Flotation Device interviews Sheila Silver about her opera A Thousand Splendid Suns and its premiere production at Seattle Opera. Topics include her early influences, her path to a career as a female composer, her newfound interest in North Indian classical music, and how the convergence of these factors shaped her approach to setting Khaled Hosseini’s daunting novel about two generations of beleaguered but resilient Afghan women. Accompanying the interview are excerpts from the opera, plus selections from Silver’s epic Piano Concerto and her anti-war piece Twilight's Last Gleaming.
Also on the program: avant-garde landmarks by Stockhausen and Sun Ra turn 50 (and have more in common than you might think), plus new albums by Missy Mazzoli and Wadada Leo Smith, and new avant-electronica from Spain. Creative and improvised music from the Northwest and around the world with host Michael Schell, originally aired March 5, 2023.
