Relevant Tones

ACM's Thirsty Ears Festival is Chicago's only classical music street festival combining stellar performances with great craft beer from Empirical Brewing. We did an intimate live broadcast the night before from the ACM School of Music featuring performances by Michael Hall, the Wurtz-Berger Duo and the Quijote Duo.

Composer inti figgis-vizueta writes "magically real musics through the lens of personal identities, braiding a childhood of overlapping immigrant communities and Black-founded Freedom schools—in Chocolate City (DC)—with direct Andean & Irish heritage and a deep connection to the land."  Stephen Rawson talks with them about music, poetry, magical realism and more.

We feature three works that recast age-old myths from a woman's perspective. Milica Paranosic's Penelope and the Geese reimagines the Odyssey from Penelope's point of view.  We talk with her about the opera and feature three key scenes. And Marisa Michelson's Naama's Ark tells the flood myth from the perspective of Noah's wife and Salvatore Sciarrino's La Nuova Euridice lets Orpheus' famous b...

A palimpsest is a manuscript whose original text has been scraped or washed away and overwritten with a new one, often many times over.  The original text is still present but visible only in fragments. This concept has inspired composers to overlay music in similar ways to fascinating effect. We feature a small sample of musical palimpsests. Music by Kevin Ernste, George Benjamin, Paul Novak...

Texu Kim writes music that's fun, often humorous yet sophisticated, detailed and connected to his South Korean heritage in fascinating ways. He's also the only composer we know to offer "major-league cuteness” (Broadway World) while also demonstrating “surprising scope.” (San Diego Story)

Access Contemporary Music's Sonic Walkabout is a fun way to explore a neighborhood and see and hear it as never before. ACM commissioned composers to write music inspired by historic and cultural sites in Chicago's Wicker Park and Lakeview neighborhoods and combined their musical creations with narrative storytelling. Music by Amy Wurtz, Amos Gillespie, Seth Boustead, Kyle Gregory Price, Trevor Pa...

Trailblazing composer Louis Andriessen was one of the most influential composers of his generation.  Sadly, Andriessen passed away on July 1st of this year.  We talked to him in 2014 about his life in music and featured some of his best-known pieces.

They're on 60 Minutes, they're in the New York Times, they're the subject of an eagerly awaited report to Congress.  UFOs haven't been this hot since the '90's.  We feature music inspired by these celestial mysteries. Music by Michael Daugherty, Katherine Young and Philip Glass.

In honor of Children's Day in the US we feature music written for and by kids of all ages.  Concept and research by Stephen Anthony Rawson, hosted by Seth Boustead.  Music by Karen Tanaka, Meredith Monk, inti figgis-vizueta and Osvaldo Golijov. 

Laura Elise Schwendinger is a composer whose strongly personal style of music is filled with kinetic energy and slow-burning intensity.  Feature music includes High Wire Act, Chiaroscuro Azzurro, Waking Dream and Esprimere for Cello and Orchestra.  Originally aired December 27, 2014. Produced by Jesse McQuarters

Hailed by  The Guardian  as “a cellist of power and grace” who possesses “mature artistry and willingness to go to the brink,” cellist Seth Parker Woods has established a reputation as a versatile artist straddling several genres. We talk with him and feature several of his collaborative projects.

We commemorate the 135th anniversary of the death of great poet Emily Dickinson by featuring some of our favorite musical settings of her poems as well as music inspired by her. Music by Emily Lau, John Adams, Judith Weir and Lee Hoiby.

Access Contemporary Music presents the 16th annual Sound of Silent Film Festival featuring newly commissioned scores performed live to modern silent films in every genre. We chat with a few of the filmmakers and composers and play some great music.

M Lamar is a composer, artist, operatic countertenor and consummate performer who blends elements of horror, opera, African-American spirituals and B-movie camp to create spectacular, compellingly original music. We talk to him and feature music from two albums: Funeral Doom Spiritual and Surveillance Punishment and the Black Psyche.

The American Composer's Alliance has been a force in new music for nearly a hundred years. During Covid they found a new way to serve their inspiring mission through a program called Shelter Music which facilitated dozens of creative collaborations.

Since 2004 New Focus Recordings has put out dozens of wildly creative albums by some of the most interesting figures in contemporary classical music every year.  Part 2 features conversation with label founder Daniel Lippel and music by Taylor Brooks, Colin Hinton, Robert Honstein, Dmitri Tymoczyko and Ryan Streber.

Since 2004 New Focus Recordings has put out dozens of wildly creative albums by some of the most interesting figures in contemporary classical music every year.  We talk with founder Daniel Lippel and feature a small sample of their incredible catalog in the first of a two-part series.

Alex Shapiro is an accomplished composer who has created an impressive body of works in a wide arrange of styles while always staying true to her own personal vision. She is also a mentor to other composers and a tireless champion of new music. We talk with her and feature a small sample of her wonderful music.

Adam Marks is a gifted, sensitive pianist with far-ranging interests and an insatiable appetite for new music. We talk with him about several recent projects including One Page Pieces, a new album of piano music by Alex Shapiro and a virtual program for the Omaha Under the Radar festival. Music by Jamie Evans, Conrad Tao, Johanne Heraty, Anselm McDonnell, Alex Shapiro, Eleanor Alberga and Philip G...

We feature composers writing string quartets inspired by Heavy Metal in all its incarnations from Death Metal, Black Metal, Grindcore, Mathcore to Industrial Metal and more. Music by Earl Maneein, Gene Pritsker, Maria W. Horn, Nick Vasallo, Aeryn Santallan and Annie Gosfield

Still life paintings encourage us to see everyday objects in a new context but, as applied to music, the still life concept has taken on a life of its own.  We feature several musical interpretations of the still life.

As an ensemble of four composer-performers, The Rhythm Method strives to  reimagine the string quartet in a contemporary, feminist context.   They are Meaghan Burke, Marina Kifferstein, Leah Asher and Carrie Frey and their most recent album is A Few Concerns .

A new album by New York-based ensemble Founders presents a wildly imaginative interpretation of Olivier Messiaen’s classic chamber work Quartet for the End of Time . The result is a respectful homage to the transcendent beauty of the original work while also incorporating jazz, rock, and other non-classical styles.

We celebrate the beginning of the Year of the Ox with music by composers from countries that celebrate the lunar new year.

For more than twenty years the Tribeca New Music Festival has brought bold new classical music infused with American pop culture to audiences in New York City and, increasingly, to the world. We talk with composer and Artistic and Executive Director Preston Stahly about their mission, history and creative pivots during the pandemic.