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Jennifer Higdon Recorded January, 2009. Interviewed by Christopher Purdy LISTENRunning time: 17:27. 15.9 MB)
Composer Jennifer Higdon will be in Columbus, and her music will be the focus of Ohio State’s Contemporary Music Festival 2009-April 15th through the 19th. See cmf.osu.edu There will be performances of Jennifer Higdon’s music at The Ohio State University - and her Concerto for Orchestra will be played by the Columbus Symphony in the Ohio Theater April 18th and 19th.
Jennifer Higdon was born in Tennessee and studied at Bowling Green State University. She is among the most performed composers in America today. To learn more about her go to www.jenniferhigdon.com
Martin Inglis Recorded January 15, 2009. Interviewed by Christopher Purdy LISTENRunning time: 10:24. 9.5 MB)
Martin Inglis is the new Chairman of the Columbus Symphony’s board of directors. He arrived in Columbus four years ago, after a thirty year career at Ford Moto Company in Detroit, to become Chief Financial Officer at Battelle. Mr. Inglis outlines his plans for a revived Columbus Symphony in a recent conversation with WOSU’s Christopher Purdy.
Studs Terkel Recorded 2005. Interviewed by Christopher Purdy
Studs Terkel died at age 96 on October 31, 2008. Terkel was a broadcaster, interviewer and oral historian whose career lasted 76 years, from 1930 to 2006. His many books include Giants of Jazz; Working: People Talk About What They Do all Day and How They Feel About What They Do all Day; Talking to Myself: A Memoir of the Times; My American Century; Touch and Go and P.S., Further Thoughts From a Lifetime of Listening.
In 2005, promoting his memoir And They All Sang: Adventures of an Eclectic Disc Jockey, Mr.Terkel spoke with WOSU’s Christopher Purdy. Booked for ten minutes, the conversation lasted over half and hour. Here are four excerpts from their visit:
Part 1.(MP3. Length - 3:23) Studs Terkel and Chicago. "I was an asthmatic little boy when I was brought to live in Chicago in 1920. I was eight years old. The smell of the stockyards cured my asthma right away.”
Part 2. (MP3. Length - 5:45) Studs Terkel and Radio. "Every radio soap opera back in those days had three gangsters. The bright one, the middle one and the dumb one. I was always the dumb one. And I always died - just before the first commercial break…Later they wanted us all to wear tuxedos for the studio audience. You looked like a gangster going to his sister's wedding. But I became a disc jockey before the term was invented."
Part 3. (MP3. Length - 4:03) Rosa Raisa and Enrico Caruso. "Raisa! How does someone your age know Raisa? You are the first person your age to ask me about Rosa Raisa! What a great, magnificent voice. She was the greatest Norma ever….better than Callas. She loved to sing with Caruso. He invented the Gramophone you know. Any immigrant who could scrape together a quarter could buy a recording of Caruso singing 'Celeste Aida.'"
Part 4. (MP3 - Length - 6:52) Are you optimistic? "People want to know how to survive with some dignity…remember I told you there was machinery that saved my life? And there’s machinery that can destroy us all. And this is our choice. We live in a world of sanity. There’s enough imagination in the human race to create this world that makes me, at ninety-three, live with a new kind of verve…"
Arnold Steinhardt First violin Guarneri String Quartet
LISTEN (Running time: 18:00. 16.9 MB) It's hard to believe that the Guarneri Quartet ("...has no superior on the world's stages"..-New York Times) is retiring at the end of the 2008-2009 concert season after 45 years! Their final concert in Columbus is Saturday, November 29 at 8 PM at the Southern Theater. It's an all Beethoven program, the quartets opus 127 and 132. Arnold Steinhardt is staying overnight to attend a desert reception in his honor on Sunday November 30th at 12.30, "Violin Dreams". For tickets and information on both of these events, call Chamber Music Columbus, 614.267-2267 or e mail violindreams@cmcolumbus.org.
Meanwhile, here's a chat with Arnold Steinhardt, recorded on October 30th. Enjoy.
Sherri Geldin
LISTEN (Running time: 6:31. 5.9 MB) ANDY WARHOL: OTHER VOICES OTHER ROOMS is at the Wexner Center through February 15, 2009. Wexner Center Executive Director Sherri Geldin talks with WOSU's Christopher Purdy. For more information, see www.wexarts.org
In conversation with WOSU’s Christopher Purdy, Kaiser describes his work with arts organizations from the Kansas City Ballet, the American Ballet Theatre, and the Market Theatre in South Africa to London’s Royal Opera.
Daniel Catan - FLORENCIA EN EL AMAZONAS
LISTEN (Running time: 15:27. 14.1 MB) Daniel Catan's new opera, Florencia in the Amazon, is based on Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel Love in the Time of Cholera. In 1905, opera diva Florencia Grimaldi journeys down the Amazon to her home town of Manaus for a gala concert. Along the way she yearns for a lost love, and entwines her life and her loss with her fellow passengers. Catan's Spanish language opera was first performed in Houston in 1996. The Cincinnati Opera presents Florencia en el Amazonas at Music Hall, Cincinnati on July 10th and 12th. See www.cinicnnatiopera.org.
Daniel Catan talks with WOSU's Christopher Purdy about Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and the lush and mysterious Amazon at the heart of his opera.
Christine Brewer
LISTEN (Running time: 23:55. 21.9 MB) CHRISTINE BREWER'S NEW CD: LIVE AT WIGMORE HALL Music by Wagner, Wolf, Britten and John Carter With Roger Vignoles, piano
Soprano Christine Brewer went from small town Illinois to the great concert and opera stages of he world. She still lives in Lebanon, Illinois, (population 3,500) and waited until her daughter was grown to take her career international. Today, Christine Brewer is the soprano of choice for the operas of Wagner worldwide, and sings Brunnhilde in Wagner's Ring cycle at the Metropolitan,in New York wit James Levine in 2009. Her latest CD is of a recital she gave last year in London's Wigmore Hall. See also www.christinebrewer.com . Christine Brewer talks of motherhood and music with WOSU's Christopher Purdy
Osvaldo Golijov
LISTEN (Running time: 10:18. 9.4 MB) The award winning composer of "Passion According to St. Mark", "Yiddishbuk", "Oceana" and the opera "Ainadamar" talks with Christopher Purdy.
Golijov has been called the rock star of classical music. He was born to Eastern European Jewish parents in La Plata, Argentina in 1960. His fiery music is complexly original, at the same time using his South American, Jewish roots.
Brian Kellow
LISTEN (Running time: 15:13. 13.9 MB) CHRISTOPHER PURDY WITH BRIAN KELLOW ABOUT ETHEL MERMAN
Opera News Features Editor Brian Kellow has written a new biography of Broadway Legend Ethel Merman (1908-1984). He discusses the dramatic life of the lady whom George Gershwin advised to "never take a singing lesson", the star of GIRL CRAZY, ANYTHING GOES, ANNIE GET YOUR GUN and GYPSY. The contrast between Broadway then and Broadway now is beautifully set out in
LISTEN (Running time: 14:17. 13.0 MB) CHRISTOPHER PURDY INTERVIEWS WILL ALLISON
Will Allison’s new novel "What You Have Left" has been lauded by the New York Times and is a Barnes and Noble Discover New Writers choice and a Border’s Original Voices choice for 2007. His short stories have been published in Cincinnati Review, Interview and Glimmer Train. Born in South Carolina, Will Allison holds the MFA degree from the Ohio State University’s Creative Writing program, where his teachers included Lee K. Abbott and Michelle Herman. He is at work on a new novel for the Free Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. See www.willallison.com
Praise for "What You Have Left": “The moving account tells of a South Carolina family struggling to survive despite a mother’s death, a father’s abandonment and a grandfather’s battle with Alzheimer’s disease—and a host of risky behaviors by others left behind.” --Columbus Dispatch, 6/26/07
“A remarkable, understated novel…Allison has a precocious knack for detail…and for plain, old fashioned storytelling.” --Entertainment Weekly (an EW pick) 6/8/07
Baritone Nathan Gunn's new CD, 'Just Before Sunrise,' is a collection of standards by Jimmy Van Heusen, Tom Waits, and Billy Joel, combined with new songs by Ben Moore,Gene Scheer, and Sting. It's a winner, neither full classical nor pop, nor crossover, but a new expansion of American song.
Nathan Gunn has been a leading artist with the Metropolitan Opera since 1995; he sang Papageno in Mozart's 'The Magic Flute' in the Met's first HD cinema presentations beamed into movie theaters worldwide. He returns to the Met in New York and in the movie theatres next season for Mercutio in Gounod's 'Romeo et Juliette.'
'Just Before Sunrise' is published by SONY Classical and hits the stores on August 7th. We spoke on the phone from his hotel in New York on August 2, 2007.
--Christopher Purdy 'Thanks' as always to Eric French
Clara O'Dette
LISTEN (Running time: 1:52. 1.7 MB) BOYCE LANCASTER TALKS WITH CLARA O'DETTE
Former opera singer and loyal, longtime volunteer at WOSU FM, Clara O'Dette shares with us her personal stories about her performance at the White House. O'Dette, like Earl Wild, performed for the President under adverse weather conditions.
When she and her husband lived in Washington, D.C., Clara was an eight-year member of the chorus of the Washington Opera Society and performed for several luminaries. In addition to the Kennedys, Clara sang under Igor Stravinsky's direction in "Chant du Rossignol," and on another occasion met Samuel Barber and Gian Carlo Menotti backstage when the two friends attended rehearsals of Barber's Vanessa.
This interview is part of Return to Camelot, a retrospective of the Kennedy years in the White House.
"There was this horrible blizzard...." So begins Earl Wild's tale about the night he performed at President Kennedy's Inaugural Concert. When he finally arrived, his reward was a chance to talk to the President and his wife backstage for twenty minutes before the show. "I found Mrs. Kennedy to be most charming..."
This interview is part of Return to Camelot, a retrospective of the Kennedy years in the White House.
Frank Corsaro Recorded June 28, 2007
LISTEN (Running time: 39:00. 35.6 MB) CHRISTOPHER PURDY TALKS WITH FRANK CORSARO
Frank Corsaro is one of America’s foremost stage directors. His credits include Broadway runs of A Hatful of Rain, Tenesee Williams’ The Night of the Iguana, and Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha. In June of this year Corsaro staged a new opera to his own libretto, Frau Margot, for the Ft. Worth Opera, with music by Thomas Pasatieri. Corsaro served as Artistic Director of the Actor’s Studio, and his productions for the New York City Opera include Madama Butterfly, La traviata, Die Tote Stadt, and Janacek’s The Makropoulos Affair. His book "Maverick" is a must read for anyone interested in music theater.
Frank Corsaro talks about his new opera , plus his work on Broadway, at the Actor's Studio, Lee Strasberg, Tennessee Williams, Bette Davis and more.
With thanks as always to Eric French!
Kaye Ballard Recorded June 1, 2007
LISTEN (Running time: 36:56. 33.7 MB) CHRISTOPHER PURDY WITH KAYE BALLARD
Eric French, the indispensable engineer who helps me with these interviews, said to me the other day: "Dude. What's up with all the death and politico stuff?" And I realized that we’ve been heavy on grief counselors and amnesty advocates and death penalty opponents and the wonderful but serious conversationst hat go with those subjects.
Then a new book caught my eye in the library, "How I Lost 10 Pounds in 53 Years" by Kaye Ballard. Born in Cleveland eighty-one years ago, Kaye Ballard (Caterina Ballotta) has done TV series (The Mothers in Law, The Doris Day Show), Broadway (The Golden Apple; Carnival; Molly; Nunsense) Vegas, clubs, pictures, you name it. She talks about her life in show business going back to her days with Spike Jones and His Band in the 1940s, and mentions her big break at Columbus’s Club Gloria. We’ll hear about her famous friends with whom she worked: Bette Davis, Desi Arnaz, Fred Ebb, Doris Day, Marc Blitzstein, Lenny Bruce, Jimmy Durante, and Lucille Ball among them, and she reminds us of great entertainers forgotten today: people such as Billy DeWolfe and Virginia Graham .
If you love showbiz you’ll love this conversation. If you don’t love showbiz, get over yourself, listen anyway and find How I Lost 10 Pounds in 53 Years.
With thanks as always to Eric French!
Christopher O'Riley Recorded May 8, 2007
LISTEN (Running time: 7:39. 14.0 MB) BOYCE LANCASTER TALKS WITH CHRISTOPHER O'RILEY
Christopher O’Riley is a classical pianist who studied at the New England Conservatory of Music. He has received awards at the Leeds, Van Cliburn, Busoni and Montreal competitions, as well as an Avery Fisher Career Grant. O'Riley has made many recordings of classical music. including works of Maurice Ravel, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Jean-Philippe Rameau, John Adams, Igor Stravinsky, and Alexander Scriabin. He is also the host of the weekly National Public Radio program "From the Top," on which young musicians are heard and interviewed.
He was in Columbus preparing for a live taping of the show when Boyce Lancaster interviewed him.
LISTEN (Running time: 16:12. 29.6 MB) CHRISTOPHER PURDY TALKS WITH PHYLLIS R. SILVERMAN
Phyllis R. Silverman is a researcher, teacher and author whose primary interest is bereavement and how death is dealt with in our society. Her early work was focused on the needs of the widowed and this led to the development of the Widow-to-Widow program. Dr. Silverman talks about society’s reaction to the recent shootings at Virginia Tech, explaining death and bereavement to children and the challenges facing men widowed after long marriages. We spoke form her home in Massachusetts on May 2, 2007.
LISTEN (Running time: 13:56. 25.4 MB) CHRISTOPHER PURDY talks with MIKE FARRELL
I’m an American citizen first Actor Mike Farrell enjoys wide popularity for his role as B.J. Hunnicut in the long running TV hit "MASH," as Dr. Jim Hansen in NBC’s "Providence," and most recently in "Desperate Housewives." Farrell’s new book, "Call Me Mike," covers his years before the cameras and his life of community activism behind the cameras. He’s been an outspoken supporter of human dignity and human rights, with strong views on capital punishment. We spoke on the phone on April 30, 2007.
LISTEN (Running time: 24:08. 55.2 MB) CHRISTOPHER PURDY TALKS WITH ROBERT MEEROPOL
Robert Meeropol is the younger son of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were executed by the federal government on July 19, 1953 on charges of conspiracy to commit espionage. Mr. Meerpol is the author of two books, We Are Your Sons, with his brother Michael, and the recent An Execution in the Family. In 1990 Robert Meerpol founded the Rosenberg Fund for Children. Based in Massachusetts, the fund has an international reach. Its mandate is to provide financial assistance to the children of people jailed or incapacitated for their political beliefs.
To date, the RFC has awarded over 3.5 million in grants. See www.rfc.org for more information.
Robert Meeropol spoke with me from his office on April 25, 2007, about the legacy of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, about the case itself, his memories of visiting his parents on death row, and the Rosenberg Fund for Children.
With thanks to Kevin Petrilla.
Norman Lebrecht Recorded April 19, 2007
LISTEN (Running time: 15:17. 34.9 MB) CHRISTOPHER PURDY with NORMAN LEBRECHT
Norman Lebrecht is a widely read commentator on music, culture and politics. He hosts Lebrecht Live for BBC3 and writes a column appearing each Wednesday in the London Evening Standard. Lebrecht’s latest book, The Life and Death of Classical Music, is a top seller in Britain and is published in the U.S. this week. The concluding chapter, "20 Recordings That Should Never Have Been Made," is Lebrecht at his most provocative. We spoke by phone from London on April 19, 2007.
Alessandro Siciliani on Toscanini Recorded March 28, 2007
LISTEN (Running time: 19:26. 44.4 MB) Alessandro Siciliani, Conductor Laureate of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, grew up amongst Italy's great concert halls and opera houses. He shares with us his impressions of Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957). Over a long career, Toscanini was Music Director of La Scala, Milan, the New York Philharmonic, and the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Toscanini's many recordings are well over sixty years old. Find them! Maestro Siciliani discusses his own favorites among the vast Toscanini archive.
Licia Albanese on Toscanini Recorded March 26, 2007
LISTEN (Running time: 16:59. 38.8 MB) Soprano Licia Albanese shares her memories of the great conductor Arturo Toscanini, who died fifty years ago. Mme Albanese sang Mimi in "La Boheme" and Violetta in "La Traviata" on Toscanini’s broadcasts with the NBC symphony in the 1940s. These recordings have never been out of print. She sang at the Metropolitan from 1940 to 1966 and continued her career for years afterward. Today, at 94, Albanese gives master classes for, and financial assistance to, young artists through the Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation. We spoke from her home in New York on March 26, 2007.
See also www.lapfny.org for the Albanese Puccini Foundation
Interview with Dr. Margarita Mazo Recorded March 15, 2007, WOSU studios Interviewed by Christopher Purdy
Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich born March 27, 1927, affectionately known as Slava, is a Russian and American cellist and conductor, considered by some to be one of the greatest cellists ever. Cellist, conductor, teacher, political activist, and humantarian, he celebrated his 80th birthday recently, and is recovering from cancer surgery in Moscow.
Dr. Magarita Mazo is a professor of music at The Ohio State University, and has worked with Rostropovich. She gives valuable insights into this artist.
Part 1. (MP3. Length - 4:27) Rostropovich as conductor, and his collaborations with great composers.
Part 2. (MP3. Length - 4:39) Rostropovich and Russia. His exile from the Soviet Union, 1974-1990, when he and his wife, soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, were ordered out of the country for sheltering Alexandr Slozhenitsyn.
Part 3. (MP3. Length - 4:53) Rostopovich, Vishnevskaya, and their lives, and the perceptions of them in Russia today, and through the world.
See www.rostropovich.org to learn more about the Rostropovich-Vishnevskaya Foundation
Interview with Kathryn Koob ('kobe') Recorded March 13, 2007, over the phone from her home in Iowa Interviewed by Christopher Purdy
LISTEN (Running time: 24:11. 55.3 MB.) Kathyrn Koob was one of the 66 Americans held hostage by Iranian students for 444 days, from November, 1979 to January, 1981. The hostage crisis convulsed this country. Miss Koob is the author of Guest of the Revolution (1982). Today, she is adjunct professor of theater at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, and continues with a full schedule of speaking engagements.
Patty Duke on Mental Illness Academy Award-winning actress Patty Duke ("The Miracle Worker") has long been an advocate for the mentally ill. Her struggles with depression are powerfully told in her books "call Me Anna" and "A Brilliant Madness." Today, Mrs. Anna (Patty Duke) Pearce is busier than ever as an actress, advocate, wife, and mother. She spoke with WOSU's Christopher Purdy in the summer of 2006 from her home in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. See also www.officalpattyduke.com
Met with initial opposition, the famed Ohio Stadium became one of several preeminent landmarks in Ohio and a nationally recognized symbol of collegiate football. more...
Join host Boyce Lancaster in a new hot spot where you can sample some the richest fare—the Amadeus Deli! Weekdays from noon to 1pmon WOSU 89.7, let Mozart and his contemporaries set the perfect soundtrack to your lunch hour. more...
