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Donald Macleod in conversation with the Pulitzer and three-time Grammy Award-winning American composer Jennifer Higdon. Today they鈥檙e discussing colour and her most popular work Blue Cathedral.

If you were to ask Jennifer Higdon what her biggest musical influence might be, she鈥檚 more likely to cite Lennon and McCartney than Bach or Beethoven. Born in 1962 in New York, the soundtrack of her childhood was the Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel and Peter Paul and Mary, the Rolling Stones, and reggae. A move to Atlanta, Georgia, and then to a farmhouse in rural Tennessee, added bluegrass and country music. It wasn鈥檛 until Higdon was in her teens that her musical curiosity directed her towards classical music. Formal studies followed, and she began to compose when she was 21 years old. Coming to classical music later on, has been, according to Higdon, a significant factor in her own musical language. She鈥檚 now one of the most performed living American composers. Having just completed her second opera and a concerto in the past year, Higdon is much in demand, with commissions on her books that take her right up to 2024.

Recorded at the end of May, speaking to Donald Macleod from Articulate Studios in Philadelphia, USA, in an extended interview Jennifer Higdon gives a fascinating insight into her life and her musical preoccupations. Starting with strings on Monday, they move on to vocal writing, the influence of colour on music, the natural world and writing concertos, an area which has now become something of a speciality.

Jennifer Higdon鈥檚 orchestral work 鈥淏lue Cathedral鈥� is the most performed work by a living American composer. She talks with Donald Macleod about how, as she was writing the music, it became a musical elegy for her brother, Andrew.

Blue Cathedral (excerpt)
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Robert Spano, director

Scenes from the Poet鈥檚 Dreams for piano left hand and string quartet
No 4: In the Blue Fields they sing
Gary Graffman, piano
Lark Quartet

City Scape
III: Peachtree Street
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Robert Spano, director

Blue Cathedral
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Robert Spano, conductor

Piano Trio:
1: Pale Yellow
2: Fiery Red
Anne Akiko Meyers, violin
Alisa Weilerstein, cello
Adam Neiman, piano

Producer Johannah Smith