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A Musical Life with Hugh Sung

Pianist Hugh Sung shares stories about making music and what moves our souls. Featuring interviews with musicians from a wide variety of genres, including Classical, Folk, Rock, Jazz, and beyond. Visit http://amusicallife.com for all episodes and show notes. New episodes coming every Monday.
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Now displaying: June, 2016
Jun 27, 2016
Pieter Schlosser, Composer

Pieter Schlosser is an award-winning film, television and video game composer known for his work on NBC's hit show You, Me And The Apocalypse, as well as his collaborations with Steve Jablonsky on Desperate Housewives, the Transformers film, and Gears of War 2 & 3 video games. As a multi-cultural multi-instrumentalist, Pieter draws on an incredible reservoir of creativity and artistic versatility.

I really love these shows where we get to talk to amazing composers and explore the creative process and inspirations behind their work. Pieter Schlosser is one of those musicians that needs the prefix “multi” in front of their name - multi-linguist, multi-genre, multi-talented. And a great suffix for him would probably be, “go-getter” - time and time again, Pieter’s initiative has served him well, putting him in the company of great film composers like Hans Zimmer and opening some incredible opportunities in film, TV, and video games.

Links

Pieter's Website: http://www.pieterschlosser.com/

8Dio high-end sample developer of virtual instruments: http://8dio.com/

In Saturn's Rings film project: http://insaturnsrings.com/

 

 

Jun 20, 2016
Rachel Barton Pine, Violin Virtuosa

Violinist, scholar, composer, philanthropist, and heavy metal shredder Rachel Barton Pine is a one-of-a kind musical tour de force, connecting a wide array of cultures, genres, and communities. Despite tremendous childhood difficulties and a major setback early in her career, Rachel drew upon a profound spiritual resource to become one of today’s leading musicians and an inspiration to so many worldwide.

Rachel Barton Pine is, quite simply, one of the most extraordinary musicians I’ve had the honor to feature on the show. As a violinist, she has recorded nearly 30 albums and performed with major symphony orchestras and conductors worldwide. As a scholar, she has championed the music of black composers and pioneering women. On top of that, she has the distinction of being the first living and first female composer to have her violin cadenzas, encores, and arrangements of works for violin and piano published by Carl Fischer Music as part of its Masters Collection. Her musical styles cover the gamut between baroque and contemporary classical composers, and wait until you hear about her passion for heavy metal! Her latest album, Testament, was recorded at her home church in Chicago where she fell in love with the violin and the music of Bach as a child, and was recently the best selling classical album.

Links

Rachel's website: http://rachelbartonpine.com/

Rachel Elizabeth Barton Foundation: http://www.rebf.org/

 

Jun 13, 2016
Jason Graves, Video Game Composer

Jason Graves is a BAFTA award-winning composer behind some of the most popular video games such as the Dead Space series, the 2013 reboot of Tomb Raider, and more recently Far Cry Primal, which was just published by Ubisoft earlier this year. Jason combines modern classical composition techniques with innovative sound designs to create scores that are incredibly visceral and immersive.

Video games are a 101 billion dollar industry worldwide. To put this into perspective, the video game industry by some estimates is twice as large as the movie industry.  As games become more and more immersive with photorealistic graphics and compelling storylines, high production quality demands a great music score. This is where my guest Jason Graves comes in. A classically- trained composer and world percussionist, Jason has written music for film, TV, and nearly 80 games, and has won BAFTA awards and nominations for his work on the Dead Space and Tomb Raider games. For his work on Far Cry: Tribal, a game set in the stone age, Jason created an entirely organic score, blending sounds created from natural materials, such as wood, bushes, bones, antlers, clay pots, as well as a ram’s horn, wooden flutes, female vocals, and an instrument called an Aztec Death Whistle.

Links

Jason's Website: http://www.jasongraves.com/

Jason's Banoffee Pie Recipe on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jasonwgraves/media_set?set=a.1942210203112.122469.1478182287&type=3

Far Cry: Primal from Ubisoft: http://far-cry.ubisoft.com/primal/en-us/home/

 

Jun 6, 2016
Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Project

World renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma established Silkroad in 1998 to explore how music can advance global understanding. Since 2000, the musicians of the world music collective, Silk Road Ensemble, have been on a mission to change the world by connecting diverse cultures and traditions in performances, workshops, and residencies.

Yo-Yo Ma and the Grammy-nominated Silk Road Ensemble recently released their sixth album, "Sing Me Home", which was developed and recorded alongside "The Music of Strangers", a new documentary movie from Oscar and Emmy-winning director Morgan Neville that tells the story of the Ensemble and Silkroad, its parent organization. "The Music of Strangers" is slated for theatrical release later this week, and is one of the most breathtaking, beautiful, and moving documentaries I have ever seen. In this episode, we'll meet some of the remarkable musicians featured prominently in the film, and listen to excerpts from "Sing Me Home", an album which explores the musical roots of individual members of the Ensemble.

Links

The Silk Road Project website: http://www.silkroadproject.org/

Yo-Yo Ma's website: http://www.yo-yoma.com/

 

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