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Home>Music Programs at the National Gallery>Sound Thoughts on Art Podcast

# Sound Thoughts on Art

The National Gallery’s podcast explores the intersection between sight and sound.

The arts can engage all our senses, but it’s in the crossover between them that things really get interesting. When we listen to music, what do we see in our mind’s eye? When we look at a work of art, what do we hear? Sound Thoughts on Art, a new podcast from the National Gallery of Art, explores the intersection of sight and sound.

Hosted by musician and journalist Celeste Headlee, each episode focuses on a work of art in the National Gallery’s collection. Learn about the work and its context and hear a musician respond to that work through sound, creating a dialogue between visual art and music. Sound Thoughts on Art tells the stories of how we experience art and how it connects us.

Subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher.

## Season 2 Episodes

Episode 8
Sonia De Los Santos and Auguste Renoir’s “Young Spanish Woman with a Guitar”
Guitarist Sonia De Los Santos hails from Mexico, where as a child she was exposed to different musical influences. In Auguste Renoir’s *Young Spanish Woman with a Guitar* De Los Santos sees echoes of her younger self. Her song "Sueña" is an ode to dreams.
Listen now
Episode 7
Maria Schneider and George Bellows’s “The Lone Tenement”
Maria Schneider composed *Bulería, Soleá y Rumba* in the wake of a cancer diagnosis. Inspired by American artists such as Robert Henri and George Bellows, Schneider discusses “art for life’s sake” that tells a story of people—like the evocative figures in Bellows’s *The Lone Tenement*.
Listen now

Episode 6
Delfeayo Marsalis and Hawkins Bolden’s “Untitled”
This work reminds jazz trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis of the proud, hard-working generations that raised him. A history of struggle may suggest the minor key, but Marsalis ultimately chose upbeat music to celebrate those who fought and made it work. 
Listen now
Episode 5
Peter Sheppard Skærved and Hieronymus Bosch’s “Death and the Miser”
Violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved and National Gallery director Kaywin Feldman discuss Hieronymus Bosch’s *Death and the Miser* and its symbolism of contrast: light and dark, life and death. Skærved plays a 17th-century violin sonatina that echoes similar contrasts of sensuality and fatality, beauty and mortality.
Listen now
Episode 4
Daniel Ho and Thomas Cole’s “Voyage of Life” Series
Musician Daniel Ho spent much of his childhood on the water, so he relates to Thomas Cole’s river paintings. Ho responds to *Voyage of Life* with an original suite. Starting with simple harmonies to represent childhood, he gradually introduces complexity.
Listen now

Episode 3
Sa-Roc and Margaret Burroughs’s “Sleeping Boy”
Rapper Sa-Roc’s music speaks to different aspects of Black experience, including the vulnerability of many Black kids—similar to the boy in Margaret Burroughs’s linocut, who hides himself. Her song *Forever* invites listeners not to hide, but to shine and share their “inner light” with the world.
Listen now
Episode 2
Jenny Scheinman and El Greco’s “Laocoön”
In *Sand Dipper*, jazz violinist Jenny Scheinman creates an abstract and overwhelming world. This music, Scheinman says, sounds how El Greco’s painting looks. And it feels like the question on Laocoön’s face as he looks up for the last time. 
Listen now
Episode 1
Dom Flemons and Marc Chagall’s “Orphée”
*Orphée* depicts many tragedies, but songwriter Dom Flemons finds the joy in it: it resolves in the beautiful scene of two lovers embracing. Flemons pairs it with the tranquil *Blue Butterfly*. The instrumental song helps the emotional weight sink in. 
Listen now

## Season 1 Episodes

Bonus Episode
Celeste Headlee and James Van Der Zee’s “Couple, Harlem”
In this photograph, journalist and musician Celeste Headlee hears *Lenox Avenue*, a suite her grandfather William Grant Still named after Harlem’s main street. This portrait captures the pride of Black Americans achieving success during the Harlem Renaissance despite systemic injustice. 
Listen now
Episode 10
Christian McBride and Roy DeCarava’s “David”
In an improvised musical conversation, jazz bassist Christian McBride introduces himself to *David*. Connecting over McBride’s walking bass line, they meet David’s friends, splash by the fire hydrant, play stickball. Through David, McBride recalls his own childlike innocence.
Listen now

Nathalie Joachim and Carrie Mae Weems’s “May Flowers”
**Episode 9**Composer Nathalie Joachim sees her childhood memories in *May Flowers*. The photograph also evokes the uniquely spiritual experience of recording a church choir in her family’s Haitian village. Joachim has lovingly woven their song into her composition.

Rafiq Bhatia and James Turrell’s “New Light”
**Episode 8**Musician Rafiq Bhatia feels compelled to capture his improvisations—fleeting moments of sound—in recordings. Like sound, light is transient. But James Turrell’s works, which inspired Bhatia’s composition, contain and present light, allowing us to forge a deeper relationship with an ephemeral substance.

Vijay Iyer and I. M. Pei’s “National Gallery of Art, East Building”
**Episode 7**Composer-pianist Vijay Iyer describes the East Building as a work of art that does what music does: invites you in—to inhabit, explore, and be among others. He responds with pieces that balance pattern and structure with leaving room to wander.

Emily Wells and David Wojnarowicz’s “Untitled (Falling Buffalos)”
**Episode 6**Composer/producer Emily Wells sees *us* as the buffalo: frozen before downfall, but still alive—which is why she includes so much breath in her song. Wells, whose work deals with the climate crisis, looks to David Wojnarowicz’s AIDS activism for lessons.

Kamala Sankaram and Mark Rothko’s “Untitled”
**Episode 5**When her sister was dying, composer Kamala Sankaram was drawn to Mark Rothko’s painting: it both captured her grief and calmed her. That experience influenced Sankaram’s approach to creating a musical score, which she shares in this episode

Jasiri X and “Untitled (Man)”
**Episode 4**Hip-hop artist Jasiri X looks at Kerry James Marshall’s woodcut almost like he’s looking into a mirror. It captures the experience of a Black man: resilient but restrained from being his authentic self. Jasiri responds to the work through two songs that reflect on his internal struggle.

Bora Yoon and “Ommah”
**Episode 3**Composer and multi-instrumentalist Bora Yoon considers whether we carry the sounds and memories of our people within us. In her response to Nam June Paik’s video sculpture, she brings together both traditional Korean instruments and eclectic electronic music.

Daniel Bernard Roumain and “American Gothic”
**Episode 2**Composer Daniel Bernard Roumain works with performance poet Lady Caress to respond to this iconic photograph with a combination of music and poetry. In the ebb and flow of his composition, DBR hopes to capture pain, legacy, enduring hope—and the rhythm of the subject’s life.

Lara Downes and “Tomorrow I May Be Far Away”
**Episode 1**For classical pianist and activist Lara Downes, Romare Bearden’s collage is a puzzle full of questions and unfinished business. In response, she brings together different musical sources, overlaying sounds to create both harmony and tension.

## Celeste Headlee

Celeste Headlee photo by Tamzin B. Smith

Host

Celeste Headlee is an award-winning journalist, professional speaker, and author. An expert on conversation and reclaiming common humanity and well-being, she focuses on neuro- and social science to understand how we relate with one another. Headlee is also a classically trained soprano who has performed around the nation and the granddaughter of William Grant Still, known as the Dean of Black American Composers.

Headlee is a regular NPR guest host, hosts the *Women Amplified* podcast, and co-hosts *The Debate* podcast from *Newsweek*. Her TEDx Talk “Sharing 10 Ways to Have a Better Conversation” has over 26 million views. Headlee’s most recent book is *Speaking of Race: Why Everybody Needs to Talk About Racism―and How to Do It*.

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**Banner detail:** Georges Braque, *Fruit, Glass, and Mandolin*, 1938, oil and sand on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1995.47.4

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