Episode 11: Composers

Covid Conversations Episode 11 features two composers and sound artists. Brian Harnetty is an interdisciplinary artist and composer who uses sound and listening to foster social change. Rooted in socially engaged art, his work flows between the fields of performance and recording, installation and writing. Each project begins with communities and local archives, and moves outward to include intimate portraits of everyday people and landscapes of Appalachia and the Midwest. Harnetty’s forthcoming album, Words and Silences, is a musical portrait of Thomas Merton, a 20th century monk who lived in solitude in Kentucky, and will be released in January, 2022. Brian lives in Columbus, Ohio. Päiví Takala works as a composer, musician and sound designer as well as a documentary film director. She was a violinist in Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra over 10 years. She then moved into film and film music through studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is the director of award-winning documentaries as well as an established musician and composer. Currently Ms. Takala is a professor in the Centre for Music and Technology at the Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts, Helsinki. Päiví lives in Helsinki, Finland. Covid Conversations is funded by an OSU Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme grant. It is produced and presented by radio producer and folklorist Rachel Hopkin. Episode 11 was recorded on July 7, 2021.