4. Now available for free listening on radiOM.org

We are busily preparing the recordings from OM 15 for uploading to radiOM.org. In the meantime we draw your ears to programs featuring music by and interviews with a few composers who will be celebrating their birthdays in the coming days and weeks (with apologies and birthday greetings to all those omitted).

Michael Nyman, born March 23, 1944
Morning Concert: Prospero's Pens (1992)
Fountain pens were the early 20th Century equivalent of the laptop computer. Allowing individuals the ability to write without being tied to a desk and inkwell, this unique American invention came to symbolize literacy for the man or woman who owned and carried one. Recently, as computer technology has threatened to wipe out the individual personality of the handwritten word, hoards of collectors have rediscovered the joy of writing with new and vintage instruments which can vary the width of the letter with subtle hand pressure. The many exotic and attractive designs in which fountain pens have been made, and their unique characteristics, are explored by Charles Amirkhanian and his guests in this program. The music used in this program comes from Michael Nyman's soundtrack for Peter Greenaway's film Prospero's Books, in which the sound and sights of quill pen writing figured prominently. Among guests featured are Saul Kitchener, the expert pen restorer of Michael's Art Supplies in San Francisco; Nancy Olson, managing editor of Pen World Magazine; Larry Klein, who taught himself to write in 17th-Century calligraphy with a quill pen; and Menashe Murad, owner of Manhattan's famous specialty store, Menash, which supplies rare and unusual fountain pens to ordinary citizens and celebrities alike. (from KPFA Folio)

Philip Corner, born April 10, 1933
Morning Concert: Interview with Philip Corner (1979)
From January 4, 1979, Charles Amirkhanian interviews composer Phil Corner. Born April 10, 1933 in New York, Corner studied briefly with Olivier Messiaen in Paris in 1955, and in 1958, at the New School for Social Research, he attended John Cage's class which also included such distinguished budding artists as Allan Kaprow, George Brecht, Dick Higgins, and others who would make their marks in the lively East Village scene of the 1960s. As a member of the faculty of Livingston College (Rutgers University, New Jersey), Corner continued his provocative, improvisation-oriented music making based on highly original open-ended hand calligraphed performance notations which have become a trademark of his style. In this program he discusses his interest in gamelan and gong music and other aspects of his prodigious output, as well as giving a live performance of part of his Metal Meditations. (from KPFA Folio)

Frederic Rzewski, born April 13, 1938
Speaking of Music: Frederic Rzewski (1989)
Recorded on January 9, 1989 as part of the San Francisco Exploratorium's Speaking of Music series, Charles Amirkhanian interviews Frederic Rzewski, one of the most important American composer/performers of the late 20th century. Rzewski was born in 1938 in Westfield, Massachusetts and educated at Harvard and Princeton, where he studied with Walter Piston, Roger Sessions, and Milton Babbitt. In 1960 he went to Italy to study with Luigi Dallapiccola, and has continued to live in Europe for much of his life. He was a cofounder with Alvin Curran of the radical avant-garde group Musica Elettronica Viva, which was famous for their improvised electronic music concerts during the 1960s and 70s. The composer of a famous set of piano variations on Victor Jara's "El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido," Rzewski discusses his recent music and artistic tastes. Rzewski is known for both his remarkable virtuosity as a performer, improviser and composer, and his committed involvement in leftist politics. How he resolves these in his work is a problem which he has solved with thoughtfulness and inventiveness of an uncommon sort.

Sten Hanson, born April 15, 1936
Ode To Gravity: The Sound Poetry of Sten Hanson (1975)
Charles Amirkhanian introduces the work of Sten Hanson, a writer turned sound poet who has been one of the most active composers of the Fylkingen group in Stockholm. The program includes an interview recorded on April 12, 1972 in Sweden, in which Hanson describes how he puts together his works and describes the computer studio for electronic music in Stockholm where he creates his sound poetry. Also heard are some of Hanson's amusing voice pieces which are both political and humorous. (from KPFA Folio)