Featuring over 100 composers under the age of 40, the American Composers Orchestra’s SONiC (Sounds of a New Century) Festival is energizing New York with a stellar kickoff to the season – eight days of amazing new work performed by 16 extraordinary ensembles. Yay! 

Here at Q2 we’ve got all kinds of exclusive SONiC-related goodies for you, from concert coverage to ensemble portraits, and, of course, you can always rely on Q2 to provide a direct line from composer to listener -- five composers whose work is being featured on the festival stopped by the Q2 studios to talk chat about their lives, their work, and the classical landscape.

Q2 Music spotlights the following five SONiC composers with interviews all next week beginning at noon:

• Monday: Andrew Norman
• Tuesday: Marcos Balter
• Wednesday: Susie Ibarra
• Thursday: Matt Marks
• Friday: Bryce Dessner

Known for conjuring an unique sound world which the Boston Globe has described as “a virtuosic equilibrium of colliding particles [with] both intricate clarity and convincing trajectory,” Marcos Balter’s music somehow manages to be at once understated and supremely energetic. Marcos loves working with close collaborators, whose personalities unfailingly become imprinted on the scores. A native of Rio de Janero Brazil, Marcos hates being pigeon-holed as a Brazilian composer, recently tweeting “I’ll only use ‘Brazilian elements’ in my music when all of my American friends feel they should compose works with cowboy themes #titfortat.”