Marcos Balter's guest appearances

Marcos Balter

Meet the Composer

1 Track Podcast

Mission: Commission

John Adams

Paul Simon

Leonard Bernstein

Nico Muhly

Pauline Oliveros

Kate Soper

David Lang

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith

John Cage

Henry Threadgill

Tim Page

Caroline Shaw

John Luther Adams

Vijay Iyer

Georg Friedrich Haas

OwlTail

The premiere of Marcos Balter’s Omolu. Performed by harpist Parker Rasmsay.Missioncommissionpodcast.com

The premiere of Marcos Balter’s Omolu. Performed by harpist Parker Rasmsay.<a href="http://missioncommissionpodcast.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Missioncommissionpodcast.com</a>

Marcos Balter: Omolu

Building on a long-standing collaborative relationship, Marcos Balter wrote Intercepting a Shivery Light for the Anubis Quartet, a saxophone ensemble, in 2012. The piece's title is an anagram for Everything in its Right Place, a Radiohead song, which Marcos admits is an important song for him "and many members of [his] generation."

Building on a long-standing collaborative relationship, Marcos Balter wrote Intercepting a Shivery Light for the Anubis Quartet, a saxophone ensemble, in 2012. The piece's title is an anagram for Everything in its Right Place, <a href="https://email.wnyc.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=PYGso9rSnUmgWWmX5c_S6m1LWDEb0tEItxAud7658CCeu98R8VYrMB01oAJ424f8S4OVBZ_Plqg.&amp;URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.youtube.com%2fwatch%3fv%3dVrpGhEVyrk0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">a Radiohead song</a>, which Marcos admits is an important song for him "and many members of [his] generation."

Bonus Track: 'Intercepting a Shivery Light' by Marcos Balter


For Marcos Balter, stellar composition requires the dedicated, daily practice of an athlete. He doesn't think it possible to unearth and hone brilliant musical ideas without slogging through a whole bunch of failures along the way, nor does he believe that the compositional demigods we revere so highly – Bach, Beethoven, Mozart – birthed only masterpieces. He worries too many creatives get tongue-tied attempting consistent genius, and that their work suffers for it. Marcos has learned to embrace failure, and that these failures can lead to incredible breakthroughs.

For <a href="http://www.marcosbalter.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Marcos Balter</a>, stellar composition requires the dedicated, daily practice of an athlete. He doesn't think it possible to unearth and hone brilliant musical ideas without slogging through a whole bunch of failures along the way, nor does he believe that the compositional demigods we revere so highly – Bach, Beethoven, Mozart – birthed only masterpieces. He worries too many creatives get tongue-tied attempting consistent genius, and that their work suffers for it. Marcos has learned to embrace failure, and that these failures can lead to incredible breakthroughs.

Marcos Balter: Failure Is an Option
