Editor’s note: When I e-mailed Thomas Steitz to ask him to contribute to “What’s on your iPod?”, I found out that he doesn’t own an iPod. However, Dr. Steitz was kind enough to write a little about what he’s been listening to lately. He will be back on campus to deliver the commencement address for graduating seniors on June 13.
“I primarily listen to classical music and mostly from the public radio stations while I am driving to and from the university from home.
My favorite composers are the usual suspects: Bach, Mozart, Brahms, Beethoven, Schubert and Handel, particularly his “Messiah,” which I have sung so many times I used to be able to sing it by memory. I especially like chamber music and solo instrument pieces.
My interest in chamber and classical music was stimulated by my years at Lawrence and contact with the music school, where I was in the orchestra, band and choir. This interest was further amplified by my time at Harvard, when I particularly remember lunchtime organ concerts by E. Power Biggs and a few brass players during exam week.
I do listen to a Saturday night PBS program on big band music from the 1940s, such as Glenn Miller and others. I organized and had a dance band that played this music in high school in Wauwatosa. But, none of this is on an iPod.
What are you listening to?
