Bob Boilen Biography

Bob Boilen began showing up on NPR's doorstep every day in 1988, seeking a way to lend his musical and broadcasting abilities to the network. His perseverance paid off, as he was employed on a temporary basis to work on All Things Considered within a few weeks. Boilen took over as director of the program less than a year later and stayed on for the following 18 years. Boilen's concept for All Songs Considered came from a combination of audience interest in the music featured on All Things Considered and his and NPR's huge music libraries. It was evident to me that NPR listeners were also music enthusiasts, but by 1999, it was also clear that the web would be the way to find new music, and we wanted to be the preeminent site for music discovery. In the year 2000, Boilen took over as host of the show. Boilen found various methods to convey his love of music before joining NPR. He worked for Baltimore's Impossible Theater from 1982 to 1986, where he held several positions such as composer, technician, and recording engineer. With the Impossible Theater show Whiz Bang, a History of Sound in 1983, Boilen became a part of music history. Boilen was one of the first composers to employ audio sampling in this piece, which included noises from nature and the industrial revolution. Susan Stamberg of All Things Considered interviewed him about Whiz Bang. Boilen was named "Performance Artist of the Year" by the Washington City Paper in 1985. He is an electronic musician who obtained a grant from the Commission on the Arts and Humanities of Washington, D.C. to work on electronic music and performance. Following Impossible Theater, Boilen worked as a producer at a Washington, D.C. television station. He was involved with a number of initiatives, including the production of a music video program. He began creating an internet show for the Discovery Channel called Science Live in 1997. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, he also released two albums with his psychedelic band, Tiny Desk Unit. Boilen continues to produce and perform music, which he freely shares on his website BobBoilen.info. He performs contradance music and has a contradance music podcast that he and his son Julian produce. Long-time NPR listeners may recall another donation Boilen gave to the station. For NPR's Talk of the Nation, he wrote the original theme music.

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