By Elizabeth Howard

Episode Summary

In this episode, Elizabeth Howard talks to Peter Bouteneff about his new book, Arvo Pärt: Out of Silence. Bouteneff is a professor of theology at St. Vladimir’s Seminary, a conservatory-trained musician, and co-director of the Arvo Pärt Project. Pärt has been consistently ranked among the world’s most performed living classical composers. This year, the Estonian composer celebrates his 90th birthday. In his study, Bouteneff asks a salient question: in today’s distraction-filled environment—seething with anger, noise, harsh words, and violence—might studying and listening to Pärt’s compositions help make our existence a little calmer?

Episode Notes

Peter Bouteneff: Peter C. Bouteneff (DPhil, University of Oxford) is professor of theology at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in Crestwood, New York, and a conservatory-trained musician. He is the author of Sweeter Than Honey: Orthodox Thinking on Dogma and Truth and coauthor of Beyond the East-West Divide: The WCC and “the Orthodox Problem.”

Luminous Podcast: Bouteneff talks with inspired and inspiring people—artists, scholars, and thinkers from all walks of life, with varying approaches to the sacred.

An Inward Listening: Arvo Pärt’s Für Alina
Even if I Lose Everything

Arvo Pärt Centre: Pärt is a contemporary composer who has significantly changed the way we understand the nature of music. In 1976, he created a musical language called tintinnabuli, which went on to garner a vast audience of listeners. Pärt has not founded a compositional school, nor does he teach, but his tintinnabuli compositions have been a powerful cultural influence.

The Short Fuse Podcast  is hosted by Elizabeth Howard. She talks with artists, writers, musicians, and others whose art reveals our communities through their lens and stirs us to seek change through their art, music, ideas, and performances. James Baldwin reminds us that “artists are here to disturb the peace.”  Her articles related to communication and marketing have appeared in European Communications, Investor Relations, Law Firm Marketing & Profit Report, Communication World, The Strategist, and the New York Law Journal, among others.  Her books include Queen Anne’s Lace and Wild Blackberry Pie, (Thornwillow Press, 2011), A Day with Bonefish Joe (David Godine, 2015), and Ned O’Gorman:  A Glance Back (Easton Studio Press, 2016). @elizh24 on Instagram

Gerald Kent is the producer and editor of the Short Fuse. Based in Cape Town, South Africa. He is a talented musician and audio engineer who has been releasing his own music independently since 2021. Alongside his artistry, he’s built up experience working with multiple clients in the podcasting space, from editing to full-scale production.

Hannah Brueske manages social media and marketing for the Short Fuse. She is a senior journalism student at Emerson College, with a special interest in feature stories, arts reporting, and documentary filmmaking. She is active in campus publications as a reporter for The Berkeley Beacon, Emerson’s only independent student newspaper, and the editor-in-chief of The Independent, an arts magazine that covers independent art.

Evelyn Rosenthal copy edits the Short Fuse. She is a singer specializing in jazz and Brazilian music, a freelance editor, and the former editor in chief and head of publications at the Harvard Art Museums. She writes about music for the Arts Fuse and copy edits the magazine.

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