Relevant Tones

Since its founding in Milwaukee in 1982, the mission of Present Music has been to commission and perform new concert music with programming that introduces innovative concert formats, embraces a broad diversity of repertoire, and makes the music of our time accessible to audiences with deep expression and serious fun. Host Austin Williams talks with co-Artistic Director David Bloom about their upc...

Access Contemporary Music's latest album features music commissioned as part of their innovative project Composer Alive.  Each piece was composed in short installments and rehearsed and recorded in real time as they were received.  Host Seth Boustead features a sample of this fascinating music. Sunshowers by Jane O'Leary (mvmts 1 and 2) De Ánimos y Quebrantos by Gabriela Ortiz Toy by Ale...

Qubit presents an audio(guide) companion to the 2022 Whitney Biennial , "Quiet as It's Kept." Curated by Alec Hall, Loud as It Plays  is a listening landscape of contemporary American music arranged around the themes and forces shaping our world over the past two years: breath, time, hope, test, and war. For a biennial survey of American art should also include a survey of its current so...

Shawn E. Okpebholo is a critically-acclaimed and award-winning composer whose music has been described as “devastatingly beautiful” and “fresh and new and fearless” ( The Washington Post ), “affecting” ( The New York Times ), “searing” ( The Chicago Tribune ), “staggering” ( The New Yorker ), “lyrical, complex, singular” ( The Guardian ), and “powerful” ( BBC Music Magazine ). Host Stephen Rawson...

Join Host Austin Williams as he interviews world-class composer Michael Oliva about his upcoming project for various interments playing with Tampura and fixed media. Michael has been creating various collaborations with a variety of instruments for this project to create a diverse sound world for listeners to experience. In the interview you will hear about Michael’s use of the Tanpura and how he...

The remarkable Da Capo Chamber Ensemble has been going strong for 50 years and they're celebrating this milestone with a series of concerts called Bridges. Host Austin Williams talks with flutist Patricia Spencer and composer Bruce Adolphe about their incredible run and the featured music in their 50th season.

Castor and Patience is a new opera by composer Gregory Spears and libretto by former poet laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy K. Smith.  The opera takes on the pervasive barriers to land ownership for Black Americans by telling the story of two cousins' struggles to own and keep property long held by their family. Stephen Rawson attended the premiere and talked with Spears and Smith abou...

Join us as we celebrate and honor the centennial of Charles Mingus! This episode will take a deep dive into his album Mingus Plays the Piano. Charles Mingus was a pioneer of the modern jazz movement and this album speaks to that. Amongst his vast discography, this album takes a slight departure from his typical music styles. The listener will hear various influences of early 20th c. composers alon...

Host Austin Williams explores the cross roads of experimental music and Jazz. Many artists featured on today’s show come from the Twin Cities area which has a large free and experimental jazz scene. Much like one might see in an improvising chamber group or players working from a graphic score, the music you hear is incredibly collaborative and raw in nature. Some groups will directly reference ne...

Taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot. Wouldn't you like to get away? Hey, isn't that from the "Cheers" theme song?  Yes it is but after the last couple of weeks who can disagree?  Join host Austin Williams for a much-needed musical escape... Music by Robert Honstein, Cassie Wieland, Wally Gunn.

The former front man of experimental rock band Battles, Tyondai Braxton has since ventured out into composing a wide array of wildly inventive original music. He has been commissioned to write pieces for ensembles such as The Bang on a Can All Stars, Kronos Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, and Brooklyn Rider. Host Austin Williams plays a few of his favorites.

Host Austin Williams features a variety of pieces that incorporate spoken word in some way.  Featuring music by Pamela Z, Tori & Ashley, Nina and Redacted Bell.

February 2nd, 2022 marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of James Joyce’s landmark novel Ulysses . To celebrate the importance of this milestone, the Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland (CMC) teamed up with the Centre Culturel Irlandais (CCI) to present an international celebration across Ireland and Europe from February to June 2022. Seth Boustead talks to the CMC’s Linda O’Shea Farr...

Classical:NEXT is the global networking and exchange hub dedicated exclusively to classical and art music, for all professionals – artists, managers, presenters, orchestras, labels, educators, press, media, publishers and more. Seth Boustead traveled to Hannover to cover this extraordinary festival for Relevant Tones. Part 2 features music from the showcases, club nights and project pitches.

Classical:NEXT is the global networking and exchange hub dedicated exclusively to classical and art music, for all professionals – artists, managers, presenters, orchestras, labels, educators, press, media, publishers and more. Back in person after two years, host Seth Boustead traveled to Hannover to cover this extraordinary festival for Relevant Tones.  Featured music by Flex Ensemble, Kai...

We listen to a lot of music here at Relevant Tones.  Here are a few new pieces currently on the radar for Matt Dotson and Austin Williams. Featured music includes Land by CARM, String Quartet No. 1 by Sophi Jani, For Ennio and Arctic horizon by Wøunds and I Know I'll Never Know by Masaya Ozaki.

Annika Socolofsky is a composer and avant folk vocalist who explores corners and colors of the voice frequently deemed to be "untrained" and not "classical."  Described as “unbearably moving” (Gramophone) and “just the right balance between edgy precision and freewheeling exuberance” (The Guardian), her music erupts from the embodied power of the human voice and is communicated through medium...

Barry Paul Clark is an active composer, bassist and improvising musician and he’s a frequent collaborator with artists of all disciplines nationally and internationally. Host Austin Williams talks with him and features tracks from Tontine Ensemble’s latest release Dogma Protocols. MUSIC Dogma Protocol - Regeneration Dogma Protocol - Call Signal Dogma Protocol - Analysis Paralysis Dogma Protocol -...

Throughout the centuries composers have challenged performers to new heights of manual dexterity by writing études, pieces of music expressly designed to push the boundaries of what is technically possible. Host Stephen Anthony Rawson features a selection of 21st century études. Yannis Kyriakides, Karaoke Etudes has a graphical score element. Check out the video here  https://youtu.be/F0T6DVh...

Composers Kelly Sheehan and Chi Wang are finding great creativity in everyday technological objects like Wii remotes.  Host Austin Williams gives us a glimpse into this fascinating musical world.

D-Composed is a Chicago-based chamber music experience that honors Black creativity and culture through the music of Black composers. Since 2017, they have created intimate, out-of-the-box experiences that celebrate a mix of genres and sounds of Black music throughout history.   Seth Boustead talks with founder and Executive Director Kori Coleman and violist and Artistic Director Yelley Taylo...

New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow’s widely acclaimed memoir is the source for this extremely moving story of his traumatic youth in Louisiana.  Composer Terence Blanchard, one of the most influential figures in American jazz, teamed up with librettist Kasi Lemmons, director of such remarkable films as Harriet and Eve’s Bayou to create an opera adaptation of this remarkable story. The r...

Versatile saxophonist, composer and improviser Nick Zoulek specializes in an innovative technique that allows him to play multiple notes at the same time or use multiple techniques at the same time. Fluent in a wide range of idioms, Zoulek creates highly charged, often beautifully kinetic music that hits hard. Hosted by Austin Williams

Dal Niente's latest release on SIDEBAND RECORDS features works by three composers using elements of pop, musique concrète and film music transformed into a contemporary classical music idiom.  Austin Williams talks with ensemble members Ben Melsky and Emma Hospelhorn about this remarkable recording.

She's the youngest person to win the Pulitzer Prize for music, she toured with Kanye, and the Met Museum's Limor Tomer called her the "future of music." Caroline Shaw is a wildly successful composer, performer and producer who has created an impressive body of distinctly eclectic work.  Matt Dosland talks with her about life, music, oranges and eggs.