You can find Emily Howell's music all over the internet, but a search for the person comes up empty. She plays no concerts, attends no events, has no email address, and not a single photo comes up under a google search. Join Music is Music host Ria Misra as she talks with composer David Cope about who Emily Howell is--and what Emily Howell means for the future of music.

Music is Music

Season 2, Ep. 6: Who is Emily Howell?

Ben Lukas Boysen and Sebastian Plano--the composers who wrote the music for the videogame, Everything--join host Ria Misra for a conversation about games, music, and how to build a musical world for a videogame where you can, literally, play the universe.

Season 2, Ep. 5: Listening to Everything

At times, listening to Manu Delago play music, you might think you hear him play a steel drum, a harp, or a tabla--and yet all of those sounds are actually coming from one instrument: the hang drum. Delago brings his hang into our New York studio for a chat with host, Ria Misra.

Season 2, Ep. 4: The Hang Drum

Music is Music host Ria Misra visits composer and pianist Vijay Iyer at his home in Harlem to talk about the secret lives of instruments, the everyday art of improvisation, and also just to hear some really beautiful music.

Season 2, Ep. 3: Vijay Iyer

International Space Orchestra founder Nelly Ben Hayoun and NASA Ames Flight Director (and saxophonist) Rusty Hunt are here for part 2 of our music in space series. Join us as we meet a band where you can find astronauts, NASA flight directors, and all kinds of space scientists all clustered around the same piece of music.

Season 2, Ep. 2: Music in Space, Pt II

Composer Arthur Jeffes joins us to tell us about working with space scientists to transform black holes and exoplanets into music.

Season 2, Ep. 1: Music in Space, Pt. I

Christopher Tignor is a composer, violinist, and software engineer. His emotionally charged scores and unique focus on live, performance-based electro-acoustic practice has won acclaim within both the classical and experimental communities.

Music is Music: Christopher Tignor

From a young age, Sam Shepherd has rejected the idea of neat, tidy musical categories. He studied classical piano growing up, but felt confined by what he calls the "dots on a page." It wasn't until he heard a performer really making a classical piece his own, breaking out of strictly classical feel, that he was hooked. Now, Shepherd writes music under the alias "Floating Points." Influences of classical, jazz, electronica, pop, and world music all blend to create a sound that doesn't fit squarely into any one style. This episode features a piece titled "Peroration Six," which Shepherd describes as careening towards and then falling into a black hole. To find out more about the music of "Floating Points," check out the website floatingpoints.co.uk. Music is Music is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Music is Music: Floating Points

Melody Parker loves to dance. When she wrote the music for her album "Archipelago," she didn't start with a catchy tune, or harmonies, or rhythm. She started with movement. On this episode of Music is Music, Melody Parker tells us all about her love of dance and movement. And we'll hear about the acoustic worlds she creates, both in her music and elsewhere. Have a listen, and hear the music that Parker describes as "chamber pop," chamber music with a catchy, pop feel. To find out more about Melody Parker, head over to her website, http://www.soundsmelodious.com/. Music is Music is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Music is Music: Melody Parker

The path to becoming a Washington D.C. advisor on climate science and global warming is easy. First study piano and double bass. Then, get a degree in composition. Next thing you know, you're a climate scientist. At least, this is how it happened for Taylor Jordan. Jordan records under the name The Greatest Hoax, a name he borrowed from Senator James Inhofe's (R-OK) 2012 book. The book is a shot across the bow of mainstream science and claims of global warming. So it's fair to say Jordan, a climate scientist who advises members of Congress on climate science, has a bit of a cheeky streak. The name of his 2015 album, "Enso," has ties to Jordan's day job too. It's the acronym for El Nino Southern Oscillation, commonly shortened to El Nino. Now that you've learned something, why not have a listen? Check out The Greatest Hoax on this episode of Music is Music. To find out more about what Taylor Jordan is up to, head over to his Bandcamp page. https://vimeo.com/163992792 Music is Music is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Music is Music: The Greatest Hoax

Composer Keith Kenniff has a knack for writing music that inspires. Keith Kenniff has many aliases. There's his electronic project, Helios. Mint Juliep is the band he and his wife formed -- that's a more drums with distorted guitars affair. Then there's Goldmund, where he plays delicate, sparse piano and adds subtle sound flourishes. None of these bands or monikers, however, hold a candle to the audiences Kenniff reaches in his other bands... or I should say brands. Facebook, Apple, Google, Starbucks, Coke, HBO, NBC, ABC, CBS. The list is MUCH longer. You've probably heard a piece that Kenniff has written on one of your various screens. If you've ever been sucked into a commercial with heart-warming visuals and a compelling story of someone beating the odds or baring their soul, there's a good chance that Keith Kenniff wrote the music. He seems to be the go-to guy for inspirational music. The 2015 Goldmund album Sometimes is full of subdued meditations. It has the calm sense of someone looking inward and, not necessarily being sad, but being okay with sadness. A great example is on the track "Getting Lighter." Kenniff recalls writing it on a whim, after working on another "rush job" piece of music for an advertisement. He had a little time to kill and, being a composer, decided to improvise on the piano. To hear (and see) more of Keith Kenniff's work, including that time Barack Obama used some of his music in the introduction video to his 2016 DNC speech, check out Keith's website: Unseen-Music.com.

Music is Music: Goldmund

Cellist Shannon Hayden installed the solar panels that power the recording studio that's housed in the farm that she built with her bare hands (with the help of her dad). Oh, and she also imitates the guitar sounds of noise-punk band Melt Banana with her cello... aaaaand she was once set on fire for being a better cellist than a boy. Yup. On her latest album, You See the World, Shannon channels her love of noise, traditional classical and textured drones into songs full of tension and release. Listen for yourself on the track "Accelerator." This episode of Music is Music is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Music is Music: Shannon Hayden

Drivers in Los Angeles begin to feel their jaws tighten at the mere mention of traffic. One lifelong resident, however, used that hum of urban din to make music. Taking a cue from John Cage, composer and self-taught saxophonist Brian Allen Simon heard melody in everyday noise. He records under the name Anenon. His latest release is Petrol, which is where you'll find the song: Machines. From car horns to the underground parking garage at Walt Disney Concert Hall, this album takes you places (without ever having to step foot in a car). Your questions and comments are always welcome: @marcjsanchez

Music is Music: Anenon

Most of us don't go around trying to imagine what sci-fi painter Moebius (aka Jean Giraud), a nudibranch (aka sea slug), and the film: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (aka the beginning of Hayao Miyazaki's feature animation dominance) might sound like as music. It's a good thing Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith isn't most of us. She decoded those visual references and uses them as the foundation for her newest album, EARS. The whole record lives in a bubble, dripping with enough dense greenery to make a vegetarian swoon. Each song is a tentacle, surviving both in the bubble and on its own. And on a throne at the center of the album, sits a Buchla synthesizer. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith had a chance encounter with the modular synth (pronounced BOO-kla) a few years ago that changed the way she thinks about and creates music. For her, the Buchla helped fill the void of a composer without musicians to play her music. The synthesizer is her orchestra. On this episode of Music is Music, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith talks about how she found the Buchla and how the ideas for EARS grew out of a fantastical world of color. Then, we'll get a glimpse into the bubble with the song, Rare Things Grow. Questions / comments / suggestions: @marcjsanchez

Music is Music: Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith

American composer Gabriel Kahane originally wrote The Fiction Issue for a 2012 Carnegie Hall commission. He reached out to his pals in the string quartet, Brooklyn Rider, and My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden to collaborate. All parties got back together to record The Fiction Issue in 2015, and it's the title track on the Kahane/Brooklyn Rider co-release. Worden and Kahane trade off singing duties on the six-parts that make up The Fiction Issue. What we know for sure is that coffee and donuts play a big role. The rest of the plot is a little ambiguous, but Kahane likes it that way. On this episode of Music is Music: find out why we should try rating music on the Goose Bump Scale. Oh, and you can also listen to the first two parts of The Fiction Issue.

Music is Music: Gabriel Kahane

Join Music is Music host Ria Misra for revealing conversations with unexpected musicians. Featuring new compositions, surprising collaborations -- and a refreshing take on the sounds around us.

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Music is Music

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