Relevant Tones

Best known for her acclaimed work with ballet companies across the country, Cristina Spinei has developed a distinctive musical language built on melodic cells, propulsive rhythms and subtle repetition which she affectionately describes as "minimalish." Host Seth Boustead talks with Spinei about her new album, Moved by an Interior Impulse , her long collaboration with choreographers, and...

On this episode of Relevant Tones we highlight Ann Arbor, Michigan’s Third Place [MusicFest] as they celebrate their 7th year. Third Place curates an annual, four day performing arts festival comprised of multiple concerts in local spaces. They are founded on principles both simple and often overlooked: that concerts should be radically welcoming, accessible, and inclusive. Host Stephen Anthony Ra...

In the second half of our conversation with conductor, composer and producer Peter Askim , we take a deeper look at his efforts to champion living composers through initiatives like the NC State 10-Year Premiere Project. Askim discusses the importance of creating opportunities for emerging voices, building lasting relationships between composers and performers, and finding new ways to connect audi...

Composer, conductor, and producer Peter Askim joins Seth Boustead to discuss building vibrant communities around contemporary classical music through the NC State 10-Year Premiere Project, the NEXT Festival of Emerging Artists, and his work with orchestras across North Carolina. From commissioning dozens of World Premieres to mentoring emerging composers and reimagining how audiences experience ne...

Composer Brent Michael Davids discusses his powerful new work Requiem for America: Singing for the Invisible People—a sweeping musical reckoning with the genocidal foundations of the United States, told through Indigenous voices. Blending Native American musical traditions with orchestral forces, the piece confronts history through texts both personal and political, culminating in a message of res...

Esteemed composer Bernard Rands has passed away, a huge loss to our musical community. We honor his memory by re-airing this interview with host Seth Boustead from September 2017. Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Bernard Rands reflects on a remarkable career spanning more than a hundred published works and recordings. In this conversation with Relevant Tones , he shares insights into his musical la...

Relevant Tones returns after our hiatus to bring you some of our favorite albums (and concerts) of the year. It was a great year for music! Hosted by Seth Boustead, Matthew Dosland, Stephen Anthony Rawson and Austin Williams. MUSIC For Adrienne I by Martin Gendelman What Stories We Tell by George Hurd Study No. 1 by Jessie Montgomery Yanga by Gabriela Ortiz At Which Point No. 1: Prologue by Wang L...

At the World’s Edge is a chamber music festival inspired by its roots in the Southern Alps of New Zealand and forging ties to Chicago and beyond. Host Seth Boustead talks with violinist and founding Artistic Director Benjamin Baker about his vision for the festival and features music the festival has commissioned. MUSIC Yabo by Salina Fisher String Trio No. 2 by Huw Watkins (excerpt) Mata Au by Sa...

Host Austin Williams and composer guest Neil Quigley chat about Neil’s music and its relationship to speculative history. Neil explains how his relationship to the Kilkenny Electroacoustic Research Laboratory is largely based in that practice. Among many other projects Neil created this love letter to his hometown and lans to wrap up the anthology in the coming year or so. Check more of Neil’s wor...

Join host Austin Williams as he speaks to members of the Coalescent Saxophone Quartet. The quartet consists of members Nathan Bogert, Michael Shults, Nick Zoulek, and Drew Whiting; each of which are incredibly accomplished musicians in their own right. The quartet has recently released a new album (The Wall Between Us) of works for sax quartet. Austin asks the ensemble questions about codifying th...

Join host Austin Williams and new music ensemble Hot Second ( Rebecca McDaniel Percussion and Dylan Feldpausch Violin/Viola) as we discuss their unique ensemble and its take on new music in Chicago. The conversation consists of thoughtful insights on how an ensemble can think outside of the traditional cannon and use influences from pop and other styles to help shape the sound they work with. A un...

2023 and the first anthology has just been published by New Music Shelf. This extraordinary album features world-premiere recordings of art songs commissioned by Strickling who says: "These twenty songs, from composers and poets of diverse backgrounds, are exceptional in their beauty, depth, quality, and range of emotional expression." Host Seth Boustead talks with Strickling and feature...

Cohosts Austin Williams and Stephen Rawson share what they have been listening to recently. Austin shares about an anthology of Irish Electroacoustic music that he became privy to recently and Stephen has a wide variety of vocal and chamber music that comes up. Stephen and Austin also reminisce about their time they shared as music students in undergrad along with their hometown pride of some of t...

Chiayu Hsu is an active composer of contemporary concert music and associate professor of composition at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Born in Banciao, Taiwan, Chiayu frequently explores ideas of cultural fusion. She derives inspiration from places, poems, myths, and images. Particularly, the combination of Chinese elements and western techniques is a hallmark of her music. Chiayu’s work...

Host Austin Williams curates a listening experience with themes of feedback. Feedback is often associated with harsh sounds that are created when a microphone is placed too close to the speaker that it is amplified through. While this is a way feedback can be aurally achieved there are many ways composers implement feedback and other broad strokes of recursion into their works! We cut back to an i...

Access Contemporary Music's popular Sound of Silent Film Festival celebrates twenty years of presenting modern silent films with newly commissioned scores performed live. Host Seth Boustead features a few of his favorite scores from the last twenty years.

Host Austin Williams has guest Liam Marchant on the show to discuss the relationship to kinetics and music, relating to a variety of aspects within the music. We use specific pieces to make points across the show to offer aural guides to the listeners for what Austin and Liam are discussing. It’s a broad topic with even more details than we can cover in an hour, we’ll certainly be back to chat mor...

Copland House is a major force in contemporary American music dedicated to fostering greater public awareness and appreciation of our nation’s composers and their work in all of its many forms. Copland House continues Aaron Copland’s incredible legacy of supporting his fellow composers and their work includes composer residencies, performances and recordings by resident ensemble Music From Copland...

Copland House is a major force in contemporary American music dedicated to fostering greater public awareness and appreciation of our nation’s composers and their work in all of its many forms. Host Seth Boustead talks with Artistic and Executive Director Michael Boriskin about this incredible legacy. Featured music includes Quartet for Piano and Strings, mvmt 2 Allegro Giusto by Aaron Copland On...

Michael Ned Holte is a writer, independent curator, and educator based in Los Angeles, as well as the Associate Dean for the School of Arts at CalArts. He has held exhibitions at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, the MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House, and the Hammer Museum, to name only a few. He has also written monographic essays on artists including Charles Ga...

Yuval Noah Harari’s breathtakingly expansive book Sapien s is a monumental achievement that comprehensively summarizes human history, behavior and thought from primordial times to today. The book is also the inspiration for a 50-minute piano work by composer Sean Hickey recorded by pianist Vladimir Rumyantsev on Sono Luminus records and available on March 14, 2025. Host Seth Boustead talks with Hi...

Shara Nova is a composer, vocalist, and producer currently creating from Detroit, Michigan. Shara has released six albums under the moniker My Brightest Diamond and has composed works for The Crossing, Conspirare, yMusic, Brooklyn Rider, Roomful of Teeth, Aarhus Symfoni, and American Composers Orchestra among many others.  In 2024 she starred in the Tony Award Winning musical “Illinoise” on Broadw...

Host Seth Boustead features a variety of pieces by composers who ask the performers to vocalize in some way while also playing their instrument. Music by Frederick Rzewski, George Crumb, Daniel Bernard Roumain and Tom Johnson.

Access Contemporary Music has just released the second season of their PBS series Songs About Buildings and Moods in which they commission music inspired by historically and culturally relevant buildings and film a performance of the piece in the building that inspired it. Host Seth Boustead features new pieces by Liza Sobel Crane, Ledah Finck, Michael Kropf, Amy Wurtz, Felipe Perez Santiago and D...

We feature music from some of our favorite albums of 2024. Music selected by Austin Williams, Stephen Anthony Rawson, Neve Jahn and Matthew Dosland.