The Gunther Schuller Society
Radio & Other Audio Intrigue
Radio Segments
ABC (Australia)
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Podcast: Gunther Schuller on composing, conducting and his book 'Musings' (re-aired 2015)
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Podcast: Gunther Schuller on his book The Compleat Conductor (re-aired 2015)
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Podcast: Gunther Schuller on Gershwin (re-aired 2015)
BBC
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Music Matters (2011)
Fresh Air with Terry Gross
MET Opera Broadcast Quiz at Intermission (Dec 4, 1954)
Here's a rare excerpt of a tongue-in-cheek quiz-like segment (to fill time between acts) during one of the Metropolitan Opera Company live radio broadcasts featuring host Milton Cross and a panel of opera experts including Robert Baggar, Walter DeKlug and Hugh Ross. Gunther, borrowed from the MET Opera Orchestra, provides the horn excerpts while the panel guesses which excerpt belongs to which opera.
WNYC Archives
Petite Suite (later renamed Suite for Chamber Orchestra) as performed live during the American Music Festival radio broadcast February 12, 1952.
Audio Segments
Zeltsman Marimba Festival Lecture
Gunther Schuller addresses participants of the 2009 Zeltsman Marimba Festival at Lawrence University, Appleton, WI, including a fascinating breakdown and analysis of two of his marimba compositions: Phantasmata (written for the violin and marimba duo Marimolin) and Marimbology (a solo piece written for Nancy Zeltsman):
Download transcription.
Other Works & Premieres by Gunther Schuller
Concerto for Flute (1988) as performed by flutist Wilfred Kujala, conducted by Sir George Solti with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on October 13, 1988. The premiere was commissioned by Kujala's students and colleagues in honor of his 60th birthday. The following year he performed the same concerto with the Spokane Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Schuller.
Photo of Kujala, Schuller and Solti (unknown photographer).
Symphonic Images (2012) as performed by the Munchner Philharmoniker, conducted by Semyon Bychkov on March 9, 2013.
Image of the score.
Souveniers de Villigren by Stephane Grappelli, arranged by Gunther Schuller (1976) as performed by violinist Stephane Grappelli with the Boston Pops Orchestra, conducted by Harry Ellis Dickson on May 19, 1979.
Image of the Pops program and a draft of the score for the arrangement.
Four Vignettes
Schuller’s Four Vignettes was premiered by Boston Musica Viva on October 5, 2007 conducted by Richard Pittman at Tsai Performance Center, Boston MA. It was partly inspired and conceived to reflect the basic instrumentation of the classic Pierrot Ensemble (flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano) named after Arnold Schoenberg’s seminal work Pierrot Lunaire. Schoenberg added a soprano (narrator) to Pierrot Lunaire. Gunther added a percussionist to his version of the standard Pierrot Ensemble…in this case, doubling on vibraphone and marimba.
This live performance is presented here in four separate movements.