American Composer Samuel Adler: Special Interview

An exclusive interview of American Composer Samuel Adler, famous for his song cycles and instrumental works. Hosted by Steven Kapp Perry. Transcript: SKP: You have a long and storied career. 65 years of teaching music. So you know a lot about music in the US, I wonder if we can just start off in general. Compared with when you began teaching, and as you look at music education in universities and public schools now, what changes do you see in that time? SA: Well in the first place we have to say that I get around the world a great deal.  And we, in America, have the finest higher education music system in our schools that exists in the world. That’s why so many people from all over the world, especially now from Asia, are coming here to study. Our standards are the highest in the world and I must say from a compositional point of view we have such great talent in our universities and colleges. I’ve never seen anything like it. But people don’t realize that because we push our popular music so much throughout the world that people think that’s the only thing we have, when the actuality is that we have in this country the highest standards of musical composition among our young people. I’m sorry to say that’s sort of kept as a wonderful secret— SA: --nobody knows about it and people care less about it. And that’s too bad because what they would find is a treasure-trove of wonderful music being written by young composers today. SKP: Are there places where communities are beginning to hear some of the current composition? SA: Yes of course. Colleges are the places to hear them. For instance, here at BYU you have a New Music group, \[and there are others] all over the place. I had a few stops on the way here. I was at Indian University where they have a huge New Music program. SKP: The Jacob’s School of Music. SA: And I was down at the University of Texas in Austin, they have a big New Music program \[too]. The problem is that it has been so anaesthetized from the mainstream. For instance, I would rather have