Fabulous And Under Forty: Q2 Asks For Your Favorite Young(ish) Composers
Missy Mazzoli will turn 31 years old this year. She has plenty of time to make your list of favorite composers under forty. Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Missy Mazzoli will turn 31 years old this year. She has plenty of time to make your list of favorite composers under forty.
Courtesy of the artistOur friends over at Q2 are looking for your nominations to help them program a special music stream dedicated entirely to living composers under the age of 40 to be featured in our NPR Music series The Mix.
We admit, 40 is a pretty arbitrary (if nicely round) number, but it's as good as any a place to start a conversation about a group of creative minds born into a world in which Steve Reich's "It's Gonna Rain" was already washing over the sonic landscape, synth pop was starting to rule the airwaves, "Rapper's Delight" created a revolution, and American homes increasingly had not just a chicken in every pot, but a computer on every desk — all elements that fed into pop culture and made their imprints on everyone, including those immersed in classical music.
Here are a few examples of under-40 composers that pop into our minds immediately, just to get you started: Missy Mazzoli, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Vijay Iyer, Sufjan Stevens, Nico Muhly and Tyondai Braxton. Thomas Ades turned 40 on March 1, but we could probably make an exception for him.
List three of your favorite composers who fit the bill in the comments section below, and feel free to name-check particular pieces, projects, or albums of theirs that you particularly love. Q2 will tally the results, and your top choices will make up this eight-hour, entirely crowd-sourced stream.