Jennifer Higdon (born 1962)

Episodes

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202101The Soundworld Of Strings20210726Donald Macleod in conversation with the Pulitzer and three-time Grammy Award-winning American composer Jennifer Higdon. Their focus today is writing for strings.

If you were to ask Jennifer Higdon what her biggest musical influence might be, she's more likely to cite Lennon and McCartney than Bach or Beethoven. Born in 1962 in New York, the soundtrack of her childhood was the Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel and Peter Paul and Mary, the Rolling Stones, and reggae. A move to Atlanta, Georgia, and then to a farmhouse in rural Tennessee, added bluegrass and country music. It wasn't until Higdon was in her teens that her musical curiosity directed her towards classical music. Formal studies followed, and she began to compose when she was 21 years old. Coming to classical music later on, has been, according to Higdon, a significant factor in her own musical language. She's now one of the most performed living American composers. Having just completed her second opera and a concerto in the past year, Higdon is much in demand, with commissions on her books that take her right up to 2024.

Recorded at the end of May, speaking to Donald Macleod from Articulate Studios in Philadelphia, USA, in an extended interview Jennifer Higdon gives a fascinating insight into her life and her musical preoccupations. Starting with strings on Monday, they move on to vocal writing, the influence of colour on music, the natural world and writing concertos, an area which has now become something of a speciality.

Today Jennifer Higdon and Donald Macleod discuss her musical roots, her earliest attempts at composition, and how she would find success with her Concerto for Orchestra.

Dance Card

No 5 Machina Rockus

Chicago Sinfonietta

String Poetic

II: Nocturne arr for cello and piano

Louise King, cello

Therese Milanovic, piano

III: Blue Hills of Mist

Jennifer Koh, violin

Reiko Uchida, piano

Echo dash

Hilary Hahn, violin

Cory Smythe, piano

Voices

Pacifica Quartet

Viola Sonata

II: Declamatory

Molly Carr, viola

Charles Abramovic, piano

Second movement

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

Robert Spano, conductor

Donald Macleod in conversation with award-winning American composer Jennifer Higdon.

202102Writing For The Voice20210727Donald Macleod continues his conversation with the Pulitzer and three-time Grammy Award-winning American composer Jennifer Higdon. Their focus today is her vocal writing.

If you were to ask Jennifer Higdon what her biggest musical influence might be, she's more likely to cite Lennon and McCartney than Bach or Beethoven. Born in 1962 in New York, the soundtrack of her childhood was the Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel and Peter Paul and Mary, the Rolling Stones, and reggae. A move to Atlanta, Georgia, and then to a farmhouse in rural Tennessee, added bluegrass and country music. It wasn't until Higdon was in her teens that her musical curiosity directed her towards classical music. Formal studies followed, and she began to compose when she was 21 years old. Coming to classical music later on, has been, according to Higdon, a significant factor in her own musical language. She's now one of the most performed living American composers. Having just completed her second opera and a concerto in the past year, Higdon is much in demand, with commissions on her books that take her right up to 2024.

Recorded at the end of May, speaking to Donald Macleod from Articulate Studios in Philadelphia, USA, in an extended interview Jennifer Higdon gives a fascinating insight into her life and her musical preoccupations. Starting with strings on Monday, they move on to vocal writing, the influence of colour on music, the natural world and writing concertos, an area which has now become something of a speciality.

Writing for voice has led Jennifer Higdon to use some original combinations of voice and instruments, and learn how to overcome some challenging obstacles.

Love Sweet

no 2: The Giver of Stars

no 5: A Fixed Idea

Sarah Shafer, soprano

Lysander Piano Trio

Itamar Zorman, violin

Michael Katz, cello

Liza Stepanova, piano

O magnum mysterium

Haydn & Haydn Society Chorus

Christopher Krueger & Wendy Rolfe, flutes

John Grimes, glasses & chimes

Grant Llewellyn, director

The Singing Rooms

III: The Interpretation of Dreams (excerpt)

IV: Confession (text Jeanne Minahan)

Atlanta Symphony Chorus and Orchestra

Jennifer Koh, violin

Robert Spano, director

Cold Mountain

Chorus: Our Beautiful Country

Chanticleer

A Quiet Moment

Essential Voices USA

Judith Clurman, director

Love Came Down

Maureen McKay, soprano

Stacey Shames, harp

Producer Johannah Smith

Donald Macleod in conversation with award-winning American composer Jennifer Higdon.

202103Colour And Music20210728Donald Macleod in conversation with the Pulitzer and three-time Grammy Award-winning American composer Jennifer Higdon. Today they're discussing colour and her most popular work Blue Cathedral.

If you were to ask Jennifer Higdon what her biggest musical influence might be, she's more likely to cite Lennon and McCartney than Bach or Beethoven. Born in 1962 in New York, the soundtrack of her childhood was the Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel and Peter Paul and Mary, the Rolling Stones, and reggae. A move to Atlanta, Georgia, and then to a farmhouse in rural Tennessee, added bluegrass and country music. It wasn't until Higdon was in her teens that her musical curiosity directed her towards classical music. Formal studies followed, and she began to compose when she was 21 years old. Coming to classical music later on, has been, according to Higdon, a significant factor in her own musical language. She's now one of the most performed living American composers. Having just completed her second opera and a concerto in the past year, Higdon is much in demand, with commissions on her books that take her right up to 2024.

Recorded at the end of May, speaking to Donald Macleod from Articulate Studios in Philadelphia, USA, in an extended interview Jennifer Higdon gives a fascinating insight into her life and her musical preoccupations. Starting with strings on Monday, they move on to vocal writing, the influence of colour on music, the natural world and writing concertos, an area which has now become something of a speciality.

Jennifer Higdon's orchestral work `Blue Cathedral` is the most performed work by a living American composer. She talks with Donald Macleod about how, as she was writing the music, it became a musical elegy for her brother, Andrew.

Blue Cathedral (excerpt)

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

Robert Spano, director

Scenes from the Poet's Dreams for piano left hand and string quartet

No 4: In the Blue Fields they sing

Gary Graffman, piano

Lark Quartet

City Scape

III: Peachtree Street

Robert Spano, conductor

Piano Trio:

1: Pale Yellow

2: Fiery Red

Anne Akiko Meyers, violin

Alisa Weilerstein, cello

Adam Neiman, piano

Producer Johannah Smith

Donald Macleod in conversation with award-winning American composer Jennifer Higdon.

202104The Natural World20210729Donald Macleod in conversation with the Pulitzer and three-time Grammy Award-winning American composer Jennifer Higdon. Today they're discussing the role of the natural world in her music.

If you were to ask Jennifer Higdon what her biggest musical influence might be, she's more likely to cite Lennon and McCartney than Bach or Beethoven. Born in 1962 in New York, the soundtrack of her childhood was the Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel and Peter Paul and Mary, the Rolling Stones, and reggae. A move to Atlanta, Georgia, and then to a farmhouse in rural Tennessee, added bluegrass and country music. It wasn't until Higdon was in her teens that her musical curiosity directed her towards classical music. Formal studies followed, and she began to compose when she was 21 years old. Coming to classical music later on, has been, according to Higdon, a significant factor in her own musical language. She's now one of the most performed living American composers. Having just completed her second opera and a concerto in the past year, Higdon is much in demand, with commissions on her books that take her right up to 2024.

Recorded at the end of May, speaking to Donald Macleod from Articulate Studios in Philadelphia, USA, in an extended interview Jennifer Higdon gives a fascinating insight into her life and her musical preoccupations. Starting with strings on Monday, they move on to vocal writing, the influence of colour on music, the natural world and writing concertos, an area which has now become something of a speciality.

The environment is important to Jennifer Higdon. We hear music inspired by places she's visited or imagined, and she describes how the aural possibilities of the natural world fired her imagination in a work for two marimbas .

City Scape

II: River sings a song to trees

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

Robert Spano, conductor

Scenes From the Poet's Dreams

II: Summer Shimmers Across the Glass of Green Ponds

The Lark Quartet

Gary Graffman, piano

Autumn Music

Musical Arts Woodwind Quintet

Secret & Glass Gardens (excerpt)

Mary Kathleen Ernst, piano

Splendid Wood (excerpt)

New England Conservatory Percussion Ensemble

Frank Epstein, director

All Things Majestic

I: Teton Range:

Nashville Symphony Orchestra

Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor

Producer Johannah Smith

Donald Macleod in conversation with award-winning American composer Jennifer Higdon.

202105 LASTMusical Form And Innovation20210730Donald Macleod concludes his conversation with the Pulitzer and three-time Grammy Award-winning American composer Jennifer Higdon. Today they're discussing how she's refreshed the concerto form.

If you were to ask Jennifer Higdon what her biggest musical influence might be, she's more likely to cite Lennon and McCartney than Bach or Beethoven. Born in 1962 in New York, the soundtrack of her childhood was the Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel and Peter Paul and Mary, the Rolling Stones, and reggae. A move to Atlanta, Georgia, and then to a farmhouse in rural Tennessee, added bluegrass and country music. It wasn't until Higdon was in her teens that her musical curiosity directed her towards classical music. Formal studies followed, and she began to compose when she was 21 years old. Coming to classical music later on, has been, according to Higdon, a significant factor in her own musical language. She's now one of the most performed living American composers. Having just completed her second opera and a concerto in the past year, Higdon is much in demand, with commissions on her books that take her right up to 2024.

Recorded at the end of May, speaking to Donald Macleod from Articulate Studios in Philadelphia, USA, in an extended interview Jennifer Higdon gives a fascinating insight into her life and her musical preoccupations. Starting with strings on Monday, they move on to vocal writing, the influence of colour on music, the natural world and writing concertos, an area which has now become something of a speciality.

As performers queue up to ask Jennifer Higdon to write them a Concerto, and garnering a Pulitzer for her Violin Concerto, Higdon talks about her ideas and her approach to a genre that dates back to the 16th century.

III: Fly Forward

Hilary Hahn, violin

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

Vasily Petrenko, conductor

Concerto 4-3 for String trio and Orchestra

I: The Shallows

Forth Worth Symphony

Miguel Harth-Bedoya, conductor

Percussion Concerto (excerpt)

Colin Currie, percussion

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Marin Alsop, conductor

Zaka (excerpt)

Eighth Blackbird

Matt Albert, violin

Lisa Kaplan, piano

Nicholas Photinos, cello

Molly Alicia Barth, flutes

Michael J. Maccaferri, clarinets

Matthew Duvall, percussion

Concerto for Orchestra

Third movement

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

Robert Spano, conductor

Harp Concerto

III: Lullaby

Yolanda Kondonassis, harp

The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra

Ward Stare, conductor

Donald Macleod in conversation with award-winning American composer Jennifer Higdon.