For this edition of Everything Is Real Radio, host Sam Sebren will be joined in the studio by experimental composer/musician Mary Jane Leach. Her work reveals a fascination with the physicality of sound, its acoustic properties and how they interact with space. In many of her works Leach creates an other-worldly sound environment using difference, combination, and interference tones; these are tones not actually sounded by the performers, but acoustic phenomena arising from Leach’s deft manipulation of intonation and timbral qualities. The result is striking music which has a powerful effect on listeners.

Ms. Leach is also the co editor with Renee Levine Packer of "Gay Guerilla: Julius Eastman and His Music" (University of Rochester Press, 2015), a collection of biographical and musical essays about composer/pianist/choreographer/vocalist Julius Eastman (1940 - 1990). Eastman, a child prodigy who grew up in Ithaca, first came to prominence in 1970 with Buffalo University's avant garde SEM Ensemble, performing with Morton Feldman, John Cage, Pauline Oliveros, and others. He quickly became involved in the 70's and 80's downtown scene in NYC and worked with Arthur Russell, Meredith Monk and other artists who were blurring musical and performance genres. However, it was not easy for Eastman as a gay black man working in a predominantly straight white male environment. Eventually, evicted from his East Village apartment in the 80's, he later died homeless, with many of his scores and music seemingly lost forever. Thankfully, Mary Jane Leach and other dedicated peers have worked for the last 20 years as "accidental musicologists" to find and rescue as much of Eastman's works as possible. Leach wrote liner notes for a 2016 release by Eastman called "Femenine" (frozen reeds), which was recorded at the Composers Forum in Albany in 1974. It's a rare, early recording that demonstrates Eastman's groundbreaking vision.

Tune in to Everything Is Real Radio on WGXC on December 11, 6-8pm to hear conversations with Mary Jane Leach about her work, Julius Eastman, and selected works by both composers.