I CARE IF YOU LISTEN

5 Questions to iiisa (interdisciplinary artist)

It would be futile to impose a narrative on isabel crespo pardo’s art and artmaking — the Brooklyn-based singer, composer, and interdisciplinary artist is more compelled to create emotional landscapes, memory portals, and “rituals of transformation” than linear tales. Using sound, text, performance, and visual art, crespo pardo adroitly navigates the space between structure and … Continued

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Review: Vox Urbane at The Ditch

The Ditch doesn’t exactly sound like the name of a classical music venue. Situated in a fashionable district of central London, the rough-and-ready town hall basement might not look like your typical classical music venue either. And yet it proved against expectation to be an excellent space for choral music on 26 Sept. at the … Continued

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5 Questions to Weston Olencki (composer, multi-instrumentalist)

Weston Olencki is a U.S.-born, Berlin-based musician and composer whose work is fundamentally concerned with the cultural history of instruments and music making. In a recent interview with Talkhouse, Weston speaks to growing up in South Carolina and marching for Drum Corps International, only to later recognize it as a “musical pantomime of imperial battlefield … Continued

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Review: Ultima Festival 2026

Ever heard of a wolpertinger? The mythical creature is said to inhabit the forests of southern Germany. It usually has wings, antlers, a tail, and fangs attached to the body of a rabbit. Like the Bavarian taxidermists who manufacture these animals as tourist souvenirs, composer Kristine Tjøgersen grotesquely stitched together myriad textures and timbres in … Continued

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5 Questions to Andrea Clearfield (composer, curator)

Andrea Clearfield is a composer whose music reaches across histories and artistic boundaries, transforming diverse influences into deeply expressive works. With more than 175 compositions spanning opera, orchestra, choir, chamber music, dance, and multimedia collaboration, her music has been performed widely in the U.S. and abroad. Drawing inspiration from ancient cultures, environmental sustainability, and contemporary … Continued

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Review: Raven Chacon + Tashi Dorji + Alex Zhang Hungtai // Leo Chang at Roulette

Noise improvisation: the craft of experimenting with sound, sculpting a world for the listener to inhabit. Through the act of layering contrasting textures, blasting sound at a high volume, or embracing dissonant harmonies, noise often roots itself in the body and then transports it through the act of listening. On Sept. 13 at Roulette, two … Continued

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ListN Up Playlist: Nursalim Yadi Anugerah (Sept. 17, 2026)

Nursalim Yadi Anugerah is a musician and composer whose works are shaped by deep engagement with the cultural and ecological realities of Kalimantan, Borneo. His works have been performed at festivals including CTM Festival (2026), transmediale (2026), Time:Spans Festival (2025), and Holland Festival (2025, 2021). “How do you feel? You should write down what you’re … Continued

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Video Premiere: Crossing 32nd Street Ensemble Performs “Strobe” by Gabriel Bolaños

Bathed in cobalt blue, marigold, kelly green, and rose red, the four percussionists of Crossing 32nd Street Ensemble toggle their individual switch boxes on and off in a pointillistic chorus of satisfying clicks. The hardware controls each player’s lights and electronics, which create a buzzy, ambient aura around the sporadically percolating rhythms. And as composer … Continued

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Review: Sound and Gravity 2026

I hope I never forget the warm September night when I saw Kari Watson and Katinka Kleijn perform at Guild Row. I came for cutting-edge composition, but I walked away renewed. I hope I never forget what it felt like to be inexplicably and entirely seen by art. The beginning of their set snuck up … Continued

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Claire Chase is Shaping the Future of Collaboration with “Density 2036”

For musicians seeking to collaborate outside of the neatly delineated roles of “composer” and “performer,” our institutions and their funding models — grants, tours, residencies — don’t always deliver the right kind of support. In Claire Chase’s estimation, our attachment to those systems can cause as many creative problems as they solve. “We are told … Continued

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5 Questions to Katherine Young (composer, bassoonist)

Katherine Young’s immersive practice is rooted in the art of collection: her work searches for sounds that result in imaginative modes of expression. She approaches composition, improvisation, and sound art with a collaborative spirit while also creating flexibility for bassoon and electronics in her solo performance projects. Through all of her commissioned and installation-based work … Continued

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Camille Norment Doesn’t Want to Talk About Meaning

Camille Norment’s work embodies the best of experimental art: a space for curiosity and reflection; a conversation that is rooted in contemporary society, culture, and politics, yet not overly prescriptive; a strikingly embodied experience that you turn over in your mind in the days, weeks, or months that follow, parsing its personal resonance. Though sound … Continued

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ListN Up Playlist: Molly Joyce (Sept. 3, 2026)

Molly Joyce is a composer and performer whose work explores disability as a creative source. Described by The Washington Post as “one of the most versatile, prolific, and intriguing composers working under the vast new-music dome,” her music has also been praised by The New York Times for its “serene power.” Hi everyone! My name … Continued

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5 Questions to Christian Li (pianist, composer)

Christian Li is a pianist, composer, and arranger based in New York City whose work spans a wide range of aesthetics and styles. As a sought-after collaborator, he has worked with Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Sungazer, Childish Japes, and Kevin Sun, among others. For his debut album Broken Neon Sign out on Sept. 4 (Endectomorph Music), … Continued

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Review: PRISM Quartet “Generate Music”

On their new album Generate Music (XAS Records), PRISM radically reimagines the saxophone quartet as a platform for facilitating cross-cultural artistry and community connections. The ambitious project transforms a visceral museum encounter with anti-Black and antisemitic Nazi iconography into an ecosystem of collaborations between Black and Jewish artists. From this, Generate Music has created a … Continued

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Review: AfriClassical Futures Presents “The Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc”

What happens when an iconoclast becomes an institution? That question continues to unfold with Julius Eastman. Composing in the heady New York scene of the 1970s and ’80s, Eastman wrote music years ahead of its time, all while placing his identity as a Black, openly gay man front and center. He died in obscurity in … Continued

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Review: Liz Draper at Edna’s Park

The sky can’t decide if it’s going to rain. Baby blue dots the gaps between hulking grey clouds over the Minneapolis skyline. The moody tone resonates with bassist and composer Liz Draper’s self-styled “classicaldoomfolkjazz.” But the scene also shares a looming sense of possibility with her Aug. 21 sound installation at Edna’s Park — a … Continued

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Sarah Davachi is a Sonic Architect

The organ at the Church of St. Luke & St. Matthew looms over Sarah Davachi as she takes a seat to perform at the May 2026 Long Play Festival in Brooklyn. The Canadian-born, Los-Angeles-based composer strikes a low, grumbling chord that harnesses the strength of the mahogany-toned wood and large metal pipes that line the … Continued

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Review: International Contemporary Ensemble at TIME:SPANS Festival

In the last minutes of Márton Illés’ Forajzok (2021), every member of the International Contemporary Ensemble was holding coins in their right hand, shaking them above their heads the same as conductor Rebekah Heller. The coins made a rustling and transitory sound, small but still loud enough to hear in the hall, before Heller began … Continued

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ListN Up Playlist: Sharon Chohi Kim (Aug. 20, 2026)

Sharon Chohi Kim is a Los Angeles-based performance-maker, vocalist, and composer whose work brings together experimental opera, performance art, movement, sound, and installation to explore collective voice and human/nonhuman ecologies. Her work has been presented at REDCAT, MOCA, and The Ford, and she is a recipient of the 2026 Creative Capital Award. My musical influences … Continued

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Review: Mary Kouyoumdjian “Paper Pianos”

The work of Mary Kouyoumdjian is equally rooted in composition and documentary through projects about the Armenian genocide, the Syrian refugee crisis, and the Lebanese civil war. So it comes as no surprise that Paper Pianos, the work that made her a Pulitzer Prize finalist, explicitly foregrounds the words of refugees and refugee resettlement workers. … Continued

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Review: Imani Winds “Rise”

Imani Winds is an ensemble that has continually fulfilled its mission to inspire generations of musicians through adventurous and innovative programming. Founded in 1997 by Valerie Coleman (flute), Toyin Spellman-Diaz (oboe), Mariam Adam (clarinet), Jeff Scott (French horn), and Monica Ellis (bassoon), the quintet has maintained an unshakable commitment to highlighting and strengthening the rich … Continued

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Review: Jennifer Koh “The American Concerto, Volume One”

On The American Concerto, Volume One (Aug. 14, Cedille Records), the Grammy Award-winning violinist Jennifer Koh connects the concerto form to contemporary society. The album is the first volume of Koh’s commissioning project of the same name, which blossomed amid the recent resurgence of art that depicts and interrogates American identity — particularly as we … Continued

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5 Questions to Christopher Thompson (composer, percussionist)

Composer and percussionist Christopher Thompson deftly demonstrates how overlooking the constraints of genre can yield artistic freedom. Blending the sounds of classical, jazz, gospel, rap, and more, Thompson’s unique style recently won over the members of the San Francisco Symphony’s jury, making him the sixth recipient of the Emerging Black Composers Project’s Michael Morgan Prize. … Continued

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