Why Play Music: A Conversation with Questlove and Maggie Rogers
b'Earlier this month, two acclaimed musicians\\u2014Questlove and Maggie Rogers\\u2014joined The New Yorker\\u2019s Kelefa Sanneh live onstage for a conversation that probed at an essential question for musicians and music lovers alike: How can music provide a spiritual experience, and how do we sustain that feeling in our lives? Questlove\\u2014the co-founder of the Roots and the musical director of the \\u201cTonight Show\\u201d\\u2014was one of Rogers\\u2019s professors while she was an undergraduate at New York University, and the two have stayed in touch. Rogers received a 2019 Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, after the release of her d\\xe9but album, \\u201cHeard It in a Past Life.\\u201d\\nOnstage, both musicians reflected on the space that the pandemic has given them to turn inward, finding a more sustainable path in their careers. \\u201cMusic is not a job, it\\u2019s a way of being,\\u201d Rogers said, to which Questlove laughed. \\u201cI\\u2019m glad you know that at twenty, because I had to learn that at fifty,\\u201d he said.\\nRogers also performed songs off her new album, \\u201cSurrender.\\u201d'