In this week’s playlist, we’ll be featuring music selections from films in honor of the upcoming 2021 Oscars. There is one composer whose works you will hear much of in this playlist and that is the great John Williams. Also included in this playlist is a film score that is a contender for an Oscar this year. It is from the film, Minari and the music is by Emile Mosseri. 

In this week’s Local Classical channel, we’ll be highlighting local Indianapolis musician, Mark Ortwein. Mark is a bassoonist with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, but his talents don’t stop at bassoon since he is also a sought-after instrumental doubler. Over the last 20 years, Mark has performed in many different musical projects including professional recordings, musical theater, chamber ensembles, jazz, and R&B groups, as well as many orchestral performances, including being a member of the Saxophone section for the Cincinnati Pops under Erich Kunzel.

In this week’s playlist, we are excited to feature American Composer David Lang. Lang is already an accomplished composer as he is a Grammy and Pulitzer prize winner. Lang is one of America’s most performed composers and many of his works resemble each other only in the fierce intelligence and clarity of vision that inform their structures. His catalog is extensive, and his opera, orchestra, chamber, and solo works are by turns ominous, ethereal, urgent, hypnotic, unsettling, and very emotionally direct.

The second segment in guest host Clare Longendyke’s Amplify! series presents a program of works by female-identifying composers of color as a celebration of the intersection between Black History Month and Women’s Month. This eclectic program highlights works that celebrate multicultural musical styles from around the world. Enjoy pieces by some of Clare’s favorite living female composers mixed with some of the most important female voices of classical music’s past, voices that continue to influence the aesthetics and compositional approaches of composers today.

Nicholas Sokol is a composer, conductor, and pianist specializing in solo, chamber, orchestral, choral, and electronic music. Nicholas’ music has been performed throughout the United States and at prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall. His music has been performed by members of the Chicago Civic Orchestra, members of the New World Symphony, the Atlantic Music Festival Orchestra, and the Atlantic Music Festival New Music Ensemble.