Upcoming Interviews
Check out these great interviews coming up!
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Just click on the appropriate link at the time of the event.
Spotify Podcasts are available any time on or after the date listed.
Andrew Violette
Andrew Violette (1953-2021) studied at the High School of Music and Art in New York City from 1968 to 1971. He studied composition with Elliott Carter and Roger Sessions and counterpoint with Otto Luening at the Juilliard School of Music in New York from 1971 to 1975, where he earned his B.Mus. and M.Mus., as well as the Lado Prize in Composition.
He composed over 90 works leaving a legacy of wonderful music. Bruce Posner, friend of the composer for 46 years, witnessed the creation of many of Violette’s works. Bruce is preparing an archive of Violette’s writings and performances for posterity.
Daniel Perttu
Music has always been a kind of magic for Dan, a portal to other realms. When he was young, he was inspired by fantasy novels such as The Lord of the Rings, and is still drawn to myths and legends. He has written works on themes ranging from the planets, the sorcery of Merlin, and the Callanish Stone Circle, to the Torngat Mountains. His aim is to write music that invites audiences into other worlds, so they can re-discover their own sense of wonder. He is a music professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Christina Rusnak
Passionate about composing about place and the human experience, composer Christina Rusnak works at the intersection of place, nature, culture, history and art to integrate context into her music from the world around her to convey something meaningful about the human experience. Her concert music includes chamber ensemble, orchestra, wind band, choral and solo pieces as well as jazz and electro-acoustic works. She is eager to explore new challenges.
Melissa Manchester
Melissa Manchester needs no introduction. Her tremendously successful solo career brought her critical and commercial acclaim. The “Midnight Blue” singer received her first Grammy nomination for Best Pop Female Vocal Performance in 1979 for the Peter Allen/Carole Bayer Sager-penned “Don’t Cry Out Loud,” winning the Grammy in that category four years later for “You Should Hear How She Talks About You.” On July 19, 2025 she premiered a 5-movement concerto called AWAKE.
Ben Schwendener
Composer / pianist Ben Schwendener sustains a unique voice in contemporary creative music and is a leading authority on George Russell's Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization, which he assisted Russell in teaching at the New England Conservatory from 1986 to 2004.
Schwendener’s latest book Organic Music Theory (Pumping Station, 2017, Heights Music International, 2020) presents a new direction in natural pedagogy and dialogue-based arts education, establishing Organic Music Theory and Universal Musical Elements as primary creative sources.