John Schaefer
Radio Host
John Schaefer is the host of WNYC’s innovative music/talk show Soundcheck, which features live performances and interviews with a variety of guests. Schaefer, Executive Producer, Music Programming, WNYC Radio, has also hosted and produced WNYC’s radio series New Sounds since 1982 (which Billboard called “The #1 radio show for the Global Village”) and the New Sounds Live concert series since 1986.
Schaefer has written extensively about music, including the book New Sounds: A Listener’s Guide to New Music (Harper & Row, NY, 1987; Virgin Books, London, 1990); the Cambridge Companion to Singing: World Music (Cambridge University Press, U.K., 2000); and the TV program Bravo Profile: Bobby McFerrin (Bravo Television, 2003).
Past Events
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Music and the Spark of Spontaneity
Music. Improvisation. Spontaneous creativity. How does the brain do it? We joined eighteen-time Grammy award-winning jazz guitarist Pat Metheny in a live tour of his masterful musical mind as he performed and engaged in discussion with leading scientists and researchers, seeking the neurological processes underlying improvisation and determining what they tell us about the brain and human creativity.
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Good Vibrations: The Science of Sound
Join John Schaefer, Jamshed Bharucha, Christopher Shera, the Danish sound artist Jacob Kirkegaard and multi-instrumentalists Polygraph Lounge for a fascinating journey through the nature of sound.
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Notes & Neurons In Search of the Common Chorus
Join host John Schaefer, scientist Daniel Levitin and musical artist Bobby McFerrin for live performances and cross cultural demonstrations to illustrate music’s note-worthy interaction with the brain and our emotions.
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