The Second Street Dreams Audio Network

We are just days away from the actual 250th birthday of America.  The music developed for this event just keeps coming.  Perhaps none as expansive as the Declaration Project from pianist Lara Downes. She created it to get various takes from anyone about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This national program will end with a concert at Lincoln Center in New York.   

Many classical music groups have released new music or albums about the 250th birthday of America.  Some are straightforward, others take a diverse view, like the Apollo Chamber Players. Founder and Director  Matthew Detrick says the  album, We The People, features music from composers with disparate American experiences.  

We have been inundated with new music and performances of old patriotic music because of the 250th birthday of the United States. On this June 8th podcast, I’m starting a series on music composed and performed specifically for the big bash next month. This time it’s Karen LeFrak’s American Promise.  You’ll also meet Dawn Carroll who was inspired to compose Songs for Mary.  It’s about a woman who c...

There aren’t many musicians, classical or otherwise who aren’t presenting their own versions of a birthday song for America’s 250th.  On this episode, we hear from Min Kwon, a pianist with a little activist nature on the side. Back in 2021 she started a project called America/Beautiful.  Since then she’s commissioned over 70 composers to come up with their musical versions of what’s beautiful abou...

Hundreds of people are expected to  voluntarily step outside of their musical genre mode this weekend and hear something new, and different and maybe even odd. It’s time for the annual HERE BE MONSTERS, Austin’s Indie-Classical  music festival.  Co-director Michael Zapruder of Tetractys says this is a growing movement within the classical or near classical genre of new music.

Many orchestras and chamber groups are celebrating the 250th anniversary of America’s founding this year.  While most of the music is a positive portrayal of the United States there is at least one musical work telling the tale of the horrific treatment of Native Americans and their lands. The piece is Requiem For America  by Mohican/Munsee-Lenape composer Brent Michael Davids.  He describes it as...

Even though operas from long ago are still being performed, there’s a movement afoot to freshen them up or to do new 21st century operas. In the case of the 1958 opera Vanessa, a production by Heartbeat Opera is doing a stripped-down version of the Pulitzer Prize winning work. It’s directed by RB Schlather.  At The Met, they are about to premiere a  true 21st century opera by first-time opera comp...

Sometimes when someone makes a suggestion to you, it kind of sticks with you.  That’s what happened to jazz artist Darrel Grant.  He decided to act on this suggestion from a friend by composing Step by Step, the Ruby Bridges Suite.  It is a piece about the 6-year-old girl who was the first African American student to integrate the New Orleans public schools in 1960. It was not without protests, or...

In honor of April, Earth Month, more than a few composers have released albums about their love of our home planet, and their anxiety about climate change. This week’s episode features three of those albums.  

There have been several studies on the effect of music on mental health.  This is especially true with the elderly.  A long running study out of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia is finding that dementia may be delayed in the over 70 set if music is in their lives.  

Welcome to my latest podcast.  It’s called Feeding Thespis.  I’m picking it up again after more than a few years and some tears. This one is called NEW TIMES.  It takes place in 1967 on the campus of a prestigious women’s college when a Black woman is hired to run one of the dormitories for the first time in the school’s history.  Her various conflicts come from students, management and another Bl...

Composer Chinary Ung has been composing music for 60 plus years.  His compositions are heavily affected by his childhood in Cambodia and the deadly events that happened  there back in the mid 1970’s.  But he says he’s blessed that he was able to come to America in the 1960’s to study the western style of music. Many of his compositions will be performed at the Miller Theatre at Columbia University...

It took pianist Rebeca Omordia 8 years to create the African Concert Series in London.  She was even told that African classical music wasn’t really classical at all, nor would anyone want to listen to it. The series is very popular now.  So much so that Wigmore Hall in London has gifted Omordia a residency at the world class venue. 

Conductor and Music Director JoAnn Falletta of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra has fulfilled a dream.  She’s released A Hero’s Life.  The album has two pieces, one from Richard Strauss and another that’s a world premiere recording of Behzad Ranjbaran’s  Concerto for Violin and Orchestra.  Falletta is also releasing another edition of her book of poetry, Love Letters to Music. This is in additio...

When you think of countertenors what’s the first thing that comes to your mind?  Randall Scotting, a countertenor sees himself as a preserver of this male voice classification. He’s releasing the album Divine Impresario to celebrate one of the most popular castrato opera singers of the 17th and 18th centuries. His name is Nicolini.      Cancellations at the Kennedy Center continue even as the buil...

In these last few weeks of Black History Month, there are many more events celebrating Black excellence. One such event is with violinist Rachel Barton Pine, who founded the series Music by Black Composers” as part of her foundation, the Rachel Barton Pine Foundation. She did it to advance opportunities to study and perform works by Black composers. Pine performs with the Madison Symphony in Wisco...

As any musician, classical or otherwise, knows, it’s a difficult climb to success.  It took Sarah Kirkland Snider almost 20 years to find it with her composing career.  She’s out with a new album of ethereal, spiritual music called Forward Into Light.  Black History Month soars with hundreds of events this month.  Go to the Classical Music In Colors page on secondstreetdreams.com for links to some...

Oh Happy Day!  It’s Black History Month.  There are so many events celebrating “black excellence” in all genres of music.  I’ve only mentioned a few including the Colour of Music Festival.  See links on secondstreetdreams.com    There’s a new audio edition of the Harry Potter books.  Believe it or not, the National Endowment for the Arts is offering Challenge Grants. The Cliburn ends its piano com...

So many events are happening this month and early in February.  Some of them require the attention of the classical music community.    There’s the Grammys, a new album of choral works from the composer of Baba Yetu, Christopher Tin, a fresh take on Bach, another cancellation at the Kennedy Center and the March broadcast of the Oscars with a nomination about Verdi.  There’s also a sad story about...

While we look forlornly at the holiday bills as we head into  tax season, there is some joy this January.  The Grammy winning and nominated this year again Jazz pianist Sullivan Fortner is grateful and humble after winning the 300k Gilmore inaugural 2026 Larry J. Bell Jazz Artist Award. Donors have nearly flooded the Washington National Opera with funds after the opera company departed the Kennedy...

Sometimes things happen that let you know that you are on the right path.     This is the experience of the Zara Hudson Kozdoj of the UK.  This 29-year-old Polish-Jamaican cellist, composer and conductor isn’t all about classical music but has surrendered herself to it in bits and pieces. She released her first album in October called Remember Who You Are. She found out while making the album that...

Which opera team are you on? “Old” operas versus the “New” operas. According to the book, Opera Wars by Caitlin Vincent, artistic directors and others at the nation’s opera companies are in conflict with themselves over staging the standard operas from the 18th and 19th centuries or producing those composed in the late 20th and 21st centuries.  There’s a new directory for musical instruments adapt...

While we still might be recovering from Thanksgiving,  there’s the rest of the holidays to consider.  Shopping for gifts, decorating the house while listening to music. Gifts have already come to Kyle Rivera, who won the Michael Morgan Prize for Black composers.  The Pegasus Opera Company in the UK is looking for partners to produce an opera about the Windrush generation.  The Detroit opera presen...

A new era of operas is emerging. Not that the popular ones are stuffy or just plain old.  Composer Nathan Felix seeks new 21st century operas at his second annual Opera Austin Festival.  Another member of the Kanneh-Mason family of England, has released a new album.  Pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason shows her love of Jane Austen with an album of music in honor of the 250th anniversary of the novelist’s...

As the holiday season officially makes its debut this Thanksgiving week, there’s money and music to behold.  First up, in these times, the Palm Beach Symphony has hired its first ever Development Director in its 41-year history. Then there’s Chloe Flower who’s released an album of holiday music composed by women. It’s called She Composed – The Holidays.   Finally we ask the question:  How does you...