Awesome Music

If you care even one little bit about music as a seroius artistic pursuit and a cultural force, you've got to read this three-way interview in the new LA Weekly . Much more after the jump...

Alex Ross is the classical music critic for the New Yorker and author of the very new book "The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century," which I can already tell from reviews and interviews is going to be fascinating. Ronen Givony is the founder of Wordless Music, a program that's smashing the historic barriers between classical and popular music. Owen Pallet is a composer and arranger from Toronto.

It's hard to imagine a more concise or intelligent critique of what's working and not working about composed music today. There's way too much good stuff to quote. But it's especially cool to read a bit more about Osvaldo Golijav, whose piece was for me the highlight of the NCO's Tango concert last week. Here's Alex Ross:

Right now, the figure who seems most radical in the way he’s deconstructing the composer’s historic aloofness from the popular world is Osvaldo Golijov, author of works like St. Mark Passion and Ainadamar. Incorporating stretches of expert improvisation into his pieces, co-creating them with his musicians and singers, weaving together sounds of multiple folk traditions into a strangely cohesive whole, Golijov has managed to produce works that are revolutionary and popular in equal measure.

Paul Gambill told me this recently too - that Golijov is a mad star right now. I'm eager to hear more.