KPFA-FM Music Dept. ➔ An Interview with Margaret Leng Tan (July 17, 1984)
Analog Audio
Event Type
InterviewsOrigin
KPFAIdentifier
AM.1984.07.17Program Length
18 minDates
| broadcast| 1984-07-17 | created
Description
Charles Amirkhanian interviews pianist Margaret Leng Tan, recorded on July 17, 1984. Born in Singapore in 1945, Tan is a classically trained musician who is perhaps best known for her performances on the toy piano and other unconventional instruments, and as a renowned interpreter of the works of John Cage and similar avant-garde composers. Tan attended Juilliard where she was the first woman ever to receive a Doctorate from the famous university. Her thesis was on the free or experimental music of Percy Grainger, and her personal relationship with his family gave her complete access to his archives, and to fully explore his early experiments with electro-mechanical music instruments. Despite her traditional music background Tan, perhaps influenced by her own ancestry, quickly began exploring both world music, as well as those Asian-influenced new music compositions by John Cage, Henry Cowell and other West coast composers. In this interview she discusses these influences as well as her recent and upcoming performances. This interview was recorded with the intent to be broadcast during a KPFA program, and includes references to pieces of music that may have been included in that broadcast but which are unfortunately not heard here.Genres
New musicSubjects
New musicComposers, United States
Related place
El Cerrito (Calif.) (was recorded at)Related Entities
Amirkhanian, CharlesTan, Margaret Leng