David Lang
Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and professor at the Yale School of Music. Known for contemporary vocal and orchestral works, including The Little Match Girl Passion, and for co-founding Bang on a Can.
Best podcasts with David Lang
Ranked by the Snipd community
251 snips
May 1, 2026 • 54min
673. What Is Money?
David Lang, a Pulitzer-winning composer and Yale music professor, turns Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations into a bold oratorio. He explores money as a human connector, trade and labor as emotional experience, and the idea of “enough.” Along the way: why he left pre-med, how he composes, and what it takes to bring a risky new work to life with the New York Philharmonic.
89 snips
May 8, 2026 • 45min
674. How Does a Composer Feel After the World Premiere?
Matías Tarnopolsky, president and CEO of the New York Philharmonic, on why the orchestra commissioned and staged David Lang’s work. David Lang, composer and Yale professor, on emotional rollercoasters after premieres and the craft decisions behind The Wealth of Nations. They discuss rehearsals, soloist choices, costs and patronage, audience reactions, and the piece’s moral and structural arc.
