Sound Off with Katy Henriksen

Latest Episodes:

Damon Locks Aug 17, 2023

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Today's guest is Damon Locks, bandleader for the genre-shattering Black Monument Ensemble. The group released the critically acclaimed album NOW in April of 2021 on the International Anthem label. It’s a viscerally poignant, joyous album created outside in the swelter of Chicago summertime at the height of lockdown, a tumultuous moment that coincided with the national protest movement following the police murder of George Floyd. From the power of gospel and its roots in the Civil Rights era to the distinct power of music for community building and imagining a better future, Katy discusses this and so much more.

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Wu Man Aug 03, 2023

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Today’s guest is pipa virtuoso Wu Man. She’s carved out such an impressive career collaborating with orchestras worldwide and through performing as a founding member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble and collaborating with the Kronos Quartet. She’s an inspiration in what cross-cultural musical collaborations can be.

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Kaki King Jul 20, 2023

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Today's guest is guitarist Kaki King, who lands herself on those 100 top guitarist lists dominated by men. Rolling Stone has described her as “a genre unto herself.” I spoke to her when she released Modern Yesterdays, her 9th studio album, out now on Cantaloupe Records. I can’t wait to share our vibrant discussion on her earliest guitar memories, finding her distinct musical voice and what it’s like to be a female guitar virtuoso in a famously dude bro arena.

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Grammy-winning Arooj Aftab Jul 06, 2023

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Arooj Aftab discusses her Grammy-winning recording Vulture Prince. Born in Saudi Arabia, Aftab moved back to her parents’ native Pakistan when she was 11 and eventually made her way to Berklee College of Music in Boston, before moving to New York City to find her way as a genre-blurring composer, bandleader and musician. The track “Mohabbat” won Best Global Music Performance in 2022 and also landed on a playlist of Barack Obama’s.

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Lonnie Holley and Matt White Jun 22, 2023

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Luminary Lonnie Holley released Broken Mirror: A Selfie Reflection with Matt White in 2022. The amalgam of afro-futurism and cosmic southern funk make for a rollicking time for a juxtaposition for two artists that make for surprising collaborators. Holley, born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1950, has dedicated his life to improvisational creativity in the form of both sound and visual art. White, a Virginia-based producer and musician who’s worked with the likes of Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, Sharon Van Etten & the Mountain Goats. “I am an African-American, colored, Black or from the negros that were brought to America on slave ships,” says Holley. “So when I do something like ‘I Snuck Off the Slave Ship’ or ‘Broken Mirror Reflections,’ [those were] two different pieces of music, but aren’t we still bound by those conditions? We’re bound by slavery and we’re bound by the fear of the broken mirror.”

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Welcome to Season 2 of Sound Off! Jun 15, 2023

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We're thrilled to bring you a new season, starting June 22nd!

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Caroline Shaw Dec 16, 2020

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Spend time with Caroline Shaw and some of her music in Sound Off's season finale. A composer and multi-instrumentalist, Shaw became the youngest person to ever receive a Pulitzer Prize for music for her "Partita for 8 Voices." She was only 30 at the time. Orange, an album with the Attacca Quartet, garnered a Grammy in 2020. A polymath collaborator, she's involved in creating music with so many notable musicians, including the unexpected Kanye West, whose music rests far outside the realms of contemporary classical music. Join host Katy Henriksen and Shaw in conversation on the creation of Orange, her deep love of the string quartet tradition and what's keeping her going during the pandemic, as well as experience some of Shaw's music.

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Oracle Hysterical Dec 03, 2020

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Join host Katy Henriksen for insight into the genre-bending world Oracle Hysterical, a music group whose tagline is part rock band part book club that occupies the fluid space between classically inclined song cycle and art rock concept album. Henriksen speaks with baroque bass/viola da gamba member Doug Balliet about the connection between Schumann's classical song cycle "Dichterliebe" to The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band, about what it's like to play the Baroque viola da gamba for crowds more attuned to indie rock and how his band turned an issue of a literary journal into a song cycle with the help of chamber ensemble A Far Cry.

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Nathalie Joachim Nov 19, 2020

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In today's episode of Sound Off I talk with composer, singer and instrumentalist Nathalie Joachim. She's a Julliard-trained flutist, half of the flute & electronics duo Flutronix and creator of the Grammy-nominated Fanm d’Ayiti featuring the Spektral Quartet, an album described by WNYC’s New Sounds host John Schaefer as "a kind of chamber folk electronic celebration of the voices of Haiti.” Learn about how a listening station at Tower Records informs her unclassifiable sounds as much as both her conservatory training and her Haitian grandmother have, as well as spend time with some of her music.

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Anthony McGill Nov 05, 2020

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In this episode Katy talks to Anthony McGill, principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic. He's the first African-American to hold a principal chair in the orchestra's history. In response to the murder of George Floyd and the protests that erupted surrounding police violence against Black people he launched the #taketwoknees initiative on social media. He’s also in an incredible trio with his brother, flutist Demarre McGill and pianist Michael McHale, as the McGill/McHale Trio. In addition to #taketwoknees, we discuss what it's like to be a symphony musician in the time of Covid-19 and how this time away from the concert hall could reset our ears to make music anew when we're finally able to return.

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