100 Pieces You Should Listen to From the First Quarter of the 21st Century
Some introductory thoughts, starting with a confession: New music has never come easy to me.
But as I’ve taken myself on the journey and pushed myself to listen to, explore, and discover works being written by living composers, I’ve long wanted to find a way to share all the amazing music that has truly enriched my life and broadened my tastes.
After starting and scrapping many iterations of this little project, this version feels right right now so here we go. This is by no means a “best of” list, it’s simply a list of pieces and composers that for one reason or another spoke to me. I am more or less a professional musician by training and trade, but I consider myself far from an expert. As any of my college professors can tell you, I was a really lousy theory and composition student, so you can be sure that if I’m drawn to a piece of music, it’s because it touches me in a very primal way and not because I’m approaching it in a lofty, analytical sort of way. I’m interested in how music makes me feel, and oftentimes the fascinating backstory behind the creation of a piece of music, or the life of the person who wrote. It’s particularly exciting to explore music written right now because it’s another window into these exceptionally wild times we are living in, a way to build community, and a means to bring more much needed beauty into our lives. My hope is to simply share some ideas that might help the curious explore some new music and perhaps stumble across something that speaks to them as well.
So here we go!
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