Better Living Through String Quartets

Today on the program, an musical update from Bagdhad, where one music and dance school continues to carry on, despite ongoing violence. Tod Machover, a composer and professor of music and media at MIT, pays tribute to both Albert Einstein and composer Elliott Carter in his latest work for string quartet, "But Not Simpler." Today, Machover joins us along with the Ying Quartet, which will give the New York premiere at Symphony Space Thursday night. According to Machover, the piece "dramatizes the search for calm and coherence in the midst of present-day complexity and diversity." Also joining us is Agnes Chan, a singer, actress, child-rights activist, academic, a mother of three. These multiple roles come together in her U.S. debut album, "Forget Yourself," a collection of songs inspired by children in Ethiopia, Iraq, and other war-torn countries - as well as her own native Japan.