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. Since 1982, Schaefer has also hosted and produced WNYC’s radio series New Sounds, which Billboard magazine has called “the #1 radio show for the Global Village,” and since 1986 he has hosted the New Sounds Live concert series. He has written extensively aboutmusic, including the book New Sounds: A Listener’s Guide to New Music, the Cambridge Companion to Singing: World Music, and the TV program Bravo Profile: Bobby McFerrin. His liner notes appear on more than 100 recordings, ranging from the 1996 award-winning The Music of Armenia to recordings by Yo Yo Ma, Terry Riley, and many others.

Schaefer has curated the BAM World Music Festival and the new music and film series at the World Financial Center, chaired the Pulitzer Prize jury for Music, and hosted many lectures and panels for Lincoln Center, BAM, and Tanglewood’s Contemporary Music Festival, among others.