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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 Hurd Study No. 1 by Jessie Montgomery Yanga by Gabriela Ortiz At Which Point No. 1: Prologue by Wang Lu Groung (Crane) by Mary Kouyoumdijian More Mania by the Dirty Projectors Thoka by Aniima Moraine Lake by Frank Horvat

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 has commissioned. MUSIC Yabo by Salina Fisher String Trio No. 2 by Huw Watkins (excerpt) Mata Au by Salina Fisher Four Postcards by Gareth Farr

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 letter to his hometown and lans to wrap up the anthology in the coming year or so. Check more of Neil’s work at his band camp: Set List 1. Helga Hölzel ( Neil Quigley ) - Early Impulse Study 1 - St. Mary's Cathedral (1968) 2. Kenny Phelan  ( Neil Quigley ) - A Psychogeographic sonification of Fairy Forts located near the banks of the Three Sisters  I, II, III 3. Tony Quinn ( Neil Quigley ) - Footing 4. Physique -   French Lick, Indiana 5. Physique -  Desperate Housewives S04E05 6. Physique - Wunder-Baum

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 album (The Wall Between Us) of works for sax quartet. Austin asks the ensemble questions about codifying the saxophone quartet in the new classical music chamber zeitgeist and what that means. There is also lovely conversation about the instrument itself and the role it plays in the new classical music world. Please check out the new album and each individual artist, you will not be disappointed! Zack Browning - Unrelenting UniverseChen Yi -  Distance Can't Keep Us Two ApartEmma O’Halloran: Night MusicEvan Williams - Quartet for SaxophonesMartin Bresnick: Mending Time 

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 traditional cannon and use influences from pop and other styles to help shape the sound they work with. A unique aspect of the ensemble is the incredibly vibrant collaboration that occurs between Rebecca and Dylan, to the point where they are writing and improvising their own music in real time.MUSICGabriela Ortiz: "Atlas-Pumas” José Martínez: Instructions for Playing, III, V Dylan Feldpausch: “Quartz" Esperanza Spalding, arr. Hot Second: "Formwela 4"

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, quality, and range of emotional expression." Host Seth Boustead talks with Strickling and features several songs from the album. MUSIC Email to Odessa by Dennis Tobenski Peony by Ed Windels Thanks a Latte by Lori Laitman This Ode is Mine by Bess McCrary Not Quite Stars by Juhi Bansal Las Palmeras by Reinaldo Moya Song of Solitude by H. Leslie Adams Wind Carry Me by James Primosch

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 about their time they shared as music students in undergrad along with their hometown pride of some of the fantastic music that comes from the Twin Cities area. If you like what you hear drop a line, we love to hear from our listeners! Music: Physique - Wunder-Baum Neil Quigley -  sketches in reaction to an exhibition, Hesitation and Breath Du Yun - Angel's Bone, Scene I: A Prism, A Video, A Flurry Cassandra Miller - Warblework: Swainson’s Thrush Happy Apple - Vanity Plate Gabriella Smith - Lost Coast II

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. Particularly, the combination of Chinese elements and western techniques is a hallmark of her music. Chiayu’s works have been performed by numerous orchestras and chamber groups worldwide. Last year, her solo clarinet piece was featured on Eric Schultz’s album POLYGLOT. Host Stephen Anthony Rawson talks with Chiayu about several works from her catalogue, her musical language, traveling, and more!

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 composers implement feedback and other broad strokes of recursion into their works! We cut back to an interview that Austin had with Paula Mathusen this past summer and listen to how she implements these ideas into her works. We also look at feedback systems that composers create be-it through specific mic and speaker arrangements or internal feedback systems with no-input mixing. 

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.

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 a broad topic with even more details than we can cover in an hour, we’ll certainly be back to chat more about this!

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 work includes composer residencies, performances and recordings by resident ensemble Music From Copland House, and educational and community outreach programs. Host Seth Boustead talks with Artistic and Executive Director Michael Boriskin about this incredible legacy.

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 legacy. Featured music includes Quartet for Piano and Strings, mvmt 2 Allegro Giusto by Aaron Copland On the Immortality of a Crab by Matthew Browne Tasveer by Reena Esmail Without Words by Ugay Liliya entwining by Paul Novak

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 Hammer Museum, to name only a few. He has also written monographic essays on artists including Charles Gaines, Richard Hawkins, Alice Konitz, Shio Kusaka, Caitlin Lonegan, Roy McMakin, Steve Roden, Clarissa Tossin, and Shirley Tse.  On today’s episode, Stephen Anthony Rawson talks with Michael about his recent book, Good Listener: Meditations on Music and Pauline Oliveros. This book is a result of a year-long performance of Pauline Oliveros’s Sonic Meditation XXI, which asks the question: “What constitutes your musical universe?”

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 Vladimir Rumyantsev on Sono Luminus records and available on March 14, 2025. Host Seth Boustead talks with Hickey about Harari's book and this fascinating new musical release.