It’s no secret that Pierre Boulez led a double life as a composer and conductor. Kevin Fitzgerald, a conductor in his own right, has looked up to Boulez as his hero, and he shares his knowledge about the man and his career from the eyes of a conductor.
When we hear the name George Gershwin, we often associate it with jazz or musical theater, but he didn’t see himself that way. He saw himself as a standard composer of his time and influenced by the sounds around him. So what does that mean for his opera Porgy and Bess? Or is it a Broadway musical?
From the United Kingdom, then to the United States, and and now Singapore, media composer Pearl Yim has seen great success with her music all across the world. Pearl talks about her experience in the fields of film and video game composing and the struggles she faced in order to get where she is today.
Music, much like any art form, has been a staple in nearly every culture for thousands of years. We often forget where these arts have their roots, and to better understand the music of the last few hundred years, we must go back even further… no matter how grim.
Thank you for celebrating The Composer Chronicles’ one-year anniversary with me! Although the podcast turned 1-year-old on April 29th, we had a lot to celebrate this month.
The warm, rich tones produced by the cello have been a siren to many composers, calling them to compose for the instrument whether or not it was in their best interest to do so. Cellist Steven Chen gives his professional knowledge and opinion on the cello and the pieces written for it!
Andrew Gavin was The Composer Chronicles’ first composer feature back in August, 2020. Since his first appearance, he has been back for an episode of “Movie Night”, has composed the theme music to Unscripted, and has also compose the music of the Alexandria Media pre and post episode tags. On this first episode in the “Backstage” series of Unscripted, Andrew is back again! On this series, past guests of The Composer Chronicles come back to talk about whatever they want with no formal questions asked.
In the first drafts of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, there is a name that appeared as the subtitle before it was scribbled out and changed to ‘Eroica’. Originally Beethoven dedicated this symphony to his personal hero, a man who would soon instigate his own demise when he crowned himself Emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte.
Brooks Leibee has dedicated much of his career to the art of film making. However, it is his scores for those films that he is most proud of. In this episode, Brooks shares his journey and gives deeper insight into his world.
Coming off of the success of his first two operas, young Erich Wolfgang Korngold set out to write his third. His success was so massive, that opera houses all over duked it out for the rights to stage the premier, leaving Korngold with the tough decision of who to give those rights to.
