American Mavericks is a 13-part series produced by Minnesota Public Radio that looks at innovation in music in the 20th century. It’s hosted by Suzanne Vega, and San Francisco Symphony Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas provides insight on the ideas behind the music.

The website provides web radio streams of minimilism, ambient, electroacoustic and other modern music. The site provides hours of listening. In addition to the streaming radio, you can listen to all 13 programs in their entirety. Many classic works of modern music are available in their entirety as Real Audio streams.

The most important section, though, has to be the large collection of interviews with giants of the modern music world. These are source interviews for the series, so you can listen to extended discussions of these composers and performers talking about their music. The interviews include Milton Babbit, Harold Budd, Wendy Carlos, Aaron Copland, David del Tredici, Lou Harrison, Joan LaBarbera, Steve Reich, Peter Schickele, Morton Subotnick, La Monte Young.