More probably than any component of NewMusicBox, SoundTracks inevitably reflects the diversity and ultimately uncategorizability of the music being created by American composers. Whereas each issue of NewMusicBox looks at a specific, albeit different, aspect …

David Borden (right) with Keith Emerson (left)Photo by Vivian Lee

The classification of genres in the arts is, I suppose, necessary for both critics and historians. Mostly though, I find that marketing, the need …

Diamanda GalasPhoto by Tom Pitts

I think it is, indeed, difficult to locate my music; and I have seen it under pop, opera, new music, new electronic music, blues, satanic music, noise, gothic, black …

Neil Haverstick

Ever since I was a young boy, stylistic classifications in music have meant absolutely nothing to me. At a young age, some of my favorite pieces were Ravel‘s Bolero, “Peggy Sue” (Buddy …

Erik HoverstenPhoto courtesy Erik Hoversten

Despite the “classical” training we may have, all of us in Threnody Ensemble spent our formative years playing in bands. The music we make now is inextricably linked to …

John ShiurbaPhoto courtesy John Shiurba

Ahh, the great divide, oh to be forever clumsily straddling the great divide. My music not only exists precisely on that divide, but seems to be more or less …

Alan HovhanessPhoto courtesy of C.F. Peters

Alan Hovhaness, a prolific composer who melded Western and Asian musical genres, died in Seattle on June 21, 2000. He was 89 and had suffered from a severe …

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Christopher RousePhoto by Alex Irvin, courtesy Aspen Music Festival

I think the Pulitzer can have a variety of effects on a career. In my own case, I don’t believe it changed much; the number …

Shortly after learning that Lewis Spratlan had won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize in Music for part of an opera that had been completed in 1978 but was only performed in a concert version this past year, we trekked up to Amherst to talk to him about it.