In this episode of The Archive Project, we explore storytelling and the intersections between literature and music with our friends at the Oregon Symphony and 45th Parallel Universe.
First, we have a conversation led by Oregon Symphony creative chair Gabriel Kahane. As part of the 2023 Portland Book Festival, Kahane spoke with one of his frequent collaborators, the poet Matthew Zapruder. The conversation centers on Zapruder’s new memoir, Story of a Poem, a beautiful book that is, indeed, the story of writing a poem, but also a very personal exploration of Zapruder’s own reactions to his son’s diagnosis with autism and his own evolution as a son, husband, and father against the backdrop of life in the Anthropocene.
We also have a conversation between the New Yorker critic and author of The Rest is Noise, Alex Ross, with musicians Ron Blessinger, Sergio Carreno, Bora Yoon, James Shields, and Lisa Lipton of the 45th Parallel group. They explore a fascinating range of subjects throughout their conversation, including the impact of language like “classical” and the freedoms and restrictions of genre. Similarly, how the baggage of the canon can be a barrier for some people, but that what’s important ultimately about any art is your personal response.
One thing that Alex Ross said stood out as applicable to all art: He said that music is indefinite in its meaning. Meaning is rooted both in the time that the piece was created, but also when it is experienced. Which means art—be it music, literature, or storytelling—is a unique form of time travel.
On January 26, 2024, don’t miss! The Reser & 45th Parallel Present: Listen to This: An Evening with Alex Ross. Acclaimed author and music writer Alex Ross joins the virtuosos of 45th Parallel for an evening of words and music, a unique concert experience that will entertain, edify, enlighten, and exhilarate. Alex will read from his books and essays, providing compelling context to the music that 45th Parallel then performs. This is a co-production with the Patricia Reser Center for the Arts and will be recorded for broadcast on All Classical Portland. Learn more here.
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Alex Ross has been the music critic at The New Yorker since 1996. He writes about classical music, covering the field from the Metropolitan Opera to the contemporary avant-garde, and has also contributed essays on literature, history, the visual arts, film, and ecology. His first book, “The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century,” a cultural history of music since 1900, won a National Book Critics Circle Award and the Guardian First Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His second book, the essay collection “Listen to This,” won an ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award. His latest book is “Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music,” an account of Wagner’s vast cultural impact. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an Arts and Letters Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
45th Parallel Universe is a collective of musicians who come together to celebrate great chamber music with intimate artistic experiences. Passion for great music is what defines us and Portland is our stage. Since 2009, 45th Parallel has happily demolished distinctions between old and new chamber music, bluegrass and jazz, fiddle and folk. By bringing fragmented audiences together, 45th Parallel reflects Portland’s surging creative communities in fresh and imaginative ways.
Matthew Zapruder is the author of five collections of poetry, most recently Father’s Day (Copper Canyon, 2019), as well as Why Poetry (Ecco, 2017) and Story of a Poem (Unnamed, 2023). He is editor at large at Wave Books, where he edits contemporary poetry, prose, and translations. From 2016-7 he held the annually rotating position of Editor of the Poetry Column for the New York Times Magazine, and was the Editor of Best American Poetry 2022. He teaches in the MFA in Creative Writing at Saint Mary’s College of California.
A singer-songwriter, pianist, and composer, Gabriel Kahane works at the blurred edges of journalism, ethnography, storytelling, and music. He is currently the Creative Chair of the Oregon Symphony, which commissioned his 2018 oratorio, emergency shelter intake form. Over the last decade, Gabriel has worked in an array of diverse musical spaces. Memorable projects have included tours with Andrew Bird and Punch Brothers; recordings with Sufjan Stevens, Phoebe Bridgers, and Blake Mills; and an arrangement of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” written for Paul Simon’s Farewell Tour in 2018. As a composer, he has been commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and Carnegie Hall. Gabriel is also a regular guest on American Public Media’s Live From Here with Chris Thile.
