Relevant Tones

By Access Contemporary MusicMusic Music Interviews

Relevant Tones episodes

December 01, 2012 George Flynn Part 2
The second in a two-part series featuring the music of George Flynn.
Hosted by Seth Boustead
Produced by Jesse McQuarters
St. Vincent’s Words, DePaul University Singers/Clayton Parr
Chicago Mood, Cory Tiffin, cl.; George Flynn, p.
From an Island, Nessinger, ms.; Feinberg, p.
Density of Memory, Larry Combs, Julie DeRoche, Wagner Compos, cl; Colnot, DePaul Orchestra
American Howl, Anaphora Ensemble
Moods for Orchestra, Oistrakh Orchestra
Toward the Light (excerpt)Flynn, p.
59 min
November 17, 2012 George Flynn Part 1
George Flynn chaired Musicianship and Composition at DePaul University (Chicago) for 25 years, and continues to direct DePaul’s professional contemporary performance series, “New Music Depaul” as well as Chicago’s “New Music at the Green Mill” series.
He has composed over 100 works in all media, including over five hours of piano solo music, the latter performed by international pianists as well as Chicago pianists Stuart Leitch and Frank Abbinanti.
Hosted by Seth Boustead
Produced by Jesse McQuarters
‘Til Death, Katherine Hughes, v.George Flynn, p.
Fuguing, Flynn, p.
Wound (exerpt)Flynn, p.
Death Has Won the Soul from Songs of Destruction, Leila Bowie, s.; George Flynn, p.
Introduction and Lullaby from American Rest, Combs, cl.; Conant, vla.; Costanza, vc.; Leitch, p.
Deep Sleep & Nightmare, two nocturnes from American Rest, Flynn, p.
Fantasy Etudes I & II for Violin, Gratovich, v.
58 min
October 27, 2012 Maya Beiser
This week we’re featuring cellist Maya Beiser‘s latest CD with composer and pianist Michael Harrison, Time Loops.
Hosted by Seth Boustead
Produced by Jesse McQuarters
Michael Harrison: Just Ancient Loops, I
Harrison: Time Loops
Bach/Gounod: Ave Maria
Harrison: Raga Prelude I (Yaman)
Pärt: Spiegel im Spiegel
Harrison: Hijaz, Young People’s Chorus of New York City/Núñez; Beiser, vc.
58 min
October 12, 2012 Lisa Bielawa
Composer-vocalist Lisa Bielawa is a 2009 Rome Prize winner in Musical Composition. She takes inspiration for her work from literary sources and close artistic collaborations.

Gramophone reports, “Bielawa is gaining gale force as a composer, churning out impeccably groomed works that at once evoke the layered precision of Vermeer and the conscious recklessness of Jackson Pollock,” and The New York Times describes her music as, “ruminative, pointillistic and harmonically slightly tart.”
Hosted by Seth Boustead
Produced by Jesse McQuarters
This Time from Seven Kafka Songs
Carla Kihlstedt, violin & voice

Double Violin Concerto, II
Boston Modern Orchestra Project/Rose; Kihlstedt & Jacobsen, vlns.

#11 from Synopses– “It Takes One to Know One”
Robert Schulz, drumset

Concerto for Orchestra, In Medias Res
Boston Modern Orchestra Project/RosePurchase

Nothing fr. Chance Encounter
The Knights; Susan Narucki, sop.
58 min
September 27, 2012 The Atlanta School
Conductor Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra have created a thriving community of composers who have come to be known as “The Atlanta School”. They include Jennifer Higdon, Christopher Theofanidis, Osvaldo Golijov, and Michael Gandolfi, and this week we’ll listen to their music.
Hosted by Seth Boustead
Produced by Jesse McQuarters
Michael Gandolfi: The Garden of Cosmic Speculation, I-III
Christopher Theofanidis: Drumsound Rises from The Here & Now
Osvaldo Golijov: Second Wave & Aria fr. Oceana, Luciana Souza, voc.
Jennifer Higdon: On a Wire, Eighth Blackbird
58 min
September 22, 2012 Just Intonation
Today we leave the world of equal-temperament behind and explore various contemporary pieces written for instruments in just intonation.
Hosted by Seth Boustead
Produced by Jesse McQuarters
Terry Riley: The Harp of New Albion– Premonition Rag (excerpt), Terry Riley, p.

Michael Harrison: Just Ancient Loops, II, Maya Beiser, vc.

Terry Riley: The Harp of New Albion– Cadence on the Wind (excerpt), Terry Riley, p.

Lou Harrison: Serenade for Guitar– Air, David Tannenbaum, guitar

John Adams: Dharma at Big Sur– A New Day
BBC Symphony Orchestra/John Adams, conductor, Tracy Silverman, electric violin

Ben Johnston: Trio, Trio Amici

Kyle Gann: Fugitive Objects, Gann, piano

Martin Bresnick: Everything Must Go, II, Prism Saxophone Quartet
59 min
September 15, 2012 Chicago Fall Concert Season Preview 2012
Seth previews some of the fantastic upcoming performances from Chicago new music groups, including CUBE, Access Contemporary Music, Dal Niente, and more.
Hosted by Seth Boustead
Produced by Jesse McQuarters
Chinary Ung: Laughter Passes Over the Earth & Flying Mirrors fr. Seven Mirrors
– Ensemble Dal Niente

Sebastian Currier: Ethereal & Charged from Static
Access Contemporary Music

Jimmy López: Avec Swing
– CUBE

Stacy Garrop: Thunderwalker, II
– Chicago Composers Orchestra

James Dillon: Soadie Waste (excerpt)
– Spektral Quartet

Amy Wurtz: La (excerpt)

Pierre Boulez: Dérive 1
John Cage: Fourteen (excerpt)
– Northwestern University Contemporary Music Ensemble
59 min
September 01, 2012 John Cage Centennial
In anticipation of John Cage’s 100th Birthday, Relevant Tones examines his life and music. Two members of Chicago-based ensemble Third Coast Percussion, Robert Dillon and David Skidmore, join us in the studio to share anecdotes about their experiences playing Cage’s works.
Hosted by Seth Boustead
Produced by Jesse McQuarters
59 min
August 25, 2012 Anna Clyne
CSO composer-in-residence Anna Clyne comes to our studio to talk to us about her new compositions and the artists who inspired them.
Hosted by Seth Boustead
Produced by Jesse McQuarters
1 hr
August 19, 2012 Starting From Scratch
This week’s Relevant Tones focuses on composers who have tried to step outside the box, redefine their definitions of music, and start over without limitations. We’ll be examining the works of Alvin Lucier, Chris Preissing, James Tenney, Lou Harrison, and more.
Hosted by Seth Boustead
Produced by Jesse McQuarters
Alvin Lucier: I am sitting in a room (excerpt)

James Tenney: Cellogram, William Jason Raynovich, Cello

Lou Harrison: Cornish Lancaran, Musicians of the Gamelan Si Betty, Berkeley Chamber Singers

Colin McPhee: Tabuh-Tabuhan, Toccata for Orchestra
Eastman/Rochester Symphony Orchestra-Hanson

Harry Partch: Delusion and the Fury: A Ritual of Dream and Delusion (excerpt)

Christopher Preissing: Pales
Angela DiOrio, ClarinetLive in WFMT Studio

Steven Mackie: Indigenous instruments
Eighth Blackbird
59 min