Relevant Tones

Tina Davidson creates music that stands out for its emotional depth and lyricism. She has been acclaimed for her authentic voice, her “vivid ear for harmony and colors” (New York Times) and her works of “transfigured beauty” (OperaNews).

Join co-host Stephen Anthony Rawson and Tina Davidson as they discuss her music and new memoir Let Your Heart Be Broken: Life and Music from a Classical Composer.

Kaija Saariaho was a force to be reckoned with in the new classical music world: an innovator in so many ways while maintaining the highest musical integrity.

From her early work at IRCAM to her operas and the many works she wrote for ensembles large and small, Saariaho developed a distinctly individual voice that was instantly recognizable.

We mourn her premature death as it is truly a loss to the musical community. May she rest well now and may we remember her through her art. 

Join host Austin Williams as we go through selected modern works for the Organ. The organ has  large history in the context of western classical music and the tradition continues with living composers. The instrument offers a vast range of different colors and textures for a composer to explore.

In this episode we have examples ranging from traditional, extended techniques, adjustments of intonation, and the use of electronic accompaniment for the instrument. This is a wide topic that we hope to continue to explore as we learn about more works that have been written for this instrument.

Join host Austin Williams with guest’s Chris Windle (Artistic Director of Williams Ferris Chorale) and composer Kile Smith as they break down Kile’s newly commissioned work by the ensemble. Kile has a lot to say about the fugal nature of his work and how he approaches this older technique to a modern context. Kile worked with a unique text that heavily juxtaposes the topics of life and death.

He explains in the interview how this was a large inspiration for the use of fugue. A large chunk of the program from this concert is also featured on this episode. Please enjoy what the William Ferris Chorale has to offer us and their dedication to new choral music.

Join Austin Williams and Angelica Olstad as they talk about her fourth debut album American. In this album Olstad explores what it means to be an American as a mixed race Chinese individual that grew up in rural Colorado in the 90’s and now lives in New York City.

This album touches on topics ranging from racial discrimination, old music tastes that continue to influence her works, gun violence in America and so much more.

Olstad slaps the listeners in the face with nostalgia by using old recordings from her youth including some of the very first recordings of her playing piano. Angelica Olstad opens the conversation for other AAPI individuals for them to have a piece to identify and relate with.

The New York Times’ Overlooked series was introduced on March 8, 2018 for International Women's Day, when they published fifteen obituaries of "overlooked" women, and has since become a hugely successful bi-weekly feature in the paper.

As part Relevant Tones: Live, Access Contemporary Music has commissioned five composers to write musical portraits of the lives in the series, including surrealist painter and mystic Remedios Varo, singer-songwriter Judee Sill, journalist, teacher and political activist Jovita Idár, food inventor and war heroine Maria Orosa and the first African-American registered nurse in the United States, Mary Eliza Mahoney.

Each new string quartet was performed live by The Overlook, and host Seth Boustead talked with special guests Amy Padnani, creator of the Overlooked series, filmmaker Vanessa Gould and obituary writer Jacques Kelley in between each performance.

Live from Symphony Space in Manhattan.

As the William Ferris Chorale enters their 50th Anniversary season, they celebrate the idea of movement. Movement, as an idea, exists throughout music in a myriad of ways: momentum, tempo, change, renewal, phrasing.

This season, the celebrated chorus will celebrate this idea of patterns, of detail, of movement – the vision of contemporary vocal music and living composers in Chicago for the last 50 years.

Join Austin Williams and Chris Windle, Artistic and Music Director of the William Ferris Chorale, as they chat about the ensemble, the music they champion, and this strange intersection that seems to occur between early vocal music and modern, new vocal music.

We celebrate the upcoming Record Store Day by visiting local record stores in Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago and New York to see what's in their contemporary classical and avant garde bins. A lot of great music as it turns out.

Hosted by Seth Boustead, Matt Dotson, Stephen Anthony Rawson and Austin Williams.

Access Contemporary Music has produced a new video series for PBS that explores the intersection of music and architecture. ACM has commissioned ten pieces inspired by culturally and historically relevant buildings and filmed a performance of the piece in the space that inspired it.

They provide context for the performance through interviews that tell the history of the building and how it inspired the composer. Now airing on PBS stations around the country. We feature a sample of this great music.

Ben Roidl-Ward is a bassoonist interested in expanding the repertoire and possibilities of his instrument through collaboration, improvisation, and the exploration of unusual instrumental pairings. 

Ben’s dedication to working with and advocating for composers of his generation has led him to commission and premiere numerous works featuring the bassoon with the goal of broadening the repertoire and expanding the possibilities of the instrument.