Relevant Tones

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.

Wedge: Moments of growth and Decay. Join host Austin Williams as he discusses a variety of works that are heavily influenced by shape. Shape is a very simple concept in composition, but how far do composers take it? We will take a deep dive into works that use it to influence motif and melodic lines, form, and overall structure of works. The power of taking a simple concept and expanding it to all...

Join host Austin Williams and we discuss how the concept of granulation finds its ay into many new and old(er) works of music. Granular activities are something we all experience on. Human level, the sums of man creating the whole. This broad topic can be applied in very specific ways such as granular synthesis or the deconstruction of an idea that will lead to the parts being reassembled in a new...

Brooklyn-based flutist Roberta Michel is dedicated to the music of our time. She has commissioned and premiered hundreds of new works and has worked with many notable composers of our day. Roberta is the flutist and Co-Director of Wavefield Ensemble and is a member of PinkNoise and Duo RoMi. Roberta's debut solo flute album, Hush, was released on November 1st with New Focus Recordings. Host Stephe...

Alarm Will Sound is a ground-breaking 20-member chamber orchestra that challenges and reshapes musical conventions through performances of music by today's composers. Artistic Director Alan Pierson talks with Seth Boustead about 25 years of music-making with Alarm Will Sound and their latest recording: Land of Winter by Donnacha Dennehy.

The latest in our recurring feature On the Radar features new music currently top of mind for hosts Austin Williams, Neve Jahn, Stephen Rawson and Matthew Dosland. Featuring music by Dakn, Kinan Abou-Afach, Laurie Anderson, Dai Fujikura and Peni Candra Rini.

Tobias Picker is a celebrated American composer of operas and orchestral music called by BBC magazine "one of the most consistently interesting among the present generation of US theatre composers." Seth Boustead talks with him about three of his seminal operas, Awakenings, Lili Elbe and Fantastic Mr. Fox.

In this live taping of Access Contemporary Music’s award-winning podcast  Relevant Tones  we'll talk with John McWhorter about the development of language and perform several new pieces of music inspired by and incorporating language and created especially for this evening. McWhorter  teaches linguistics, philosophy, and music history at Columbia University, and writes for the New York Times on la...

Host Austin Williams speaks with composer and theorist Reiko Futing about his latest album brokenSong. Austin and Dr. Futing had some pointed conversation regarding post modern thought and the use of existing materials. You may even hear Austin's brain expanding as Dr. Futing imbues some incredibly powerful knowledge regarding his process and compositions. Congrats to Dr. Futing on the success of...

Bonnie Whiting is a percussionist, composer, and educator based in Seattle. She's the Chair of Percussion Studies at the University of Washington and the Co-Artistic Director of the Seattle Modern Orchestra. In her work, she seeks out projects involving the speaking percussionist, non-traditional notation, improvisation, and interdisciplinary performance. Stephen Anthony Rawson sits down with Bonn...

Established in New York City in 1998, the string quartet ETHEL has been described as “indefatigable and eclectic” (The New York Times), “vital and brilliant” (The New Yorker). Composer performers—Ralph Farris (viola), Kip Jones (violin), Dorothy Lawson (cello), and Corin Lee (violin)—fuse uptown panache with downtown genre mashup. ETHEL has performed across the United States and worldwide; release...

Access Contemporary Music's Thirsty Ears Festival is Chicago's only classical music street festival. For two days we close Wilson Ave. in front of our music school for stellar music performances, craft beer and wine, food trucks and community vendors. We feature a small sample of the contemporary music performed on this year's festival.

Composer, improviser, and producer David Crowell speaks with host Austin Williams about their new album Point/Cloud. This post minimalist gem explores collaborations with a variety of arts that David has worked with previously. "...the work’s pointillistic texture and thick counterpoint, amassing over time into “clouds” of sound.

Erin Rogers is a saxophonist, composer, and improviser dedicated to new and experimental music. Her “decidedly future-oriented” music has been described as “whimsical, theatrical” (Brooklyn Vegan), “radical and refreshing” (Vital Weekly) and “a richly expressive display of stentorian brilliance” (The Wire Magazine). Her work ranges from chamber music performance to solo experimental improvisation...

Austin and Elori speak about Elori’s recently release Drifts and Surfaces. This sparks a lively conversation about signal processing, compositional process and the majestic and powerful force that is the Northern Shore of Minnesota.

It’s part two of our coverage of SPLICE institute 10. Host Austin Williams chats with a number of organizers about the festival and it’s history along with some featured guest artists and regular faculty. Enjoy recordings and performances from a number of these organizers and faculty as well. We hope you enjoyed this two part series on SPLICE. It was truly a joy and pleasure to get to know and und...

Join host Austin Gray Williams on this deep dive into the people, music, and culture that create the SPLICE Institute. SPLICE is a week long intensive focusing on electroacoustic concert music. There are a number of Electroacoustic music festivals and conferences that composers have participated in the past, namely SEAMUS and EMM. SPLICE is here to shake things up. From the beginning with composer...

In a series of ten chamber concerts, the Zafraan Ensemble relates the history of Berlin from the 1910s to today through music. Each concert represents a decade, in which a work that premiered in Berlin anchors a program of music centered in or inspired by that decade. Host Seth Boustead talks with pianist Clemens Hund-Goeschel and cellist Martin Smith about this fascinating project. Part 2 covers...

In a series of ten chamber concerts, the Zafraan Ensemble relates the history of Berlin from the 1910s to today through music. Each concert represents a decade, in which a work that premiered in Berlin anchors a program of music centered in or inspired by that decade. Host Seth Boustead talks with pianist Clemens Hund-Goeschel and cellist Martin Smith about this fascinating project. Part 1 covers...

Matthew Dosland interviews composer, performer, and teacher Vijay Iyer. They discuss Iyer's early work in music cognition, his courses and teaching methods, as well as his most recent album  Trouble . The conversation also covers the cross-genre nature of Iyer's work and how that has influenced his output through the years.

We commemorate the anniversary of the passing of Robert Black on Relevant Tones. Robert Black was an absolute force in the Double Bass repertoire and new music. Through interviews with his previous students and cohorts, Christie Echols, Sean Rubin, Caroline Doane, and Evan Runyon,  we find out he was so much more than a bass player. Robert was first and foremost a creative, and surrounded himself...