WNYC personality John Schaefer engages director Heiner Goebbels, Columbia University Professor of Music George E. Lewis, and composer Missy Mazzoli in a conversation about the complexities of themes in DE MATERIE.

Heiner Goebbels - Visionary German composer and director, Goebbels lives in Frankfurt/Main. Born in 1952, he graduated with degrees in sociology and music. As a composer, he creates music theater works, staged concerts, radio works, and compositions for small ensemble and for big orchestras, collaborating with the finest ensembles, orchestras, and conductors. Since the beginning of the 1990s, Goebbels has composed and directed unique and celebrated music theater works, which have been presented at the most important festivals around the world. From March 22–30, he stages a highly-imaginative production of DE MATERIE, composed by Louis Andriessen, at the Park Avenue Armory.

George E. Lewis - Composer, musicologist, and experimental performer, George Lewis is professor of music at Columbia University. The author of A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music (University of Chicago Press, 2008), he is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a MacArthur Fellow. His compositions have been presented by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, International Contemporary Ensemble, and others.

Missy Mazzoli – Recently deemed “Brooklyn’s post-millenial Mozart”, composer Missy Mazzoli has had her work performed by LA Opera, the Kronos Quartet, the Minnesota Orchestra, pianist Emanuel Ax, eighth blackbird and many others. Her opera Breaking the Waves, a collaboration with librettist Royce Vavrek, will premiere next season at Opera Philadelphia and in New York with Beth Morrison Projects.

John Schaefer (Moderator) – Host of WNYC’s Soundcheck since the show’s inception, Schaefer has also hosted and produced WNYC’s radio series New Sounds and the New Sounds Live concert series. He has written extensively about music and was contributing editor for Spin and Ear magazines, and his liner notes appear on more than 100 recordings. He is a regular contributor to the World Science Festival and the White Light Festival at Lincoln Center.