Sufjan Stevens's symphony for New York

When Sufjan Stevens was asked to write a symphony for New York, he turned to a hated freeway for inspiration. The musician tells Andrew Purcell whyThe Brooklyn-Queens Expressway is a miserable stretch of road. The BQE, as New ­ Yorkers call it, has narrow lanes, no hard shoulder, countless potholes, and is usually one long traffic jam. As sources of artistic inspiration go, it's an unlikely one; but when eccentric singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens was commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Mu...

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