Help us make a third season of the Peabody Award-winning podcast about the musical creative process, with host Nadia Sirota.
Hi, I’m Nadia Sirota, host of Meet the Composer (MTC). MTC is a podcast that confronts the artists and art that move us, using radio storytelling to tease out what makes these pieces and people tick. We aim to share the music we love with anyone who is down to listen. Music can be tricky to talk about, so when words fail, Meet the Composer uses all of the tools in our arsenal — sound design, phrasing, underscoring, and sonic embroidery — to share what we love about music with our audience. MTC is art and artists, exposed.
So far, we’ve produced two seasons of Meet the Composer and profiled 10 amazing, innovative composers. You’ve trusted us with your support, and now we want to reward that trust and spirit of curiosity by growing with our show, and by pushing ourselves to dive even deeper.
Just a few weeks ago, we were blown away to hear that MTC won a 2015 Peabody Award, broadcasting’s highest honor, praise which put us in the heady company of Radiolab and This American Life. The Peabody committee described MTC as “Fascinating, intelligent, enlightening podcasts devoted to the work of current classical composers. The show integrates music with thoughtful conversation about it without distracting from either.”
We’ve been humbled by the overwhelming reception from our listeners. Since the show launched in June 2014, listeners from 183 countries have downloaded MTC more than540,000 times! We’ve also had big shout-outs from The Guardian and The New York Times with the headlines “Meet the Composer: the podcast that’s demystifying classical music” and “With ‘Meet the Composer,’ Nadia Sirota Illuminates New Music.”
Both seasons were funded in large part by your contributions via Kickstarter, so, honestly, we could not have made this happen without your support. We hope we have rewarded your trust with beautiful, composed radio, and we want to start making you more.
With our upcoming third season, we are excited to take on new formats for the show and to follow creative themes past individual composers to stranger and more exotic conclusions. An emphasis on the driving forces that compel composers to put pen to paper will be a key component of Season 3. We will continue to profile composers but also unpack breakthrough pieces and dig into those moments when musical styles clashed, flirted and mutated between all types of composers, both living and dead! We will continue to compose radio with probing interviews, expert commentary and through-composed sound design.
What does this mean for you? MORE Meet the Composer. MORE variety. MORE episodes.
To make this a reality though, we really need your support. As our ambitions increase, so do our financial needs. Meet the Composer is a skillfully crafted podcast that requires time and resources to produce. Episodes take weeks, sometimes months of planning to develop, record, compose and edit. We need to pay critical current personnel as well as a roster of part-time producers to help create and craft the additional episodes we’re planning for next season. More episodes also means higher costs for bandwidth and distribution. We pride ourselves on our efficiency, but collecting, composing and releasing the radio you deserve takes time.
We’ve got some great rewards lined up to thank you for your support this year.
Here’s an example of a beautiful new ringtone for you composed by the Meet the Composer team that can bring a little life to your calls:
A custom digital mixtape featuring some of our favorite works from today’s dynamic composers, as performed by the indie-classical supergroup yMusic, is yours and available only by giving to this campaign.
Get a copy of Nadia’s upcoming album on Bedroom Community featuring Nico Muhly’s Viola Concerto, the second movement of which was featured during last season.
Attend our post-Kickstarter party at Greenwich Village’s hotspot for new music: Le Poisson Rouge. Free drink ticket included!
Get an MTC-Tee!, our brand new Meet the Composer custom t-shirt by illustrator Hallie Bateman featuring playful renderings of three of your favorite composers.
Try out the brand new Q2 Music Bluetooth Speaker. It offers great sound quality for all your listening pleasure and is perfectly portable.
Nadia Sirota, producer/host and Alexander Overington, producer/sound designer/mixing engineer. Additional credits: Alex Ambrose, executive producer; Curtis Macdonald, producer/engineer; Hannis Brown, producer; Carol Ann Cheung, project manager. Our Kickstarter video was made by Daniel Schloss of Schloss Creative.
We are part of a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Contributions made to our Kickstarter campaign are tax-deductible!
Q2 Music is WQXR’s online music station dedicated to contemporary classical composers, innovative ensembles, and vibrant, live webcasts from New York City’s leading new-music venues. Q2 Music, a live 24/7 music stream available at q2music.org, includes immersive festivals, insightful commentary from hosts and composers, full-length album streams, and special live events at The Greene Space at WQXR. Q2 Music is also available via the free WQXR app.
Thanks to New Music USA for their flexibility with the use of the “Meet The Composer” name, which became famous through their legacy organization founded by composer John Duffy.
We’ve been so happy over these past few seasons to reward the trust you’ve placed in us with the highest-quality production and ambitious undertakings. We found a formula that works, but we’re not going to rest on our laurels. We believe that part of what attracts us and you, as a listener, is the sense of play, experimentation and renewal that we aim to bring to each episode. We believe the worst thing we could do is get comfortable, the worst way we could repay your support is not to honor your love of discovery and surprise.
We still start with compelling conversations, and follow-up with offsite, behind-the-scenes moments, seek out the charismatic, insiders’ perspectives, dive behind the words and into the music for what moves us. Each show is completely different, and we need time to find its footing. What sustains us though is our love of the music and joy in uncovering the stories behind it, and the hope to share with you how beautiful, awesome and inspiring classical music is, was, and always will be.
Thank you for all of your past support, and now let’s make even cooler stuff!