Steve Reich [7:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Borromeo String Quartet (photo by Christian Steiner)

Steve Reich is perhaps the preeminent composer living today. And one of his most heart-wrenching and affecting works is called Different Trains for String Quartet and Tape. It tells the story of Steve Reich’s early childhood — his train trips between the East and West coasts to visit his separated parents — and also of the train trips Jews were forced to take during the Holocaust.
The piece, commissioned by the Kronos Quartet in 1988, is notoriously difficult to play. But the Borromeo String Quartet has recently taken up the challenge. ThoughtCast’s Jenny Attiyeh attended a rehearsal at the New England Conservatory, where the Borromeo is currently in residence.
Click here: to listen — (7 minutes) on ThoughtCast!

Click here: for a shorter version (4:30 mins.)

Jay Allison and Mark Kramer

Jay Allison, the host of “This I Believe” on NPR, and Mark Kramer, the founding director of the Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism, banded together at the Harvard Book Store to talk about Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction Writers’ Guide, a selection of essays from Harvard’s Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism — and also to tell a few stories of their own about authenticity, the narrative voice and the gruelling process of authorship.
The compilation is edited by Kramer and Wendy Call, with contributions from Jay Allison.
Click here: to listen. (55 minutes)