Stay ConnectedA 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.
Copyright: © Seth Boustead
Although a famous name can open some doors, it’s not always easy following in the footsteps of a great artist. Many children of great composers and performers have chosen to go a different route altogether, but others have found their own artistic identity.
Hosted by Seth Boustead
Produced by Jesse McQuarters
Sergei Prokofiev: Vision Fugitives Op. 22, No. 18
Sergei Prokofiev, p.
Gabriel Prokofiev: Strong Quartet No. 2, II
Elysian Quartet
Lisa Bielawa: Double Violin Concerto, II. Song
Boston Modern Orchestra Project/Gil Rose; Carla Kihlstedt, violin and vocals; Colin Jacobsen, v.
Herb Bielawa: “Nightland” fr. Stone Settings
Marian Marsh, soprano, Herb Bielawa, piano
Gabriel Kahane: The Fiction Issue, Part I
Brooklyn Rider; Shara Worden & Gabriel Kahane, vocals
Ramon Zupko: Piano Concerto, Windsongs, II
Kalamazoo Symphony/Yoshimi Takeda; Abraham Stokman, p.
Mischa Zupko: Eclipse
Sang Mee Lee, v.; Wendy Warner, vc.
Gyorgi Ligeti: Piano Etudes, Book 1 No. 1
Pierre Laurent Aimard, p.
Lukas Ligeti: Great Circle’s Tune I (excerpt)
Lukas Ligeti, percussion and electronic percussion
Norman Dello Joio: Capriccio fr. City Profiles
Keystone Wind Ensemble/Jack Stamp
Justin Dello Joio: The March of Folly, I (excerpt)
Ani Kavafian, violin; Carter Brey, cello; Jeremy Denk, p.
Chinese composer Bright Sheng grew up hearing traditional Chinese music but became fascinated by Western classical music. As a composer, he’s forged a highly successful career blending both sound worlds into a fascinatingly distinctive sonic identity.
Bright Sheng: H’un Lacerations (excerpt)
New York Chamber Symphony/Gerard Schwartz
Sheng: Dance Capriccio
Shanghai Quartet; Peter Serkin, p.
Sheng: Three Chinese Love Songs
“Blue Flower”
“At the Hillside Where Horses are Running”
“The Stream Flows”
Lisa Saffer, soprano; Paul Neubauer, viola; Bright Sheng, piano
Sheng: The Blazing Mirage
Hong Kong Philharmonic/Sheng; Trey Lee, cello
Sheng: String Quartet No. 4, Silent Temple, III
Shanghai Quartet
Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Shulamit Ran crafts music of an intimately personal nature, making her one of the most often performed composers of her generation.
We’ll talk with Shulamit about her music, the Contempo music series, and her legacy at the University of Chicago, where she was a highly regarded professor for many years.
Hosted by Seth Boustead
Produced by Jesse McQuarters
PLAYLIST
Shulamit Ran: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, II (excerpt)
BBC Concert Orchestra/Charles Hazlewood; Ittai Shapiro, violin
Ran: Legends, I
Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Barenboim
Ran: Credo/Ani Ma’amin
Chanticleer
Ran: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, I & II
BBC Concert Orchestra/Charles Hazlewood; Ittai Shapiro, violin
Ran: Mirage (excerpt)
Da Capo Chamber Players
Relevant Tones heads into the field to Medellín and Bogota for a two-part survey of the music of Colombian composers.
Hosted by Seth Boustead
Produced by Jesse McQuarters
PLAYLIST
Victor Agudelo: VueltaOriente
Orquesta Sinfónica de la Universidad EAFIT/Cecilia Espinosa.
Johann Hasler: Three Pieces for Percussion
Grupo de Percusión de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Andres Posada: Sombra y Luz (excerpt)
Tatiana Pérez, Santiago Bernal, Daniel Arango and Sebastián Forero, cellos
Luis Fernando Franco: Almaguer (excerpt)
Juan Antonio Cuellar: Variations for Violin, Cello and Piano, Op. 32
Lincoln Trio
Relevant Tones continues our popular In the Field series with a trip to Bogotá and Medillín for interviews with composers and performers busily making this South American country a mecca for new music.
Hosted by Seth Boustead
Produced by Jesse McQuarters
Camilo Giraldo: Chucu Chucu
Trip Trip Trip Guitar Trio
Gustavo Parra: El Sapo Greñudo y Labión de Botswana
Jorge Meija, Juan Fernando Avendaño, Johnny Lucero, Giovanni Scarpetta & Juan Sepulveda, brass ensemble
Carolina Noguera: String Quartet No. 1, IV
Manolov Quartet
Francisco Zumaqué: Matanaganti
Damián Poncé: Dias de Papel
Cuarteto Q-Arte; Antonio Correa, prepared piano
Francisco Zumaqué: Colombia Caribé (excerpt)
Kickstarter has emerged as a viable way for artists to realize their wildest ambitions, including new albums, commissions, world premiere performances and more.
We’ll sample a few recent projects funded through Kickstarter.
Hosted by Seth Boustead
Produced by Jesse McQuarters
Playlist
Hannah Lash: C
Paul Kerekes, p.; Michael Compitello, vibes
Bonnie Miksch: Man Dreaming Butterfly Dreaming Man
Fear No Music
ACA 20088
Jessica Meyer: Source of Joy
Jessica Meyer, vla & looping pedal
Douglas Laustsen: Natural Interference (excerpt)
Mark Zelesky, toy piano + electronics
Fernanda Navarro: Parthenogenesis
Gnarwallaby
Andrea Clearfield: Convergence
Barbara Westphal, vla.; Christian Ruvolo, p.
Ground breakers, virtuosos, and commissioners of many of the world’s twentieth and twenty-first century string quartet masterpieces, the influence of the Kronos Quartet cannot be underestimated. We’ll feature a sampling of their luminous output over the years.
Hosted by Seth Boustead
Produced by Jesse McQuarters
PLAYLIST
Alan Dorsey: Whatever Happened to the Hoodoo Meat Bucket?
Kronos Quartet
John Geist: Dark Razz
Kronos Quartet
Aleksandra Vrebalov: …hold me, neighbor, in this storm (excerpt)
Kronos Quartet
Harry Partch: U.S. Highball, “Did I ever ride freight trains- huh!” & “Leaving Little America, Wyo-ma”
Kronos Quartet; David Barron, narrator
Pēteris Vasks: String Quartet No. 4, II, Elegy
Kronos Quartet
John Zorn: Forbidden Fruit (excerpt)
Kronos Quartet
Steve Reich: Triple Quartet, II
Kronos Quartet
Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky: Lachrimosa
Kronos Quartet; Dawn Upshaw, ms.
Television: Marquee Moon (excerpt)
Kronos Quartet
Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Michael Colgrass has had a varied career as jazz drummer, freelance percussionist and composer of adizzying array of works in every conceivable genre.
Hosted by Seth Boustead
Produced by Jesse McQuarters
Michael Colgrass: Winds of Nagual
New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble/Battisti
Michael Colgrass: Arctic Dreams
New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble/Battisti
The twentieth century saw an interesting movement as composers banded together in collectives to help promote each other’s work. The movement has only gotten stronger in the twenty-first century with the rise of entrepreneurialism in classical music.
We’ll feature the music of several composer collectives and take a close look at their inner workings.
Hosted by Seth Boustead
Produced by Jesse McQuarters
PLAYLIST
Ed Harsh: Not a Single Night’s Sky (excerpt)
New Millennium Ensemble
Greg Simon: Blood on the Curb
Stepan Rudenko, p.
Melos Music (San Francisco)- live recording
Timothy Edwards: The Conjecture
Antonin Hradil, v.; Ludmila Bubenícková, vc.; Lucie Kaucka, p.
Belinda Reynolds: coming around?
New Millennium Ensemble
Eric Wubbels: Shiverer
Wet Ink Ensemble
David Gordon: The Alchemist and the Cat-flap
Adam Summerhayes, v.; Catherine Summerhayes, p.
Christopher Cerrone: Still Life with Arms Extended
Cerrone, p. & electronics
Carolyn Yarnell: Lapis Lazuli
New Millennium Ensemble
Much like the novel, people are always pronouncing the symphony to be a dead form. And yet, composers continue to write symphonies at an incredible pace. We’ll feature music by composers around the world who are adding to the symphonic canon.
Hosted by Seth Boustead
Produced by Jesse McQuarters
Erkki Sven-Tüür: Symphony 3
Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra/ Dennis Russell Davies
Poul Ruders: Symphony No. 3, Dream Catcher
Odense Symphony Orchestra/Yoo
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