EPISODE 1: What does it mean to work without limits?
“There’s something really inspiring about something that seems — to you — impossible. If you take on one of those things and you find yourself doing it, that’s an amazing feeling.”
What possibilities emerge when we begin to question the tacitly accepted — and easily overlooked — limits that govern who we can be and what we can do?
Composer Samuel Adams, rock climber/BASE jumper Steph Davis, and arts leader Ed Yim all push past traditional limitations in their everyday lives by writing music that reaches new emotional depths, scaling cliffs and flying off of them, or making a platform for artists to create without compromise. Each of them offers a unique and insightful perspective on this question in the debut episode of Imagination Radio.
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Episode 1 Guests
Samuel Adams, composer, sound designer, curator
Steph Davis, rock climber, BASE jumper, wingsuit pilot
Ed Yim, President of American Composers Orchestra
Music in this episode
Dylan Mattingly: from Stranger Love (2018) — Contemporaneous
Samuel Adams: Tension Study no. 2 (2010) — Living Earth Show
Judd Greenstein: Change (2009) — NOW Ensemble
David Moore: Broad Channel (2015) — Bing & Ruth
Samuel Adams: from Chamber Concerto: Prelude (One by One) (2017) — Karen Gomyo, violin
Samuel Adams: Shade Study (2014) — Sarah Cahill, piano
Samuel Adams: Drift & Providence (2012) — National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic & James Ross, conductor; Samuel Adams, electronics (learn more)
John Lewis: Silver (1964) — John Lewis, piano; Orchestra U.S.A.; Gunther Schuller & Harold Farberman, conductors
Dan Trueman: Silicon / Carbon (2008) — Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk); American Composers Orchestra & Jeffrey Milarsky, conductor
Ólafur Arnalds: Hands, Be Still (2013)
Philip Glass: from Symphony No. 4 (1996): I. Heroes — American Composers Orchestra & Dennis Russell Davies, conductor
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: from String Quartet No. 1, Op. 11 (1871): II. Andante cantabile — New York Philharmonic & Leonard Bernstein, conductor
Julia Wolfe: from Fuel (2007): Part II — Ensemble Resonanz & Brad Lubman, conductor
Hector Berlioz: from Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14 (1830): V. Songe d'une nuit du Sabbat — Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique & John Eliot Gardiner, conductor
Gustav Mahler: from Symphony No. 8 in E-flat, Symphony of a Thousand (1906): Accende lumen sensibus — Schola Cantorum of New York, Juilliard Chorus, Columbus Boychoir; New York Philharmonic & Leonard Bernstein, conductor
James Horner: from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Ludwig van Beethoven: from String Quartet in E-flat, Op. 74 (1809): I. Poco adagio; Allegro — Artemis Quartet
Samuel Adams: Quartet Movement (2016) — Spektral Quartet
Meredith Monk & Mieke van Hoek: Vow (2011) — Katie Geissinger, voice
Steve Reich: Proverb (1995) — Theatre of Voices; Steve Reich Ensemble & Paul Hillier
Dylan Mattingly: from Atlas of Somewhere (on the Way to Howland Island) (2011): II. Islanded in a Stream of Stars — Contemporaneous
Morton Feldman: String Quartet No. 2 (1983) — FLUX Quartet
Anthony Motto: Live at GGBY in Moab (2017)
With gratitude and admiration, this episode is dedicated to the memory of conductor, composer, pedagogue, and family man Harold Farberman (1929-2018).
