Host profile: Brian Simalchik
Name: Brian Simalchik
Show: A New Sound, Wednesdays 7 - 9 p.m.
Day job: I'm a composer, and I also do digital content and marketing for UVA Health
How long have you been a host at WTJU? Since February 2019
Why did you become a WTJU host?
It was a way of sharing my deep love of new classical music with our community and folks around the world. I thought about it for years before taking the plunge - and I am so glad I did it!
Why should someone tune into your show in particular? What do you want to share with the world?
There is incredible beauty, exhilaration, sorrow and great joy in music that is being written by composers around the world right now, and in the recent past. But it's music that has almost no footprint in our culture. It has very few outlets and occupies very little of our shared cultural space. To me, that's a massive shame - and something I try to counter, in my own small way, by talking about this music, and helping listeners find all kinds of incredibly moving things to listen to. I've had the experience, time and time again, of playing something for someone and they go 'That's amazing! I had no idea music like this existed.' That's what I'm hoping to do.
Tell us about one of your biggest gaffs while in the studio. (We've all got one, right?)
Garbling words, of course. That happens all the time.
Favorite moments in the air studio?
The best moments are when someone calls and is excited to share about how something I just played spoke to them. Or when someone I know (or don't know) emails me to say that they really liked a piece. That's the absolute best and brings me the most joy.
If you could interview anyone on air, dead or alive, who would it be?
John Cage was one of the great talkers in modern classical music. He would be wonderful to talk to. It would also be great to talk to people who wrote music a long, long time ago, to hear how they think about it. Like 11th century mystic/poet/composer Hildegard vin Bingen.
What are your guilty pleasures?
I don't really believe in the idea of musical 'guilty pleasures.' Taste is never absolute or objective. To each person, something is either pleasing or not - as Debussy said, "There is no theory. You have only to listen. Pleasure is the law."
How has it felt being a radio host during this pandemic?
It's been a great way to feel connected to and give back to our community. I've appreciated the socially distanced connection over the airwaves more than ever, and I try to play music that brings comfort and also makes us think and feel more deeply.
What are your passions outside of music?
I'm a composer, so writing music is my great passion. I also love playing the piano. But I also love hiking, architecture, cooking, reading, exploring places, being with friends, and hanging out with my three cats.
Why does WTJU matter?
WTJU is the perfect antidote to the increasingly homogenous, digital, corporate, and impersonal music world. It's personal, communal, driven by passion and knowledge, the desire to connect and communicate, and above all love of music. It's a wonderful organization - and in this more isolated time, I feel that it's never been clearer how essential it is.
Would you rather listen to a Bach motet scored for electric guitars, or Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman’ scored for chamber choir?
I'm a huge 'Enter Sandman' fan (that album was one of the most formative of my early adolescence), but I have to say Bach. Pretty much every arrangement of Bach works because the music is so logical and yet also so expressive. And arrangements reveal different characters in Bach's music because the other amazing part thing his music is it is open enough and non-specific enough to find all sorts of different things in it. Case in point: