Interview: Hawk Semins

KGNU's Iris Berkeley speaks with Hawk Semins of the Owsley Stanley Foundation about Concordance: 150 Years of Charles Ives, a new release in the Bear's Sonic Journals series. The collection features a 1974 recording of Charles Ives' Piano Sonata No. 2 ("Concord, Mass., 1840–1860") performed by pianist John Kirkpatrick and recorded by Owsley "Bear" Stanley, the legendary Grateful Dead sound engineer. The tape was rediscovered during the Foundation's ongoing effort to preserve Stanley's extensive archive of live recordings. Semins discusses the history of the recording, Phil Lesh's longtime interest in Charles Ives, and the connections between Ives' music and the Grateful Dead. The release also includes a new 2025 recording of the Concord Sonata by pianist Donald Berman and world-premiere recordings of four contemporary works inspired by women transcendentalists, including Emily Dickinson, Harriet Tubman, Louisa May Alcott, and Margaret Fuller (Air Date 6/1/26).