music/Maker with Tyler Kline

Loose Leaf Transmissions

Interviews with music makers, as well as those who make other things. Join Tyler Kline for a new podcast exploring the artist's pathway through conversations with composers, artisans, and more. Hear what influences craft and creation on the music/Maker podcast. A podcast from Loose Leaf Transmissions. Made for all ears. https://www.looseleaftransmissions.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. Ep. 050 - Disrupting and Reimagining Musical Structures with Brittany J. Green

    3 DAYS AGO

    Ep. 050 - Disrupting and Reimagining Musical Structures with Brittany J. Green

    On today's episode of music/Maker with Tyler Kline, Tyler is joined by composer, performer, and educator Brittany J. Green. Brittany's music works to create intimate, collaborative musical spaces at the intersection of sound, video, movement, and text — described by the Washington Post as "a creative force of attention-seizing versatility" and by the Chicago Classical Review as "cinematic in the best sense." Her recent work engages sonification and Black feminist theory as tools for sonic world-building, exploring the construction, displacement, and rupture of systems. Her music has been performed at Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood, the Chicago Symphony's MusicNOW series, and Miller Theater, with collaborators including Alarm Will Sound, the International Contemporary Ensemble, and JACK Quartet. She holds a Ph.D from Duke University and teaches composition and music theory at East Carolina University. In this conversation, Brittany traces a path from a family friend's piano to a clarinet piece about the rock cycle written in sixth grade, through a music education degree, a master's at East Carolina where she fell into the deep end of composition for the first time, and a doctorate at Duke — arriving at a practice where composing, theorizing, teaching, and advocacy are all expressions of the same central question: what can music actually do? They talk about Black feminist theory not as a theme but as a structural methodology — a way of embedding the politics into the formal behavior of the music itself, down to every fiber. They discuss whether a piece of music can be a form of political action rather than just representing one, the DIY music scenes of Durham and Louisville as radical experimental spaces hiding in plain sight, silence as an active compositional element rather than an absence, narration as a rhythmic voice within the ensemble, and the experience of developing a compositional voice — and then trying to get lost again. Learn more about Brittany and her music on her website: https://www.brittanyjgreen.com/ music/Maker episodes release every other Thursday. Listen and subscribe wherever you get podcasts, or at musicmakerpodcast.com Subscribe to the Loose Leaf Transmissions newsletter for new episodes, behind-the-scenes updates, and ways to support the work: looseleaftransmissions.beehiiv.com/subscribe Support us on Patreon at patreon.com/LooseLeafTransmissions Follow along on Instagram @loose.leaf.transmissions music/Maker is a production of Loose Leaf Transmissions: Made for All Ears. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    2h 22m
  2. Ep. 049 - Building New Music from the Ground Up with Mendel Lee

    23 APR

    Ep. 049 - Building New Music from the Ground Up with Mendel Lee

    On today's episode of music/Maker with Tyler Kline, Tyler is joined by composer Mendel Lee. New Orleans-based composer, artistic entrepreneur, VCCA Fellow, and NPN Take Notice Fund grantee, Mendel Lee has built a creative practice that moves fluidly between writing music and building the infrastructure to support it. Since leaving his long tenure as Assistant Director of Tulane Bands in 2022, he has served as Executive Director of Versipel New Music – the organization born from a merger with his founding concert series nienteForte —–and as Board Vice President of Rhythm X. Under his leadership, Versipel has become a defining force for new music in Louisiana, including launching Batture Contemporary, a Louisiana-focused new music festival. His music, praised for "finding the right balance between minimalist static space and forward motion and trajectory," draws on minimalist principles, groove-based rhythmic thinking, and a deep percussive background rooted in drum corps and the marching arts. In this conversation, Mendel and Tyler trace a journey that is anything but linear: from new age piano pieces at high school talent shows, to drum corps, to a composition degree, to three years in corporate IT, to over a decade directing the Tulane marching band, to a leap of faith into full-time composing. They talk about the panic-written piece that finally made Mendel believe in his own musical instincts, the moment he stopped keeping his marching band identity separate from his concert work, what it really means to go from saying "I have a composition degree" to "I am a composer," and why his goal has never actually been for people to like his music. Mendel and his music can be found online at https://mendellee.com/. music/Maker episodes release every other Thursday! Listen and subscribe wherever you get podcasts, or at musicmakerpodcast.com Subscribe to the Loose Leaf Transmissions newsletter for new episodes, behind-the-scenes updates, and ways to support the work: looseleaftransmissions.beehiiv.com/subscribe Support us on Patreon at patreon.com/LooseLeafTransmissions Follow along on Instagram @loose.leaf.transmissions music/Maker is a production of Loose Leaf Transmissions: Made for All Ears. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    2h 12m
  3. Ep. 048 - Letting the Music Find Its Own Way with Dai Fujikura

    9 APR

    Ep. 048 - Letting the Music Find Its Own Way with Dai Fujikura

    On today's episode of music/Maker with Tyler Kline, Tyler is joined by composer Dai Fujikura. Born in Osaka and based in London since moving to the UK at fifteen, Dai Fujikura is one of the most prolific and wide-ranging composers working today. Winner of the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale, the Ivor Novello and Royal Philharmonic Society Awards, and the Paul Hindemith Prize, among many others, his music spans orchestral works, chamber music, opera, and collaborations across jazz, experimental pop, and improvisation. His operas include Solaris, The Gold-Bug, A Dream of Armageddon, and the forthcoming The Great Wave, about the life of Katsushika Hokusai. He runs his own label, Minabel Records, and serves as Artistic Director of the Born Creative Festival at Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre. In this conversation, Dai and Tyler trace a journey that begins with a boy in Osaka secretly composing while his mother was out of the house, and winds through a scholarship to a British boarding school at fifteen, years of hustling musicians at Trinity College of Music into playing his work for the price of a pint, and a friendship with Ryuichi Sakamoto that lasted until Sakamoto's death. They also get into how a piece reveals itself — or sometimes stubbornly refuses to — the DIY spirit behind Minabel Records, what traditional Japanese instruments mean to someone who first encountered them not in Japan but at Darmstadt, and why a stiff neck at the end of a long day at the desk doesn't mean you wrote anything good. Learn more about Dai and his music at https://www.daifujikura.com/ . . . music/Maker episodes release every other Thursday! Listen and subscribe wherever you get podcasts, or at musicmakerpodcast.com Subscribe to the Loose Leaf Transmissions newsletter for new episodes, behind-the-scenes updates, and ways to support the work: looseleaftransmissions.beehiiv.com/subscribe Support us on Patreon at patreon.com/LooseLeafTransmissions Follow along on Instagram @loose.leaf.transmissions music/Maker is a production of Loose Leaf Transmissions: Made for All Ears. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    2h 28m
  4. Ep. 047 - Unlearning Restriction and Expanding into Creative Freedom with Shuying Li

    26 MAR

    Ep. 047 - Unlearning Restriction and Expanding into Creative Freedom with Shuying Li

    On today's episode of music/Maker with Tyler Kline, Tyler is joined by composer Shuying Li. Praised by the San Francisco Chronicle as "vivid, dramatic" and described by The Seattle Times as "a real talent," Shuying Li writes bold, emotionally charged music that blends rich colors with compelling storytelling. Originally from China, she began her training at the Shanghai Conservatory before earning a scholarship to the Hartt School and going on to complete her master's and doctoral degrees at the University of Michigan. Her works have been performed by the San Francisco Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Alarm Will Sound, and many others worldwide. She is currently on the faculty at California State University, Sacramento. In this conversation, Shuying and Tyler trace her unlikely path to composition — from a medical family in China, to a spontaneous cross-country audition tour, to the culture shock of arriving at the Hartt School and hearing for the first time that she could simply write whatever she wanted. They talk about the long, slow process of unlearning the need to impress and finding music as a means of connection instead, the universal stories that anchor her work, and how founding the Four Corners Ensemble reshaped her understanding of collaboration. They also get into her compositional process, her recent push to fold jazz, blues, minimalism, and EDM into her concert music, and her belief that a finished score is only about half the piece — the rest belonging equally to performers and audiences. Learn more about Shuying and her work at https://www.shuyingli.com/ . . . music/Maker episodes release every other Thursday! Listen and subscribe wherever you get podcasts, or at musicmakerpodcast.com Subscribe to the Loose Leaf Transmissions newsletter for new episodes, behind-the-scenes updates, and ways to support the work: looseleaftransmissions.beehiiv.com/subscribe Support us on Patreon at patreon.com/LooseLeafTransmissions Follow along on Instagram @loose.leaf.transmissions music/Maker is a production of Loose Leaf Transmissions: Made for All Ears. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1hr 39min
  5. Ep. 046 - Composing from Intuition, Image, and Expanded Possibility with Jessica Ackerley

    12 MAR

    Ep. 046 - Composing from Intuition, Image, and Expanded Possibility with Jessica Ackerley

    On today's episode of music/Maker with Tyler Kline, Tyler is joined by guitarist and composer Jessica Ackerley. Described by Wire Magazine as "one of the most exciting guitarists to have emerged from the free music scene in recent years," Jessica Ackerley has built a distinctive voice across 25 releases as a bandleader and co-leader, working with labels such as Innova, AKP Recordings, and 577 Records. Their music has earned acclaim from Pitchfork, BBC Radio, and Wire Magazine, appearing on multiple critics' year-end lists. They have received commissions from Bang on a Can, NYSFA, and New Music USA; a nomination for the Academy of Arts and Letters Music Composition Award; and residencies at Banff Center for the Arts, the International Gugak Workshop in Seoul, and the Arctic Circle Residency. In this conversation, Jessica and Tyler trace the arc of Ackerley's artistic life — from rural Alberta to doctoral studies at the University of Hawaii — digging into a compositional process that begins not with notation but with drawing, and a musical identity that refuses easy categorization. They discuss graphic notation as a tool for equity and collaboration, how Jessica's roots in jazz and rock quietly surface in music written for contemporary ensembles, and the lasting impact of the Arctic Circle Residency on their work. The episode closes with Jessica reflecting on a label that follows them everywhere — "experimental" — and why they wish people would pause before reaching for it. Learn more about Jessica at https://www.jessicaackerley.com/ music/Maker episodes release every other Thursday! Listen and subscribe wherever you get podcasts, or at musicmakerpodcast.com Subscribe to the Loose Leaf Transmissions newsletter for new episodes, behind-the-scenes updates, and ways to support the work: looseleaftransmissions.beehiiv.com/subscribe Support us on Patreon at patreon.com/LooseLeafTransmissions Follow along on Instagram @loose.leaf.transmissions music/Maker is a production of Loose Leaf Transmissions: Made for All Ears. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    2h 16m
  6. Ep. 045 - Building Community and Finding Balance in Music with Nicky Sohn

    26 FEB

    Ep. 045 - Building Community and Finding Balance in Music with Nicky Sohn

    On today’s episode of music/Maker with Tyler Kline, Tyler is joined by composer Nicky Sohn. Nicky's music is jazz-inflected and rhythmically driven, with vivid, colorful orchestration that tends to win over a room. Her work spans orchestral, chamber, ballet, and vocal repertoire, and has been performed by the St. Louis Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Korea, and many others. Recent highlights include a sold-out Guitar Concerto No. 1 with the Albany Symphony featuring guitarist Bokyung Byun — later presented at the 2025 Tanglewood Music Festival — a large-scale ballet for BalletCollective premiered at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and Galaxy Back to You for the Balourdet Quartet, featured on their debut album. This season brings three new orchestral premieres with the Atlanta Symphony, the Knoxville Symphony, and Orchestra Lumos. In this conversation, Nicky traces her path from an early piano start to a pivotal turn toward composition, through burnout, a reset in Berlin, and a supportive chapter at Rice/Houston. She and Tyler talk about community as the engine of her practice, storytelling drawn from Korean folktales, and writing with broader listenability in mind. Nicky also shares how a love of jazz shapes her sense of motion and harmony, and how a weekday “9–5” routine, boundaries, and life outside music have brought balance—and new brightness—to her work. Learn more about Nicky and hear her music at https://www.nickysohn.com/. . . . music/Maker episodes release every other Thursday! Listen and subscribe wherever you get podcasts, or at musicmakerpodcast.com. Subscribe to the Loose Leaf Transmissions newsletter for new episodes, behind-the-scenes updates, and ways to support the work: https://looseleaftransmissions.beehiiv.com/subscribe Support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/LooseLeafTransmissions Follow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loose.leaf.transmissions music/Maker is a production of Loose Leaf Transmissions: Made for All Ears. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    2hr 1min
  7. Ep. 044 - Listening Across Place and Process in Music with Christopher Stark

    12 FEB

    Ep. 044 - Listening Across Place and Process in Music with Christopher Stark

    On today’s episode of music/Maker with Tyler Kline, Tyler is joined by Christopher Stark. Christopher’s music is deeply rooted in the landscapes of the American West, shaped by his upbringing in rural Montana and informed by a sensitivity to sound, space, and place. A Guggenheim Fellow and Rome Prize recipient, his work has been performed by ensembles including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Alarm Will Sound, and the American Composers Orchestra. His output spans concert music and film, all marked by a vivid sense of atmosphere and attention to sonic detail. In this conversation, Christopher reflects on how landscape, identity, and environment intertwine in his work, and on the ways patience, revision, and trust guide his process. He and Tyler talk about how his small-town beginnings and self-taught guitar playing led to a life in composition, and how that early curiosity evolved through mentorship and teaching. They discuss residencies as spaces for artistic renewal, the balance between individuality and "finding your people" in the contemporary music world, and how creative work can carry the imprint of the places we come from. Christopher and his work can be found online at: https://christopher-stark.com/ . . . music/Maker episodes release every other Thursday! Listen and subscribe wherever you get podcasts, or at musicmakerpodcast.com Subscribe to the Loose Leaf Transmissions newsletter for new episodes, behind-the-scenes updates, and ways to support the work: looseleaftransmissions.beehiiv.com/subscribe Support us on Patreon at patreon.com/LooseLeafTransmissions Follow along on Instagram @loose.leaf.transmissions music/Maker is a production of Loose Leaf Transmissions: Made for All Ears. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1hr 55min
  8. Ep. 043 - Expanding Music from Personal History into Narrative Possibility with Anuj Bhutani

    26/11/2025

    Ep. 043 - Expanding Music from Personal History into Narrative Possibility with Anuj Bhutani

    On today’s episode of music/Maker with Tyler Kline, Tyler is joined by composer, performer, vocalist, and producer Anuj Bhutani. Described by PATRON Magazine as “a force multiplier with more talents than time,” Anuj creates music that moves between visceral grooves, meditative textures, narrative depth, and a fluid mix of acoustic and electronic sound. A first-generation Indian American, his work often inhabits liminal spaces—drawing from classical, emo/screamo, ambient, singer-songwriter, and electronic traditions—and engages deeply with theater, dance, and film. His music has been performed by Beth Morrison Projects, MATA, the American Composers Orchestra, The Crossing, and artists across a broad spectrum of new music. He has received awards from Chamber Music America, ASCAP, Verdigris, Nief-Norf, and organizations nationwide, with recent residencies at Loghaven, Avaloch, Banff, Atlantic Center for the Arts, VCCA, and others. In this conversation, Anuj traces a nonlinear path into music—moving from metal bands and DIY songwriting to psychology studies, then into community college and formal composition training. He and Tyler talk about how personal history, cultural identity, and in-between spaces have shaped his voice; how genre-fluid listening opened new artistic possibilities; and how curiosity, intuition, and narrative emerge as guiding forces in his process. They also discuss the evolving performance practice behind his work, what it means to hold multiple musical worlds at once, and how storytelling—especially in his project Manu—is opening the door to new creative directions. Anuj is online at https://www.anujbhutani.com/ . . . music/Maker episodes release every other Thursday! Listen and subscribe wherever you get podcasts, or at musicmakerpodcast.com Subscribe to the Loose Leaf Transmissions newsletter for new episodes, behind-the-scenes updates, and ways to support the work: looseleaftransmissions.beehiiv.com/subscribe Support us on Patreon at patreon.com/LooseLeafTransmissions Follow along on Instagram @loose.leaf.transmissions music/Maker is a production of Loose Leaf Transmissions: Made for All Ears. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1hr 53min

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About

Interviews with music makers, as well as those who make other things. Join Tyler Kline for a new podcast exploring the artist's pathway through conversations with composers, artisans, and more. Hear what influences craft and creation on the music/Maker podcast. A podcast from Loose Leaf Transmissions. Made for all ears. https://www.looseleaftransmissions.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.