Steve Seel possesses a broad knowledge of many musical genres, having hosted radio programs ranging from classical to jazz and even avant-garde music at public radio stations around the country. Steve came to Minnesota Public Radio in 1999 to be a part of its nationally-syndicated classical music programming. In 2005, he became one of the founding voices on MPR's eclectic station The Current, and has hosted various time slots from mornings to late nights, and conducted in-depth interviews with pop music luminaries ranging from Brian Eno to David Byrne to Tori Amos. Steve is an avid reader of political and social commentary as well, and he emcees The Current's popular Policy and a Pint community series, featuring discussions with noted scholars, politicians, community leaders, authors and big thinkers on important issues of the day. Steve is also a basement composer obsessed with all things both minimalist and slow, and might actually be incapable of writing anything that exceeds 75 beats-per-minute.
Sometimes, good things come in small packages, and that's what Steve Seel features on this week's edition of the show: miniatures, from Mark Mellits, Anna Meredith, Vivian Fung, and others. Plus, the premiere of new music by the British/Bulgarian composer Dobrinka Tabakova.
His day job is drummer for the band Wilco. But Glenn Kotche has also distinguished himself as an accomplished composer of classical music, writing for ensembles including the Kronos Quartet and Eighth Blackbird, in addition to performing the percussion instruments on his own pieces himself. In this edition of Extra Eclectic, Steve Seel features Glenn Kotche with both Kronos and Eighth Blackbird in one grand ensemble. That plus music by John Cage, Evan Ziporyn, Nico Muhly, and more.
If there's one thing that has changed definitively in classical music, it's that there are plenty of composers who are as much at home in rock n' roll for their "day-jobs" as classical. It's true for composers from Bryce Dessner (guitarist for the band The National) to Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead, who's classical bona fides are not only strong, but Grammy winning as well. Steve Seel features music by both on this week's program.
"For most people today, the spiritual dimension has been lost. My intention is to provide food for the soul, and this is what I preach in my works," says Latvian composer Peteris Vasks. His Violin Concerto, "Distant Light," provides ample food for the soul on this week's program. Steve Seel also features spiritual-themed works from Terry Riley ("Sun Rings: One Earth, One People, One Love") and James Wilson ("The Green Fuse"), and music by Evan Ziporyn, Daniel Wohl, and Sarah Kirkland Snider.
Composer John Adams wanted to depict "the current pounding and smashing" the cliffs of California's rocky coastline in his work The Dharma at Big Sur. But rather than open with aggressive music, his work for violin and orchestra almost sounds like a meditative religious epiphany. Steve Seel features Adams' music on this week's show, in addition to works by John Cage, Lou Harrison, Douglas Knehans, and more.
From the classic 20th-century minimalism of Steve Reich's "Pulse" and the electronica-tinged "Scale of Volitility" by Emilie Levianaise-Farrouch, to Bryce Dessner's dramatic, sweeping "Concerto for Two Pianos" written for Katia and Marielle Labeque, Steve Seel has the gamut of sounds from minimalism to "maximal-ism" mapped out on this week's program. Steve also features works by Keith Jarrett, John Cage, Lou Harrison, Terry Riley, and more.
It's a program of winds and windy music this time out - in the first hour, Steve Seel features music from wind instruments, from Joseph Schwantner, Marc Melits, Christopher Theofanidis and others, and in the second hour, it's music on "windy" themes, including John Luther Adams' "Canticles of the Holy Wind," Ludovico Einaudi's "Cold Wind," and more.
If you think that a banjo can't play with a symphony orchestra, don't tell banjo great Bela Fleck. In fact, Fleck's "Juno Concerto" is the second time he's written a concerto for banjo and orchestra. Steve Seel plays Fleck's amazing work on this week's program. In the second hour, it's an array of contemplative modern works, from Arvo Part, Georgs Pelecis, and an award winning composer who hails from the Canadian Northwest Territories, Carmen Braden.
This week on Extra Eclectic, Steve Seel explores themes of space, galaxies, and communication with extra-terrestrial beings -- in such works as Urmas Sisak's "The Milky Way" and Nimrod Borenstein's "The Big Bang and Creation of the Universe." Also, a salute to the classical endeavors of Jon Lord, known best to many as the man who spent years behind the Hammond organ in the rock group Deep Purple.
In 1968, Arvo Part essentially went dark. He stopped composing for several years as he entered a period of, as he called it, "artistic reorientation." When he re-emerged, he had a completely new style. One of the major works he created during this time was one that had a particularly appropriate title for him -- Tabula Rasa, or "blank slate." Steve Seel shares it on this week's program, in addition to some other works from the Baltic region, including Estonia's Erkki-Sven Tuur and Latvia's Peteris Vasks.
This week on the first night of the new year, Steve has meditations on the meaning -- and endless cycle -- of life, in two works drawing from the book of Ecclesiastes from composers David Lang and Norman Dello Joio. Also, a rock pioneer sees his music adapted for the concert hall by composer Timo Andres in his "Paraphrase on Themes of Brian Eno." That plus music of Philip Glass, Nico Muhly and more.
This week's edition of Extra Eclectic falls on Christmas night, and Steve Seel has an all Christmas-themed two hours of 20th and 21st century music in store for us -- in a program that promises plenty of musical discovery while keeping with the perfect atmosphere you're looking for to wind down the holiday. Tune in for selections on yuletide themes by Alan Hovhaness, Ola Gjelo, Chilly Gonzalez, Stephen Paulus, Eric Whitacre, and much much more.
As we approach the winter solstice this week, Steve Seel has music in a chilly mood this time ... or is it a warm one? Bundle up and enjoy 20th and 21st century classical music on wintry themes from Johann Johannssen, Alan Hovhanness and Ola Gjelo, as well as cellist Maya Beiser's ethereal rendering of the largo from Vivaldi's Winter concerto and Minnesota violinist Gaelynn Lea's duet with her looping pedal in a beautiful rendition of "O Come O Come Emmanuel."
Sometimes, things that are out-of-focus can be that much more dramatic. This week, Steve brings us works with titles that eschew sharp edges, including "Soft Focus" by Patrick Zimmerli, "Blurred" by Bill Ryan, and "Chiaroscuro" by Giya Kancheli. The second hour of the program showcases a new work by Nico Muhly written for Thomas Gould and his six-string electric violin.
With this edition of Extra Eclectic coming the night before Thanksgiving, Steve Seel has a late-night winter tapestry with an American slant to go with the evening vibes. A "Plea for Peace" by Augusta Read Thomas, John Adams' "Shaker Loops," and a work by Peter Garland that references chimney-smoke and kitchen warmth all inform the atmosphere of the program.
Modern music for strings is the first order of business on this week's program: Steve Seel brings us an hour of 20th and 21st century works for string ensembles big and small -- from Steve Reich's "Duet" for two violins to Michael Tippett's "Concerto for Double String Orchestra," a piece from the 1930s which sounds like it could have been written yesterday. For the second hour, Steve plays a selection of works loosely inspired by the shorter days and cooler temperatures this time of year.
There's a spiritual dimension to the works Steve Seel has for us on this edition of Extra Eclectic. Arvo Part's "Fur Alina," Jennifer Higdon's "Blue Cathedral," and John Luther Adams' "Canticles of the Holy Wind" are among the compositions that create an atmosphere of reverence among the contemporary sounds on the first hour of the program. In the second hour, Steve features David Kirkland Garner's "Dark Holler," a work exploring the sounds and atmospheres of the rural American south.
You'll hear traces of jazz and blues in works that Steve Seel has in store in the first hour, from composers including Derek Bermel, William Bolcom, Paul Bowles, and Valerie Coleman in her amazing tour-de-force "Shotgun Houses." In the second hour, Steve features different uses of the electric guitar -- in contemporary works from the likes of Steve Reich, Bryce Dessner, and Jascha Narveson.
Danny Elfman has written over 100 film and TV scores, from Tim Burton's Batman to the theme from The Simpsons. He says that from time to time, however, he finds that he has to write orchestral music totally free from the influence of film, in order to "keep my sanity" -- a process he says he finds "incredibly liberating and relieving." His latest is his Violin Concerto, "Eleven Eleven," and it's featured on this week's show. Ward Jacobsen guest hosts.
Some of the warmest, most compelling new classical music today is being written for the cello - and, played by cellists with a solid pedigree in new music. This week Steve features two hours of nearly wall-to-wall cellos, in solos, duos, multiples, and concerto settings, with performances by Maya Beiser, Ashley Bathgate, Yo Yo Ma, Zoe Keating, and others.