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A Lot to Take Pride In

Six Pride Flags on flagpoles blowing in the wind. Photo by Jasmin Sessler via Unsplash

Knowing that most people will probably be staying at home in front of their computers instead of going out and celebrating Pride this year, we thought we’d share some of our favorite conversations and articles as well as a couple of poignant memorials to some of the heroes of the community. This is just a small smattering of content spanning over 21 years, but it should be enough to fill many hours. – FJO

Kristin Norderval: Permanent and Impermanent Sonic Moments
Composer/vocalist Kristin Norderval's output has been extraordinarily diverse but addressing societal wrongs is perhaps the one common focus that unites decades of work whether she's improvising vocals and transforming sounds...
Marcos Balter: Hyperactive Unity
There is an arresting, high-voltage energy that often infuses presentations of Marcos Balter's music, and an obvious fascination on the part of the composer with exploring new sonic possibilities while...
Ned Rorem At Home
Words seem to flow effortlessly from composer and essayist Ned Rorem, as do frequently biting comments, which we discovered when we spoke with him shortly after the world premiere of...
Towards a Framework for Responsible Trans Casting Part 3: The Writers
Before an actor can bring a character to life, someone has to write that character into existence. Who are the trans writers bringing trans stories into the world, and how...
An Ode to Pride Month
Music presents a unique opportunity for community building and self-expression that can be life-changing for a transgender child. Its accessibility could prove invaluable for trans/GNC students’ continued success, comfort, and...
Ungendered Voice Types for a New Century
I realize that numbers are a bit sterile, especially for something as artistic as opera and as unique as voice, but they could be replaced with words. The challenge is...
Thinking Big: David Del Tredici, A Conversation in 13 parts
How to write what you want for orchestra.
Conrad Cummings: In Conversation With My Peers
Composing music is usually a solitary act, but Conrad Cummings is by nature a very sociable person. This has drawn him into some of the most fascinating collaborative projects such...
Laura Kaminsky: Every Place Has a Story
For thirty years, in addition to writing her own socially and environmentally charged music, Laura Kaminsky has worked behind the scenes allowing other composers to have an opportunity to get...
I’m a Trans Composer. What the Hell Does That Mean?
In the last few months, there have been a number of highly circulated articles about women and contemporary classical music. Reading all these articles got me thinking about the role...
An Atheist Composer on Choral Music
Have you wanted to compose choral music but have not—or have you ignored the contemporary choral scene altogether—because of its religious association?
In Search of Julius Eastman
Three CDs of African-American postminimalist Julius Eastman's music have just been released by New World Records, marking the end of a seven-year search to reassemble the composer's scattered scores and...
Hearing a Person—Remembering Ruth Anderson (1928-2019)
The last music Ruth Anderson heard before she died was Judith Blegen singing Kein Musik ist ja nicht auf erden …, with which Mahler’s Fourth Symphony ends, a song which...
Remembering Lou
John Luther Adams, Bill Colvig, and Lou HarrisonPhoto by Dennis Keeley The great redwood has fallen. Light streams into the forest. The sound will reverberate for generations to come. The...
Ain’t I A Woman Too
As a black woman who composes and performs, Elizabeth A. Baker opens up about fighting for a place in an industry that too often equates successful “diversity initiatives” with the...