So! I'm playing too much viola this week to host Nadia Sirota on Q2 (literally! Perennially a punch line, the word "viola" always threatens to suck seriousness out of sentences), but you are being left in the very capable hands of Ms. Helga Davis.

Iannis Xenakis was a brilliant composer who has an almost cultish following. When I was in college, mentions of the word Xenakis were often accompanied by Ozzy Ozbourne-esque fists of rock and tongue-waggling. Why would a post-war, Greek-French composer, mathematician and architect be the source of such rabid devotion?

In my opinion, the influence of folk music on classical music is often underrepresented. Music History is taught as a linearly-evolving thing, perhaps diverging along French and German lines (Ned Rorem famously divided all Classical Music into “French,” and “German,” regardless of the composer’s nationality). There’s more to composers, however, than their arty predecessors.

The connection between music and dance is maybe as old as the genres themselves. People were compelled to move from the minute rhythm appeared on the scene and compelled to make music since the inception of purposeful artistic movement. Weirdly, the daily lives of Classical musicians and dancers too often rarely intersect.

There’s no doubt that electronics, indeed electricity has had a huge impact on classical music; the recording industry alone has revolutionized the way we play, interface with, listen to, and share music. Similarly, the impact of electronics and electronic instruments on the composition of classical music has been monumental; in fact we are only just beginning to understand the possibilities of these new technologies.

You may have noticed we've got a thing for composers over here at Q2. It was, ergo, really only a matter of time before we started our new Composer Intoduction series.

A hot tip: If you ever find yourself in sophomore Music History class, arm yourself with the following information, as it can be referenced for approximately one-half of the questions on your mid-term.

New Music is flush with chamber music these days! Small ensembles of virtuosic musicians are popping up left and right. But how does an ensemble of saxophone, electric guitar, piano, and percussion fit into the classical canon?