Bang on a Can co-founder Julia Wolfe, composer Nathan Michel, and Princeton University Professor of Music Donnacha Dennehy join John Schaefer to discuss the wide-ranging impact composer Louis Andriessen has made on contemporary music.

Donnacha Dennehy – An Irish composer, Dennehy has had work featured in festivals and venues around the world. He founded Crash Ensemble, Ireland’s now-renowned new music group, in 1997. His recent opera The Last Hotel (2015), with a libretto by Enda Walsh, was met with critical acclaim in the UK when it premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival in August 2015. He joined the music faculty at Princeton University in 2014.

Nathan Michel - A composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist, Michel composes all kinds of acoustic and electronic music, from pop to experimental and classical. His band, Hospitality, has released two full-length albums on Merge Records and toured world-wide. A classically trained composer, Nathan received a Ph.D. in composition from Princeton and also studied at Yale, The Royal Conservatory in The Netherlands (with Louis Andriessen) and Bowdoin College.

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.

Julia Wolfe – A winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in music, Wolfe draws inspiration from folk, classical, and rock genres, bringing a modern sensibility to each while simultaneously tearing down the walls between them. In 2009 Wolfe joined the NYU Steinhardt School composition faculty. Wolfe is co-founder and co-artistic director of New York’s legendary music collective Bang on a Can.