Not So Easy Listening

The idea behind the monthly "Not So Easy Listening" program on gullar sahir is to present music that might not otherwise have a place in our programming: long forms, oddities, music that needs explanation, and, yes, sometimes, music that's hard to listen to.

For my second such program, I'll have music that challenges us in two ways.

First I will have a few songs to mark the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. On March 25, 1911, 146 garment workers died in a factory fire in downtown Manhattan. Most of them were young immigrant women. The factory owners had locked some of the doors, and the victims either succumbed to the smoke and flames or leapt from the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors.

The longer portion of the program is music by composer Philip Glass, including selections from early works such as Music in Similar Motion and the opera Einstein on the Beach, as well as concert and film music.

Please join us for a listening party at the Clarendon Conservatory, 6-7pm SLT.

Mark your calendars!

gullar sahir is happy to announce two new monthly programs with presenter Otenth Paderborn:

Not So Easy Listening premieres Thursday, February 24, 6-7pm SLT, with a listening party at the Clarendon Conservatory. This program on the fourth Thursday of each month will feature somewhat challenging or obscure music that might not otherwise fit into gullar sahir's regular programming. We will begin this series with music of the steppes of central Asia: Tuva, Mongolia, and Tibet. If you have suggestions or requests for themes of future shows, feel free to contact Otenth Paderborn.

Opera with Otenth premieres Sunday, March 6, 9am SLT, with the opera Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. If you join us for the listening party at Ormsby Hall, Caledon Mayfair, there will be contests for best costume and for best twitter-ready plot summary (140 character limit). There will also be a voting machine to help determine the next opera to be broadcast on this first Sunday of the month series.