Extra Eclectic

The Latvian composer Peteris Vasks has said, "Today, the spiritual dimension has been lost. My intention is to provide food for the soul, and this is what I preach in my works." It's what he preaches, and it's also what he delivers. Steve Seel plays Vasks' "Lauda" on this week's program, plus music by Fazil Say, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Ola Gjeilo, and more.

In classical music today, the guitar has become just as commonplace an instrument as the violin and the piano. What might surprise you though is the inroads the electric guitar has made. Steve Seel features both acoustic and electric guitars in a host of new works on this week's program, including pieces by Chris Brubeck (son of jazz great Dave Brubeck), Elena Kats-Chernin, Judd Greenstein, and others.

This week's program features reflections on the "sharing of wisdom" from one to another, and the value of individual and collective memory. Steve Seel showcases a stirring work from Israeli composer Shulamit Ran on the lessons of the Holocaust, plus Michael Torke's "Four Proverbs" and Judd Greenstein's "In Teaching Others We Teach Ourselves." We also hear music from Tan Dun, Huang Ro, Michael Kurth, and others.

Composer Adam Schoenberg says his American Symphony was inspired by the 2008 presidential election, "where both parties asked the people to embrace change and make a difference." While not a patriotic work, he says, "it's about our collective ability to restore hope within ourselves and our neighbors, both here and around the world." Steve Seel features the work as part of an all American hour on this week's episode.

Composer Kyle Sanna says that the best still photographs tell a story about motion. He wanted to pay tribute to that quality in music, and he called his piece, "Sequence for Minor White" - named after one of the most influential American photographers of the mid-20th century. Steve Seel features that work on this week's episode, played by the quartet Brooklyn Rider. In the second hour, Steve explores works that embody a sense of stillness and motion at the same time.

Guest host Valerie Kahler features pieces that explore themes of "above and below" on this week's episode, including Jeffrey Mumford's "her eastern light amid a cavernous dusk," Michael Daugherty's "The Marfa Lights," Arvo Part's "Tabula Rasa," and Nico Muhly's "Choral Pointing Downwards."

Were you around for the "Be-Ins" of the 1960s? You might remember them as gatherings of hippie culture, some specifically devoted to opposing the Vietnam War and racism. Bass clarinetist and composer Evan Ziporyn takes a look back at those counter-culture gatherings of old, in a work called "Be-In" on this week's episode. Steve Seel also features music by Michael Torke, Philip Glass, Terry Riley, and more.

The 13th-century poet Rumi was the inspiration for the work that's the centerpiece of the first hour of this week's show: "Dance" by composer Anna Clyne. Steve Seel also showcases works by Missy Mazzoli, Harold Budd, Lou Harrison, and Clint Mansell.

Philip Glass wrote his Piano Concerto No. 3 for pianist Simone Dinnerstein, who is universally known for her interpretations of Bach. In 2016, Glass saw Dinnerstein perform a concert of his piano etudes, and he instantly knew she was the pianist for whom he wanted to write his new work. Steve Seel features that concerto as the centerpiece of the first hour of this week's show, which also features works on the subject of birds by composers John Luther Adams and Somei Satoh.

While Michael Gandolfi's "Imaginary Numbers" uses mathematical concepts as the centerpiece of the first hour, music about time and its passing make up a philosophical second hour on this week's program. Steve Seel shares Jason Thomas' "Time's Timeless," Maria Huld Markan Sigfusdottir's "Clockworking" and Bartosz Chajdecki's "Clockwork," and Norman Dello Joio's "Meditations on Ecclesiastes" offers a path to meaning amidst our powerlessness to stop time.