John Schaefer  

John Schaefer is the co-founder of the New York Guitar Festival, and has hosted and produced the popular new music radio program New Sounds since 1982. The program was called “The #1 radio show for the Global Village”by Billboard magazine. Schaefer is also executive producer and host of the nationally-syndicated series Chamber Music New York.

Since 1986 he has produced and hosted New Sounds Live, an annual series of live broadcast concerts devoted to new, unusual and overlooked forms of music. He produces and hosts WNYC’s classical performances, both in the studio and in various concert halls. He has been heard regularly on the BBC, the ABC (Australia), Taipei Public Radio and Radio New Zealand.

Schaefer’s writings include New Sounds: A Listener’s Guide to New Music; a biography of composer La Monte Young (in Sound and Light, Bucknell University Press, 1996); and “Songlines: The Voice in World Music” (in Cambridge Companion to Singing, Cambridge University Press, UK, 2000). He was contributing editor for Spin and Ear maazines, and has written numerous articles and reviews. His liner notes appear on more than 100 recordings, ranging from The Music of Cambodia to recordings by Yo-Yo Ma, Bobby McFerrin, and Terry Riley.