A recent initiative of people associated with the University of Minnesota, New Music Scrapbook provides a series of fascinating composer interviews and accompanying audio of their work.

In the words of the Scrappers themselves:

Born of desperation and raised by wolves, NEW MUSIC SCRAPBOOK congeals the musical detritus and burnt offerings of the composers beneath, above, and within the University of Minnesota. Dig here for music and interviews. And we mean deep.

One thing I love about the interviews, particularly, is that they are long. These are not cursory two-minute things that effectively blot out any context from them, these are big, rambling (yet focused) conversations that succeed in presenting a detailed image of the composer’s outlook.

This is a valuable resource, and I wish more people were doing stuff like this.