A new program airs Sunday nights on WBAA Classical: What's New. Host John Clare features new music, new releases, and interesting guests. Hear a special preview of this week's What's New, and let us know what you think.
Mason Bates is an emerging composer...his Violin Concerto was premiered in 2012 and is in three continuous movements: Archaeopteryx, Lakebed Memories, and The Rise of the Birds. He is composer-in-residence of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (their first ever composer-in-residence appointment) through the 2017-18 season.
Composers paint with sound, and my sonic palette has been growing rapidly in large-scale symphonies fusing orchestral and electronic sounds. But the pops, clicks and thuds of techno present challenges in a violin concerto: the subtle textures of this eighteen-inch instrument would be quickly painted over by the powerful colors of such a big palette. So, in order to fully showcase the violin, I stepped back into the acoustic universe — but with my ears still humming with exotic sounds.
Hear more Sunday night at 10pm on WBAA Classical on 101.3FM and WBAA.org! And again Tuesdays at 8pm right after Exploring Music on WBAA Classical!
