I sat down with Miguel Reyna to talk about his production of The Thin Place at the Actors' Theater in Santa Cruz. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jake-j-thomas/messageSupport this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jake-j-thomas/support

The premiere of Wang Lu's onward, wayward performed by pianist Vicky Chow and percussionist Russell Greenberg. Commissioned by Miller Theatre at Columbia University for the Mission: Commission podcast. Missioncommissionpodcast.comBy wang lu, Vicky Chow, Russell Greenberg

The premiere of Ann Cleare's gravity dreams ii performed by pianists Laura Barger and Julia Den Boer. Commissioned by Miller Theatre at Columbia University for the Mission: Commission podcast. Missioncommissionpodcast.comBy ann cleare, laura barger, julia den boer

The premiere of Miguel Zenón's Layer Upon Layer performed by pianist Matt Mitchell and guitarist Miles Okazaki. Commissioned by Miller Theatre at Columbia University for the Mission: Commission podcast. Missioncommissionpodcast.comBy Matt Mitchell, Miles Okazaki, Miguel Zenón

The composers have reached the last stages of writing the piece - what more remains to be done before the music can finally take on a life of its own? Visit missioncommissionpodcast.com for a full listing of pieces, performers, and recordings included in this episode.By Wang Lu, Miguel Zenón, Melissa Smey, Ann Cleare

Juneteenth, Santa Cruz Shakespeare, Solstice, and more!This may be my best solo podcast yet.I discuss the Juneteenth event organized in Santa Cruz by Thairie Ritchie. I delve into the issues surrounding the Black Lives Matter mural that was defaced in front of the City Hall and Abi Mustapha's search for meaningful reconciliation.I talk about my vis…

The pieces have taken on a definitive shape, and a life of their own. How do composers communicate their vision - to the musicians, and to the audience? And how do they choose a name for their creations? Visit missioncommissionpodcast.com for a full listing of pieces, performers, and recordings included in this episode.…

In this podcast, I discuss the power of supporting local businesses, artists, and media. If we want to build a bright and hopeful future, we must start at home by supporting the efforts of those within our own communities. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jake-j-thomas/messageSupport this podcast: https://podcast…

We’ve reached that point in the creative process where hard decisions need to be made: keep, cut, continue, end – or maybe even start again? Which direction will the piece take? Visit missioncommissionpodcast.com for a full listing of pieces, performers, and recordings included in this episode.By Melissa Smey, Wang Lu, Ann Cleare, Miguel Zenón

This season, the composers are writing music for piano plus one other instrument. We hear about their relationship with the piano, and their different approaches in composing for this instrument. Visit missioncommissionpodcast.com for a full listing of pieces, performers, and recordings included in this episode.…

The Little Mermaid’s remake as a live action movie improves upon the original in several important respects. The racial diversity of the movie not only helps to invite more people into the fantasy, but it also makes it a more interesting story and one that is truer to life. The ocean scenes are rendered more realistically, are sure to please ocean …

SJSU’s MFA program held an opening for their exhibition “Liftoff” at Radius Gallery on Thursday and will participate in First Friday Santa Cruz on June 2nd 5-8:00pm with Artist Talks scheduled for Sunday the 4th at 3:30pm. 13 recently graduated artists are showing some of their work at one of the most compelling contemporary art galleries in Santa …

Where do musical ideas and inspiration come from? In hearing these origin stories, we also learn more about the composers themselves. Visit missioncommissionpodcast.com for a full listing of pieces, performers, and recordings included in this episode.By Wang Lu, Ann Cleare, Miguel Zenón, Melissa Smey

An introduction to our composers: Ann Cleare, Wang Lu, and Miguel Zenón, as they begin their creative journey to compose new pieces of classical music in 6 weeks for Mission: Commission. Visit missioncommissionpodcast.com for a full listing of pieces, performers, and recordings included in this episode.…

MAKING THE UNCONSCIOUS VISIBLEThe Radius Gallery at the Tannery in Santa Cruz recently hosted a group show entitled “What’s Home” organized by Andrew Purchin. This important and elegant exhibition sought to generate a conversation about one of the biggest problems in Santa Cruz County and beyond: housing. The inspiration for the show came from a pa…

What do you see when you hear music? Once you know the story behind the music, and the person behind the story, you’ll listen to music in a completely different way. Season 3 follows the creative journey of three world-class composers, Ann Cleare, Wang Lu, and Miguel Zenón. Over 6 weeks, listen as the very first ideas and notes grow and evolve into…

I start the podcast out listening to a couple of minutes of Fog Machine by White Reaper from their new album "Asking for a Ride." Next, I read a little bit from Don DeLillo's novel White Noise, recently made into a movie on Netflix that eerily foreshadowed the events that have taken place in East Palastine, Ohio. Finally, I share some stories and i…

I have three big announcements to make. 1. I am moving from the Westside of Santa Cruz after 8 fun-filled years of living here. 2. I am clean and sober having given up alcohol and cannabis. 3. My dear sweet father sadly passed away and I have been grieving. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jake-j-thomas/messageSu…

Today, there is a crisis in the world. Well, actually there are lots, but I just want to focus on one to begin with. A solution to this particular crisis might offer auxiliary positive results for other problems. Drought is an existential problem in much of the world. In California, and probably elsewhere, we are mostly advised to conserve. I'm sor…

This is the most important sequence so far. In these poems, the poet delineates a poetics. In their description of form, the poet discusses the idea that less is more in the expression of love. This has been consistent throughout the poems. Consistency is the strongest attribute of the collection, and at its core is this idea that describes the bel…

The separation is complete. The poet speaks about the reputation of their beloved being both good and bad for the same reasons. They are praised for their youthful easygoing ways and criticized for them too. The poet meditates on what it is like to live without their beloved. The changing of the seasons is full of shadows of memories. --- Send in a…

This sequence of sonnets goes into the questionable relationship between appearance and reality, between beauty and goodness. He is still dependent upon the beloved for a sense of value, of self worth and in order maintain his own will to live he willingly allows himself to be deceived. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/po…

In this sequence, the poet is coming to terms with the finality of their separation. In the first poem, they discuss a recent writer's block and what caused it. Very specifically it was NOT the quality of his rival's poetry. In fact, they go to great pains to discuss how the rival poet relies upon other writers to craft their poems. One of those, h…

The poet turns a corner and shares their thoughts about their worth in relation to other poets. The premise is that the poet believes they are superior in relation to other poets because they recognize the true worth of the beloved. A person so full of beauty doesn't need embellishment. We can see that the poet has become more accustomed to their s…

This sequence delves into the poetics contained within this collection. It is here in the moment of recognizing the death of a relationship, after meditating on his own mortality, when the poet crystalizes their view of what matters most in poetry. It is not literary technique that matters most, but the truthfulness of the love the writing contains…

This cycle of sonnets delves into some thoughts of death, or uses thoughts of mortality to describe the process of breaking up. The poet spins out a bunch of metaphors describing their own exhaustion, the end of their time. They meditate on their own death as a way of bringing into focus what remains important. The poet doesn't want their name to b…

The poet reaches a truly dark place in this section of sonnets. Sonnet 66 begins with a suicidal pronouncement. The poet says "Tired with all these, for restful death I cry." And, following this terrible sentiment they issue a list of complaints. He is over it. The wrong people have power and if it were not for their beloved, the poet would leave t…

Shakespeare can teach you how to survive the emotional dangers of love. The sonnets are instructive as much as they are beautiful. They are about how a poet can rise above their status through truthful expression. Love is a driving force, but it has many dangers and downsides. The first most important thing to know about love is that the love of se…

Thanks for tuning into another episode of the Dialogic Podcast, the Changing the Conversation series. If you want to follow along, you can find the sonnets for free online at the Folger Shakespeare Library's online edition. In this sequence, Shakespeare begins with a call for moderation. He suggests that greed spoils love, and that it is possible t…

Thanks for tuning into another episode of the Dialogic Podcast, the Changing the Conversation series. If you want to follow along, you can find the sonnets for free online at the Folger Shakespeare Library's online edition. This sequence starts with the second poem using a horse as a metaphor for leaving a love. It is a slow horse and the poet sugg…

This cycle of sonnets begins with an image of the poet at war with himself. Heart and Eye are conflicted about the beloved. The eye is cautious, the heart demands connection and argues for the case. The conflict is staged as a kind of court case and the jury is made up of thoughts. There is a moment of harmony, as the heart and the eyes find a way …

The poems take a dark turn as the poet wrestles with news of his beloved's infidelity. Understanding that his beloved is sleeping with a former lover, the poet is left to grapple with the emotions left behind. Depression results from their disconnection and is remedied by news of their beloved, which then turns quickly again to sadness. The darknes…

In this sequence of poems, the persona addresses the infidelity of his beloved. He manages to always find a way to negate anything negative about their relations through the power of imaginative transformation. By claiming that they are united by the bond of love, the persona of the poems is able to enjoy what would otherwise be torturous. That's t…

References to sex abound in Shakespeare's sonnets. The persona of the poems is in love with a youth. It is mostly framed as an unrequited love story, due in part to Shakespeare's lower status. However, there are references that suggest they have shared the same lovers. More interesting than the admission of promiscuity is the way the persona handle…

What feels worse than unrequited love? Being slighted by your beloved. At least the persona of the poems seems to think so in this cycle of sonnets. Still, he finds a way to forgive his beloved and to justify their actions. One reason I have chosen to read these sonnets, is because they require careful study to figure out what they mean. That is ex…

This series of sonnets describes something about how the mind works. This meditation on memory in part explains mental illness. The mental impressions of pain are self reinforcing. The only thing that successfully combats that cycle of agony is a counterpart of attraction, the transformative power of love. Love is the cure for depression, the recom…

Shakespeare was a marketer. What can I say? He knew how to get the reader to pay attention. One of his best tools: the metaphor. In this group of sonnets, I delve into the mechanics of metaphoricity. What makes a metaphor work? How does Shakespeare use negation in metaphors to amplify the hyperbole effect? In these sonnets, Shakespeare uses the fol…

I want to change the conversation. I'm tired of all of the fighting about things that are out of our control. I want to invite you to have a listen to some sonnets, for the sake of something different. Even after studying only the first 20 sonnets, there is a noticeable difference in how I read the plays. The sonnets are tightly condensed and requi…

The premiere of Kate Soper's Telephone. Performed by Kate Soper and the Parker Quartet. Commissioned by Miller Theatre at Columbia University for the Mission: Commission podcast. Missioncommissionpodcast.comBy kate soper, parker quartet

The premiere of Vijay Iyer's Room for Ghosts. Performed by Vijay Iyer and the Parker Quartet. Commissioned by Miller Theatre at Columbia University for the Mission: Commission podcast. Missioncommissionpodcast.comBy vijay iyer, parker quartet

The premiere of Oscar Bettison's all keens and slow airs... . Performed by the Parker Quartet. Commissioned by Miller Theatre at Columbia University for the Mission: Commission podcast. Missioncommissionpodcast.comBy oscar bettison, parker quartet

As the creative journey comes to an end, we hear reflections on genre, and hear why these pieces defy categorization. Visit missioncommissionpodcast.com for a full listing of pieces, performers, and recordings included in this episode.By Melissa Smey, Oscar Bettison, Kate Soper, Vijay Iyer

In this episode i clarify that a man should never be deciding what a women does with her body, the hilariousness of flat earths, Johnny Depp trial and more. Listen, learn, laugh and subscribe!By Aurelio Miguel Bocanegra

Was Shakespeare Gay? Who knows, but his poetry sure as heck is. It's uber gay in the best of ways. Was Shakespeare Trans? That is a bit of a reach, but the best way to describe his writing is, as the best writing always is, polyamorous. Has there ever been a more well rounded expression of all of human experience? None that I know of, which is why …

I'm going through the Sonnets methodically, and sharing my thoughts with you as I go. I absolutely love Shakespeare's plays, and this is the first time I'm really studying the sonnets as a whole. The first thing right out of the gate that is surprising is how pro life Shakespeare's narrator is. The persona of the poems, the voice speaking, consider…

The composers rehearse or prepare for rehearsal with the Parker Quartet, and the pieces start to come to life. Visit missioncommissionpodcast.com for a full listing of pieces, performers, and recordings included in this episode.By melissa smey, kate soper, oscar bettison, vijay iyer

In this podcast, I look at the first four sonnets in Shakespeare's collection. I begin by talking about how Chad and JT were riffing about Shakespeare on their latest podcast episode. Shoutout to Joe Marresse for his cool ass reading of Hamlet's monologue. I'm digging into the sonnets because they are a perfect form for social media. Each sonnet is…

The composers are deep in the work: writing, rewriting, tinkering with the myriad details that make the piece what it is, and what it will be. But what guides their decisions about how to shape the piece, or what direction to take it in? Visit missioncommissionpodcast.com for a full listing of pieces, performers, and recordings included in this epi…

In this Episode i begin by talking about the Breaking News with Roe v Wade and the Supreme Court, an update on a lack of Latinos being booked in Escondido Ca and some great career news. Listen, laugh, rate, review and subscribe!By Aurelio Miguel Bocanegra

To navigate the terrain of classical music, you need some trail markers, and that’s where form comes in. It’s the underlying structure of the way things happen in music. Composers today don’t always want to follow the age-old rules of form. How do our composers think about form as they work on their pieces? Visit missioncommissionpodcast.com for a …