Christopher Layer is calling from New York City in the middle of a February blizzard. The snow didn’t keep him from dashing across the street in his West Village neighborhood to grab a strong-brewed ...

Remember the definition of "strata" from geology class? Layers, right? And we think of things that are layered, generally, as somehow richer, more interestingly textured and varied. For more than 85 ...

But, counterintuitive though it might seem, I don’t think sound is always a helpful way to understand genre. I’m a composer and conductor in the field that’s broadly known as Western classical music, ...