two icons of post-war American music, as well as my feelings and thoughts on playing their compositions. You can listen to the episode using the player below, or by following this link.

Pianist Janice Carissa joined me in studio for Barber’s Canzone and Cage’s Six Melodies. The podcast also features my recording of Barber’s Violin Concerto with the Bellingham Festival Orchestra from July 2023.