Deemed one of the best and most beloved musicals of all time, Les Miserables is a show whose reputation precedes it. Over the years, my exposure to it has been colored by its reputation of theatrical eminence. I remember reverently singing "Do You Hear the People Sing?" in high school chorus; then, Susan Boyle shot to fame for her rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" on Britain's Got Talent (she now has a musical based on her own life, also titled I Dreamed a Dream); the signature ballad was later f... [Read more]

Twenty-nine-year-old composer Nico Muhly is the secret weapon behind some of the best Indie songs to come out over the past few years. Muhly’s pallet spans from haunting-elegiac to jubilant on choral and string arrangements for Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest, The National’s High Violet and Sigur Ros singer Jonsi’s Go. Muhly has played piano for Bjork and worked as an editor, conductor, and keyboardist for influential composer Philip Glass, and now his first opera, Two Boys,... [Read more]