PODCAST · music
Relevant Tones
by Access Contemporary Music
A podcast about the most fascinating time in classical music history: right now. Relevant Tones features interviews with and music by some of the most creative figures in contemporary classical music, themed shows exploring new trends in classical music and frequent live streamed shows featuring conversations and music performances. Hosted and produced by Seth Boustead, Austin Williams, Stephen Anthony Rawson and Matt Dotson.
Episodes
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STRUCK: Music for Percussive Instruments
Composers have long explored the percussive possibilities of traditionally non-percussive instruments, striking, tapping, scraping, and knocking on their bodies to uncover sounds beyond their conventional vocabulary. Many of these techniques already belong to a tradition of extended instrumental...
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Jocelyn Morlock: Artemis Sleeps
The late Canadian composer Jocelyn Morlock left behind music of extraordinary color, imagination and emotional depth. The new album, Artemis Sleeps, celebrates her remarkable chamber music for flute and grew out of the advocacy of flutist Mark McGregor, a longtime collaborator and close friend.…
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Beltline Bones
Formed in 2021 in Madison, Wisconsin, the Beltline Bones are “a new music ensemble disguised as a trombone quartet” with an omnivorous approach to new music, combining the traditional idiom of the brass ensemble with an adventurous interest in electronics, genre mixture, and notational...
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unaccompanied: music for the voice alone
The voice is our oldest and most familiar instrument, yet composers continue to discover astonishing new possibilities within it. Music for the voice alone invites us to listen differently. Without harmony or accompaniment to guide our ears, every contour, breath, and vocal gesture takes on its…
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Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival
The Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival is an ambitious summer program that brings together young string players to work intensively with leading professionals while performing throughout Colchester and the surrounding communities. For the past four years, the festival has also championed new...
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Cristina Spinei - Moved by An Interior Impulse
Best known for her acclaimed work with ballet companies across the country, Cristina Spinei has developed a distinctive musical language built on melodic cells, propulsive rhythms and subtle repetition which she affectionately describes as "minimalish." Host Seth Boustead talks with Spinei about...
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Third Place Music Festival
On this episode of Relevant Tones we highlight Ann Arbor, Michigan’s Third Place [MusicFest] as they celebrate their 7th year. Third Place curates an annual, four day performing arts festival comprised of multiple concerts in local spaces. They are founded on principles both simple and often...
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Peter Askim and the NEXT Festival of Emerging Artists Part II
In the second half of our conversation with conductor, composer and producer Peter Askim, we take a deeper look at his efforts to champion living composers through initiatives like the NC State 10-Year Premiere Project. Askim discusses the importance of creating opportunities for emerging voices,...
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Peter Askim and the NEXT Festival of Emerging Artists Part I
Composer, conductor, and producer Peter Askim joins Seth Boustead to discuss building vibrant communities around contemporary classical music through the NC State 10-Year Premiere Project, the NEXT Festival of Emerging Artists, and his work with orchestras across North Carolina. From…
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Brent Michael Davids - American Requiem
Composer Brent Michael Davids discusses his powerful new work Requiem for America: Singing for the Invisible People—a sweeping musical reckoning with the genocidal foundations of the United States, told through Indigenous voices. Blending Native American musical traditions with orchestral forces,...
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In Memorium: Bernard Rands
Esteemed composer Bernard Rands has passed away, a huge loss to our musical community. We honor his memory by re-airing this interview with host Seth Boustead from September 2017. Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Bernard Rands reflects on a remarkable career spanning more than a hundred published...
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Notable Albums of 2025
Relevant Tones returns after our hiatus to bring you some of our favorite albums (and concerts) of the year. It was a great year for music! Hosted by Seth Boustead, Matthew Dosland, Stephen Anthony Rawson and Austin Williams. MUSIC For Adrienne I by Martin Gendelman What Stories We Tell by George...
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At the World's Edge Festival
At the World’s Edge is a chamber music festival inspired by its roots in the Southern Alps of New Zealand and forging ties to Chicago and beyond. Host Seth Boustead talks with violinist and founding Artistic Director Benjamin Baker about his vision for the festival and features music the festival...
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Neil Quigley
Host Austin Williams and composer guest Neil Quigley chat about Neil’s music and its relationship to speculative history. Neil explains how his relationship to the Kilkenny Electroacoustic Research Laboratory is largely based in that practice. Among many other projects Neil created this love…
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Coalescent Quartet
Join host Austin Williams as he speaks to members of the Coalescent Saxophone Quartet. The quartet consists of members Nathan Bogert, Michael Shults, Nick Zoulek, and Drew Whiting; each of which are incredibly accomplished musicians in their own right. The quartet has recently released a new…
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Hot Second
Join host Austin Williams and new music ensemble Hot Second ( Rebecca McDaniel Percussion and Dylan Feldpausch Violin/Viola) as we discuss their unique ensemble and its take on new music in Chicago. The conversation consists of thoughtful insights on how an ensemble can think outside of the...
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Laura Strickling 40@40
2023 and the first anthology has just been published by New Music Shelf. This extraordinary album features world-premiere recordings of art songs commissioned by Strickling who says: "These twenty songs, from composers and poets of diverse backgrounds, are exceptional in their beauty, depth,...
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On the Radar, April 2025
Cohosts Austin Williams and Stephen Rawson share what they have been listening to recently. Austin shares about an anthology of Irish Electroacoustic music that he became privy to recently and Stephen has a wide variety of vocal and chamber music that comes up. Stephen and Austin also reminisce...
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Chiayu Hsu
Chiayu Hsu is an active composer of contemporary concert music and associate professor of composition at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Born in Banciao, Taiwan, Chiayu frequently explores ideas of cultural fusion. She derives inspiration from places, poems, myths, and images.…
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Feedback
Host Austin Williams curates a listening experience with themes of feedback. Feedback is often associated with harsh sounds that are created when a microphone is placed too close to the speaker that it is amplified through. While this is a way feedback can be aurally achieved there are many ways...
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Sound of Silent Film 20th Anniversary
Access Contemporary Music's popular Sound of Silent Film Festival celebrates twenty years of presenting modern silent films with newly commissioned scores performed live. Host Seth Boustead features a few of his favorite scores from the last twenty years.
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Kinetics
Host Austin Williams has guest Liam Marchant on the show to discuss the relationship to kinetics and music, relating to a variety of aspects within the music. We use specific pieces to make points across the show to offer aural guides to the listeners for what Austin and Liam are discussing. It’s…
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Copland House Part 2
Copland House is a major force in contemporary American music dedicated to fostering greater public awareness and appreciation of our nation’s composers and their work in all of its many forms. Copland House continues Aaron Copland’s incredible legacy of supporting his fellow composers and their...
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Copland House Part 1
Copland House is a major force in contemporary American music dedicated to fostering greater public awareness and appreciation of our nation’s composers and their work in all of its many forms. Host Seth Boustead talks with Artistic and Executive Director Michael Boriskin about this incredible...
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Michael Ned Holte: Good Listener
Michael Ned Holte is a writer, independent curator, and educator based in Los Angeles, as well as the Associate Dean for the School of Arts at CalArts. He has held exhibitions at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, the MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House, and the...
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Sean Hickey - Sapiens
Yuval Noah Harari’s breathtakingly expansive book Sapiens is a monumental achievement that comprehensively summarizes human history, behavior and thought from primordial times to today. The book is also the inspiration for a 50-minute piano work by composer Sean Hickey recorded by pianist…
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Shara Nova
Shara Nova is a composer, vocalist, and producer currently creating from Detroit, Michigan. Shara has released six albums under the monikerMy Brightest Diamond and has composed works for The Crossing, Conspirare, yMusic, Brooklyn Rider, Roomful of Teeth, Aarhus Symfoni, and American Composers...
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Speaking Instrumentalist
Host Seth Boustead features a variety of pieces by composers who ask the performers to vocalize in some way while also playing their instrument. Music by Frederick Rzewski, George Crumb, Daniel Bernard Roumain and Tom Johnson.
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Songs About Buildings and Moods Season Two
Access Contemporary Music has just released the second season of their PBS series Songs About Buildings and Moods in which they commission music inspired by historically and culturally relevant buildings and film a performance of the piece in the building that inspired it. Host Seth Boustead...
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Notable Albums of 2024
We feature music from some of our favorite albums of 2024. Music selected by Austin Williams, Stephen Anthony Rawson, Neve Jahn and Matthew Dosland.
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Wedge
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...
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Granular: Parts of the Many Make the Whole
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...
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Roberta Michel
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....
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Alarm Will Sound
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...
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On the Radar November 2024
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.
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Tobias Picker
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…
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RT Live: The Power of Babel
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...
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Reiko Futing
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…
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Bonnie Whiting
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...
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ETHEL
Established in New York City in 1998, the string quartet ETHEL has been described as “indefatigable and eclectic” (The New York Times), “vital and brilliant” (The New Yorker). Composer performers—Ralph Farris (viola), Kip Jones (violin), Dorothy Lawson (cello), and Corin Lee (violin)—fuse uptown...
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Thirsty Ears Festival 2024
Access Contemporary Music's Thirsty Ears Festival is Chicago's only classical music street festival. For two days we close Wilson Ave. in front of our music school for stellar music performances, craft beer and wine, food trucks and community vendors. We feature a small sample of the contemporary...
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David Crowell
Composer, improviser, and producer David Crowell speaks with host Austin Williams about their new album Point/Cloud. This post minimalist gem explores collaborations with a variety of arts that David has worked with previously. "...the work’s pointillistic texture and thick counterpoint, amassing...
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Erin Rogers
Erin Rogers is a saxophonist, composer, and improviser dedicated to new and experimental music. Her “decidedly future-oriented” music has been described as “whimsical, theatrical” (Brooklyn Vegan), “radical and refreshing” (Vital Weekly) and “a richly expressive display of stentorian brilliance”...
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Elori Saxl
Austin and Elori speak about Elori’s recently release Drifts and Surfaces. This sparks a lively conversation about signal processing, compositional process and the majestic and powerful force that is the Northern Shore of Minnesota.
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SPLICE Festival Part 2
It’s part two of our coverage of SPLICE institute 10. Host Austin Williams chats with a number of organizers about the festival and it’s history along with some featured guest artists and regular faculty. Enjoy recordings and performances from a number of these organizers and faculty as well. We...
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SPLICE Festival Part 1
Join host Austin Gray Williams on this deep dive into the people, music, and culture that create the SPLICE Institute. SPLICE is a week long intensive focusing on electroacoustic concert music. There are a number of Electroacoustic music festivals and conferences that composers have participated…
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Zafraan Ensemble Berlin Creations Part 2
In a series of ten chamber concerts, the Zafraan Ensemble relates the history of Berlin from the 1910s to today through music. Each concert represents a decade, in which a work that premiered in Berlin anchors a program of music centered in or inspired by that decade. Host Seth Boustead talks…
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Zafraan Ensemble - Berlin Creations Part 1
In a series of ten chamber concerts, the Zafraan Ensemble relates the history of Berlin from the 1910s to today through music. Each concert represents a decade, in which a work that premiered in Berlin anchors a program of music centered in or inspired by that decade. Host Seth Boustead talks…
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Vijay Iyer
Matthew Dosland interviews composer, performer, and teacher Vijay Iyer. They discuss Iyer's early work in music cognition, his courses and teaching methods, as well as his most recent album Trouble. The conversation also covers the cross-genre nature of Iyer's work and how that has influenced his...
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An Homage to Robert Black
We commemorate the anniversary of the passing of Robert Black on Relevant Tones. Robert Black was an absolute force in the Double Bass repertoire and new music. Through interviews with his previous students and cohorts, Christie Echols, Sean Rubin, Caroline Doane, and Evan Runyon, we find out he...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
A podcast about the most fascinating time in classical music history: right now. Relevant Tones features interviews with and music by some of the most creative figures in contemporary classical music, themed shows exploring new trends in classical music and frequent live streamed shows featuring conversations and music performances. Hosted and produced by Seth Boustead, Austin Williams, Stephen Anthony Rawson and Matt Dotson.
HOSTED BY
Access Contemporary Music
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Relevant Tones have?
Relevant Tones currently has 431 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Relevant Tones about?
A podcast about the most fascinating time in classical music history: right now. Relevant Tones features interviews with and music by some of the most creative figures in contemporary classical music, themed shows exploring new trends in classical music and frequent live streamed shows featuring...
How often does Relevant Tones release new episodes?
Relevant Tones publishes regularly with 431 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Relevant Tones?
You can listen to Relevant Tones on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Relevant Tones?
Relevant Tones is created and hosted by Access Contemporary Music.
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