Hedy and George: Improbable Collaborators, Unconventional Innovators
An evening of intimate conversation and musical performance as Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes and some of the most forward-thinking composers of our age, explore the extraordinary lives and legacies of two unconventional innovators: the legendary screen siren Hedy Lamarr and renowned avant-garde composer George Antheil. In a remarkable and unlikely union, Lamarr, known as ‘the most beautiful woman in the world,’ and Antheil, the self-described ‘bad boy of music,’ joined forces during World War II to invent a secret communication system that presaged today’s GPS, cell phone and Bluetooth technologies. Today, George Antheil is revered as a pioneer of electronic music. Some of his compositions were so far ahead of their time that the technology to bring them to life only materialized decades after his death. The conversation on innovation, science and music will be amplified by a series of performances of Antheil’s seminal scores and explorations of today’s most avant-garde electronica.
Moderator
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John Schaefer
John Schaefer is the host of WNYC’s innovative music and talk show Soundcheck, which features live performances and interviews with a variety of guests. More »
Participants
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Carmelo Amarena
Electrical Engineer Carmelo ‘Nino’ Amarena is an electrical engineer with expertise in the field of digital wireless communications. He is also an inventor, designing a personal rocketpack called the 'Thunderpack,' which uses a peroxide-based reciprocating engine. More » -
Tyondai Braxton
Musician, Composer For the past sixteen years, American composer Tyondai Braxton has been actively involved in music composition and performance. Bridging the purview of his interests in solo composition, experimental sound, pop music and large-scale orchestra, his music has received critical acclaim from an extraordinarily diverse expanse of the music world. More » -
Jennifer Choi
Violinist Hailed by Time Out New York as "one of New York's most reliably adventurous performers", violinist Jennifer Choi has charted a career that breaks through the conventional boundaries of solo violin, chamber music, and the art of creative improvisation. More » -
Philip Glass
Composer Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Philip Glass is a graduate of the University of Chicago and the Juilliard School. In the early 1960s, Glass spent two years of intensive study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger and while there, earned money by transcribing Ravi Shankar’s Indian music into Western notation. More » -
Tristan Perich
Experimental Composer Tristan Perich's work is inspired by the aesthetic simplicity of math, physics and code. The WIRE Magazine describes his compositions as "an austere meeting of electronic and organic." More » -
Richard Rhodes
Author Richard Rhodes is the author or editor of twenty-four books including The Making of the Atomic Bomb, which won a Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction, a National Book Award and a National Book Critics Circle Award. More » -
Kathleen Supové
Pianist Kathleen Supové is one of America's most acclaimed and versatile contemporary music pianists. She regularly presents a series of solo concerts entitled The Exploding Piano, in which she has performed and premiered works by the world's leading composers as well as countless emerging ones. More »
