Relevant Tones

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 musical facets can go a long way, let’s see how far it takes us!

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 scope.

It can also be applied to much broader topics such as counterpoint and other existing art and how that influences other creations.

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 Stephen Anthony Rawson talks with her about pieces and composers featured on the new album. 

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 language and race issues. His book The Power of Babel is the first book written for the layperson about the history of language.

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 this truly marvelous album.

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 Bonnie at her studio at the University of Washington. They talk about pieces from her speaking percussionist repertoire, the music of John Cage, narratology in music, her project Through the Eye(s), and more!