Episodes

  • Songs About Buildings and Moods Season Two
    Jan 27 2025

    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 features new pieces by Liza Sobel Crane, Ledah Finck, Michael Kropf, Amy Wurtz, Felipe Perez Santiago and Danielle Eva Schwob inspired by the Stony Island Arts Bank, Peabody Library, Fisher Building, the Wrigley Building, a former convent in Mexico City and the Brooklyn Tower.

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    57 mins
  • Notable Albums of 2024
    Dec 17 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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    1 hr and 3 mins
  • Wedge
    Dec 9 2024

    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!


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    1 hr and 3 mins
  • Granular: Parts of the Many Make the Whole
    Dec 3 2024

    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.

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    1 hr and 5 mins
  • Roberta Michel
    Nov 26 2024

    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.

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    1 hr
  • Alarm Will Sound
    Nov 18 2024

    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.

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    58 mins
  • On the Radar November 2024
    Nov 11 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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    1 hr and 4 mins
  • Tobias Picker
    Nov 4 2024

    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.


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    59 mins