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When I was a young music major, no one ever really told me that I wasn't allowed to listen to other kinds of music, but being a "classical" player, I thought my listening was now restricted to works within the canon. During my first year in college, I raided my...

English music has a strange history. During the time of the Tudors (and even sometime before that) England was the center of some of the most exciting musical experiments and compositional activity in the world. When taste changed, they sort of let Handel take over,...

What an incredible gift to be able to play great music with great musicians who are also fun to be around! The latest addition to the St. Paul's Concert Series is a set of Three Spirituals for Piano Trio by my friend Kile Smith. I like Kile's music for a number of...

I've just read a transcript of an interview between Bryan Magee and Iris Murdoch. The interview is particularly interesting now that we are living in the midst of a culture where so many musicians are trying to use their art to advocate for social issues. Magee points...

A few months ago, I had the pleasure of sitting down with composer/pianist Sergio Barer to talk about some of my more recent compositional output. I don't always like to do this because composers talking about their own music tends to bore me to death. However, a...

I had a conversation with John Conahan in late November in which I said, "I'm not sure if I want to do this again. I feel like I'm re-treading too much old ground." John convinced me to do another CarolRagnarok by saying, "It's just supposed to be fun and stupid and...