Alto Podcast Alto Podcast

On July 1, 2020 at the Historic Kiever Synagogue, composer Benjamin Hackman and The Holy Gasp will present Grief - a sunset to dawn music performance with 10 vocalists, 2 pianists, percussion, and a sign language interpreter. The public is invited to record the names of their deceased loved ones here https://theholygasp.com/grief/. The names will be inscribed into a scroll and read during this all-night mourning ritual.

I've met with Benjamin at the Kiever Synagogue one morning in June and we talked about life, death, theodicy, grieving, whether losing one's parents is permanently wounding, the actual effects of praying - as well as his music, what his residency at a place of worship involves, bodily endurance art... and the unparalleled cool of Bugs Bunny.

The photo of Ben Hackman is by Alex Earl Gray.
Intro and outro music is by Menachem Engel/Kabbalistic Village SoundCloud

“So much to do with culture is really about money and technology”

TV critic John Doyle emigrated to Canada from Ireland in the 1980s. We talk about
- immigration
- Canadian TV
- whether Canadians should be less nice and more raucous
- whether we are now practically an American cultural province
- privatized vs public medicare
- if literary publishers today expect the novel to be more like TV
- whether the CBC cancels all the best dramas, and
- how is it possible that Netflix and Amazon Prime streaming services manage to avoid sales tax.

Among other topics.

This is the first ep in a series of conversations about Canada. Check back soon for the next installment.

John Doyle photo is by Rob Allen.

My guest is composer Cecilia Livingston. She talks to me about:
- her work on the opera about the Franklin expedition (Opera 5). WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? Terror and Erebus indeed.
- being mentored by Steve Reich
- on how the sexual difference makes itself known in composition
- whether music is always ideological, no matter the composer's intention
- Bach, Debussy, Britten, John Luther Adams, opera Nixon in China, Steve Reich again, Julia Wolfe
- Sarah Kirkland Snider's article 'Candy Floss & Merry-Go-Rounds: Female Composers, Gendered Language, and Emotion' (NewMusicBox, May 17, 2017)