micro/Maker by Loose Leaf Transmissions

Gabriel Bolaños centers his work on timbre, particularly the ambiguous zone where an oboe in its high register stops sounding like an oboe. Because this threshold is subjective—dependent on listener experience, acoustics, variables beyond control—he saturates pieces with multiple layers of timbral ambiguity so that if one element fails, others carry the effect. Collaborating with performers, he se...

Hannah Boissonneault reflects on the evolving attitudes toward genre and identity within classical music — and how her own experience in academic spaces revealed both barriers and opportunities. She shares how supportive mentors and collaborative communities helped her break away from rigid definitions of what a “composer” should be, and how that shift opened up a more expansive, personal, and int...

Shruthi Rajasekar reflects on growing up in a deeply musical household shaped by her mother’s work as a Carnatic vocalist and collaborator across cultures. She and Tyler talk about the intersections of Indian and Western classical traditions, early encounters with instruments like the cello and clarinet, and the way curiosity and openness became part of her musical DNA. micro/Maker episodes releas...

For Graeme Shields , composing started as play—long afternoons with friends huddled around the family computer, experimenting with Finale and discovering the thrill of sound on command. Those early experiments evolved into something more intentional: arranging, composing, and eventually finding community at the Junior Composers Institute, where he met living composers and heard his music performed...

For Fire Ecologies, Christopher Stark spent months working with field recordings made near California wildfires, and just as much time deciding what not to include. A long recording of an actual forest fire originally closed the piece; he cut it less than a day before final production, leaving behind only indirect traces — water that sounds like fire, a Sierra Nevada power line slowed down until i...

For Yue Song , confidence didn’t come first—it arrived after years of imitation, theory, and hesitation. Growing up in China, Yue learned piano alongside her sister, studying under traditional mentors who emphasized balance and restraint. But it wasn’t until she moved to Ireland, surrounded by experimental musicians and new collaborators, that she rediscovered her creative spark—and began composin...

Michael Frazier reflects on the importance of mentorship and advocacy as his musical identity sharpened during his time at Eastman. Encouraged by teachers who supported sincerity over conformity, he describes learning not only to follow his instincts but to articulate why certain influences—particularly hip-hop and loop-based music—held meaning for him. A pivotal realization came earlier at USF th...

Biting into sound, Emily Koh tells Tyler Kline how meals became both inspiration and material for her music—from writing pieces based on chewing insects to dreaming up scores for specific dishes. She explains why chefs are fellow artists, why bad background music ruins cooking videos, and how a planned sandwich cart almost became her next creative stage. For Emily, every ingredient, texture, and b...

Nicolás Lell Benavides reflects on the intersection of art, ethics, and responsibility—how writing about water, folklore, and humanity connects to a deeper sense of duty. He and Tyler talk about motivation, artistic purpose, and why composing with conviction matters even when the impact isn’t immediate. It’s a conversation about staying principled, present, and patient in a long creative life. mic...

C. Jacqueline Wood describes her film This Is a Movie as a kind of funeral—for unfinished projects, abandoned ideas, and the dreams she didn’t have the resources or time to complete. Drawing on footage from nine separate works, including deeply personal infertility documentation, she reshaped fragments into something cathartic: a film that gave her permission to let go and move forward. What emerg...

Phong Tran explores the emotional core of his creative practice, and how performance becomes a vessel for vulnerability. He and Tyler reflect on how music schools often prioritize logic and technique — and how reclaiming emotion becomes a lifelong pursuit. micro/Maker episodes release every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday! Listen to music/Maker with Tyler Kline wherever you get podcasts, or at music...

What some call “too personal,” Han Hitchen sees as essential: writing music rooted in lived experience. From family fractures to queer identity, Han’s pieces often begin with what feels intimate or unshareable—only to discover that listeners and performers recognize themselves in it. Here, Han and Tyler reflect on criticism, resilience, and the surprising ways vulnerability becomes connection. mic...

Mahdis Golzar Kashani reflects on her role as both composer and cultural ambassador, blending elements of Persian tradition with a sensitivity to international audiences. In this excerpt, she shares why it’s important to her that listeners connect with her music, regardless of cultural background, and how she draws deeply from her Iranian heritage to create meaningful artistic dialogue. Kashani ex...

When his pieces kept ballooning, Marc Mellits tried a radical constraint: present one idea, double bar, move on. The result wasn’t “no development,” but concise, targeted development—modular movements he could reorder into baroque-style suites that breathe without the bloat. With Tyler Kline, he compares notes on miniatures (including Tyler’s 50 piano pieces), splitting larger forms into clear sec...

Hannah Selin reflects on her fascination with the inner lives of sounds—the details we pass by without noticing. She and Tyler talk about slowing down, listening more deeply, and uncovering what exists beneath the surface of what we hear. Through an iterative process of recording, processing, and transforming, Hannah reveals how even the simplest sound can open a world of unseen motion and meaning...

Anuj Bhutani traces how Manu — a project that began as a collection of musical self-portraits — gradually revealed itself as something he'd always been working toward: a direct engagement with storytelling, identity, and a heritage he'd spent much of his early life distancing himself from. The piece's title comes from a family nickname he never fully understood until he asked his mother, which ope...

Carlynn Crosby reflects on her deep generational ties to Florida and how her relationship to the state has shifted over time. She discusses the complex feelings of pride, frustration, and responsibility she holds toward her home, and shares why her writing often centers on overlooked histories and counter-narratives that push back against the dominant portrayals of Florida in national media. micro...

Kurt Rohde examines the structural problems embedded in how opportunities circulate in contemporary music — how access, relationships, and institutional permission compound quietly over time, rewarding the already-known and making it nearly impossible for others to even reach the starting line. Drawing on his own experience of benefiting from systems he later came to question, Rohde argues that ra...

Austin Hammonds unpacks how taste, history, and storytelling shape his approach to film scoring. He and Tyler talk about what it means to compose for someone else’s vision, why he currently identifies more as a craftsman than an artist, and how the process of scoring often begins with shared emotional language — not music at all. micro/Maker episodes release every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday! L...

Gabriel Bolaños found music through curiosity—a household guitar, a minor second that clicked. Formal study in Belgium led him from classical guitar to counterpoint, but the shift toward composition came when his theoretical ideas outpaced his bandmates' interest. Recording alone, he discovered that constraints like pure contrary motion revealed possibilities intuition wouldn't deliver: the fascin...

An unexpected ballet staging of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, a chamber-orchestra miniature built on pure unison, Calvino’s literary lectures, Japanese wabi-sabi, and an Ermhoi album remix—these are the touchstones that continue to spark Tyler Kline ’s imagination. He unpacks how each one cracked something open, from seeing music’s power for climate storytelling to embracing imperfection and reinve...

Graeme Shields reflects on how a single conversation with a mentor reshaped his idea of what it meant to be a composer—and what kind of life he wanted to build around music. He and Tyler talk about the myth of the “conventional path,” the messiness of creative careers, and how early moments of being seen can set a lifelong course. micro/Maker episodes release every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday!...

Andrew Noseworthy reflects on how his earliest musical life — writing original material in basement hardcore and progressive metal bands — never really separated from his later identity as a composer, even when academic language and institutions entered the picture. Rather than viewing those early experiences as a detour, he describes them as the foundation of a through-line: recurring gestures, t...

Through her operas, Yue Song gives voice to untold histories. From stories of women who survived wartime sexual slavery to reflections on the lingering trauma of violence, her work transforms pain into remembrance. In this conversation, Yue shares how writing about social injustice and anti-war themes has deepened her understanding of empathy—and how music can sustain the act of witnessing. micro/...

Shruthi Rajasekar opens up about the creative paradox at the center of Carnatic music: an oral tradition where improvisation is the heartbeat of performance, yet centuries-old compositions are guarded with fierce dedication. She and Tyler unpack how lineage shapes authority, why certain versions of works are protected as “correct,” and what gets lost when contemporary creators—especially those out...