ArtsPerforming ArtsMusicMusic Interviews

Clexical

Laurentia Woo

Clexical is a student-led nonprofit organization 501(c)(3) that aims to democratize access to contemporary music.

Laurentia founded the Clexical team based on her personal struggles as a young musician to find contemporary pieces to play and learn about.

The collective frustration with the limited resources for exploring modern music inspired her to establish a platform dedicated to enhancing access to contemporary compositions. Through Clexical, they aim to spotlight underrepresented composers, organize workshops and concerts for children with limited exposure to contemporary classical music, and explore innovative trends.

Their shared vision drives Clexical’s mission to make contemporary music more inclusive and accessible for all, creating a space where individuals can explore, learn, and grow through the power of music.

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#37
Saturday · 27 min
Episode 37: Interview with Ana Posenauer
Welcome to Clexical, the podcast dedicated to contemporary classical music! I’m your host, Jean Park. Here, you will listen to conversations with living contemporary composers about their work, their journeys as musicians, and their thoughts on the current new music scene. To learn more about our work, please visit www.clexical.org, where you can find our interviews, outreach programs, and weekly blog posts. Today’s podcast features my interview with pianist and composer Ana Posenauer. Ana began studying piano at the age of six in Romania. Her rigorous musical education included solfège and ear training, which taught her to hear melodies and harmonies internally before playing them. Although one of her first teachers believed her hands were too small for her to become a pianist, Ana continued with her mother’s encouragement and overcame this challenge through hard work. Ana began composing when she was only six or seven. At eleven, she became a church pianist and accompanied children’s and adult choirs, singers, and instrumental ensembles. She later began arranging and composing for these groups. Her long experience writing vocal music influenced the lyrical, singable quality of her instrumental works. Her creative process often begins with improvisation. Nature, especially the landscapes of the Swiss Alps, is an important source of inspiration. After spending time outdoors, Ana often returns home and goes directly to the piano. Her emotions naturally become part of what she plays. When she discovers a musical idea she likes, she records it on her phone or writes it down. She may return to it days, weeks, or even months later and develop it into a complete composition. During our conversation, Ana introduced her recent piano solo, Close to You. The piece has a soft and intimate atmosphere and follows a song-like ABAB structure. Although musical ideas return, she never performs them in exactly the same way. Ana initially considered turning the piece into an orchestral work. However, she decided that its delicate and personal character was best expressed by the piano alone. The title reflects an essential part of Ana’s musical identity: connection. She wants music to create a relationship between the composer, performer, and listener. She was especially moved when listeners said that Close to You made them feel closer to her or invited them to reconnect with themselves. Ana is now interested in learning more about orchestration. Virtual instrument libraries allow her to experiment with orchestral colors and hear her ideas before they are performed by live musicians. We also discussed the challenges facing contemporary composers. Ana explained that although the internet allows musicians to reach audiences around the world, it also creates intense competition for visibility. It can also be difficult for composers and performers to earn a sustainable living through music. To make contemporary classical music more accessible, Ana believes we must recognize that every listener is different. Someone may like Bach but not Chopin, just as one child may prefer apples while another prefers bananas. Instead of expecting everyone to enjoy the same music, musicians and educators should help people discover works that connect with their individual tastes. My conversation with Ana showed me that composing is not only about creating melodies and harmonies. It is also about perseverance, personal expression, and communication. I was especially interested in how her vocal-music background shaped her piano writing and how Close to You creates an intimate connection with listeners. Thank you for joining us. To learn more about Clexical and explore our other interviews with contemporary composers, please visit www.clexical.org.
#36
September 6 · 32 min
Episode 36: Interview with Yuri Lee
This episode features Yuri Lee, a Korean-Japanese composer and violinist. Based in New York, she attended Juilliard Pre College and went on to study at Princeton. Spreading joy to others is a fundamental part of what she does with her music. In this name, she founded Music Around Us, which brings music performed by young musicians to residents of senior assisted living. Her music has won several awards, such as the National YoungArts Competition, the Juilliard Pre-College Composition Competition, and the New Voices Project for Composers Under 30 by the San Francisco Choral Artists. She was a fellow of NPR’s From the Top, and Luna Composition Lab. Her music has been performed by NYO-USA, the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Little Orchestra Society, to name a few. Her music reaches far and wide, to deaf and hearing communities alike, both of which she moves with her compositions.
#35
September 1 · 21 min
Episode 35: Interview with Seungjae Jung
Welcome to Clexical, the podcast dedicated to contemporary classical music! I’m your host, [Kweku Adusei-Poku]. Here you will listen to conversations with living contemporary composers about their work, their journey as musicians and their thoughts on the current new music scene. Join us as we explore and influence the vibrant world of contemporary classical music. To learn more about our work, please visit www.clexical.org. You can find videos of all the interviews we’ve done so far, the outreach programs we’ve done with schools and libraries, and our weekly blog posts discussing the current new music scene. Today’s interview will be conducted by Jinha Park. Composer Seung Jae Chung currently lives in Seoul, Korea, and teaches composition at Sangmyung University. He is also the president of ACL-Korea, the Korean section of the Asian Composers League. Through these roles, he works to promote Korean composers, create more opportunities for composers, and bring contemporary music to a wider audience. Chung draws inspiration from many different sources, including paintings, films, and moments from daily life. As a student, he was especially interested in visual art and sometimes transformed images and ideas from paintings into music. One of his works, for example, was inspired by Joan Miró's painting Flight of the Dragonfly in Front of the Sun, which he interpreted as depicting a dragonfly flying toward the sun and confronting its own death. He sought to express both the scene and its emotional meaning through music. More recently, he has become especially interested in regional folk songs that have been passed down in different parts of Korea. Many of these songs have been preserved within small villages and local communities, carrying distinctive melodies, rhythms, and emotional qualities unique to their regions. Chung has been collecting these melodies and exploring ways to incorporate their distinctive qualities into contemporary compositions. In the past, Chung approached composition much like an architect preparing a blueprint. Before writing the music, he carefully planned the structure of the entire work, decided what material would appear in each section, and calculated how long each part would last. His process has since become more flexible. He still establishes the overall form and direction of a piece, but while composing, he allows himself greater freedom to explore musical ideas and their deeper meaning. Rather than strictly following his original plan, he remains open to new possibilities that emerge during the creative process. Overall, I enjoyed listening to his piece called Arirang. I was awed by how the piece connected with the Korean traditional roots.
#34
August 23 · 36 min
Episode 34: Interview with Tom Flaherty
In this interview, composer Tom Flaherty discusses his creative process and his experiences with both acoustic music and electronic music. He explains that every composition begins differently depending on the rhythm, chord or the sound. When he composes electronic music, he begins by creating unusual sounds that traditional instruments are not able to produce. These sounds suggest the musical direction of the piece. Although he had written his pieces extensively for electronics, most of his / work involves live performers. Flaherty also reflects on his career of teaching music at Pomona College for more than thirty years. During those times, he organized an electronic acoustic festival combining electronics with life performance. He discusses a recent project for cello, piano, MIDI keyboard, and electronics, as well as his developing interest in returning to music for traditional instruments and voices. In the future, he hopes to accomplish composing a large-scale vocal work for singers, instrumentalists, and electronics. Throughout his interview, Flaherty emphasizes that he creates music he personally finds expressive and enjoyable rather than trying to appeal to a particular audience. He identifies finding performance opportunities and earning a living as two of the greatest challenges for contemporary composers. He claims that his teaching career allowed him to gain the freedom to compose the music he desired, unlike commercial fields such as film music, where composers often have to follow the composer's directions. Flaherty also shares his thoughts on artificial intelligence. Streaming has made a larger range of music available; however it can divide long compositions into several tracks even providing incorrect information about composers and performers. He believes AI can be useful for producing functional music quickly, however worries it may reduce opportunities for individuals to learn instruments, perform together and enjoy the joy of creating music themselves. Finally, Flaherty offers advice to listeners who find contemporary music difficult to understand. Instead of always searching for familiar melodies, harmonies or tonal structures, he encourages listeners to focus on timbre, texture, rhythm, special effects, and the ways music colors change over time. Comparing contemporary music to abstract painting, he suggests setting aside predetermined expectations and listening carefully to what is actually present. His message is that approaching unfamiliar music with openness and curiosity can reveal entirely new ways of expressing sounds.
#33
August 14 · 15 min
Episode 33: Interview with Josh Rosenblum
Welcome to Clexical, the podcast dedicated to contemporary classical music! I’m your host, Kweku Poku. Here, you will listen to conversations with living contemporary composers about their work, their journeys as musicians, and their thoughts on the current new music scene. Join us as we explore and influence the vibrant world of contemporary classical music. To learn more about our work, please visit www.clexical.org. You can find videos of all the interviews we have conducted so far, our outreach programs with schools and libraries, and our weekly blog posts discussing the current new music scene. Today’s interview will be conducted by Jean Park. In this interview, composer Josh Rosenblum discusses his creative process and shares his ideas on his current contemporary classical music. He claims that he is able to initiate well when composing for a specific performer or an ensemble or a clear performance date or a deadline. He usually begins his compositions at a piano, experimenting with different musical ideas. At other times melodies come to him naturally while walking so he records himself singing them into his phone and creates them later. Rosenblum also introduces his chamber work Mercer Street, which was inspired by a recurring dream in which he feels lost and running late for a concert he is supposed to conduct. Although he is intrigued in electronic and computer generated sounds, he prefers writing for traditional instruments and believes that they offer various creative possibilities. He finds performance opportunities and attracting audiences as two greatest challenges for contemporary composers. However he is encouraged by the freedom composers now have to combine classical music with jazz, rock, and other genres.He believes that this cross genre approach can increase composer’s creativity and make contemporary classical music more accessible to wider audiences. Rosenblum also discusses artificial intelligence and music. Although he believes generated music may improve over time, he argues that the human element of the creative process cannot be replaced. For students who find contemporary classical music difficult to grasp, he offers simple advice: listen with an open mind and give the music a chance. In his view, the best pieces speak for themselves and do not require extensive explanations to be appreciated.
#32
August 12 · 24 min
Ep. 32: Interview with Missy Mazzoli
This episode features acclaimed composer Missy Mazzoli. She grew up in Pennsylvania before attending Boston University and Yale School of Music, as well as earning a Fulbright scholarship to the Royal Conservatory of the Hague. She has previously taught at New York University and Yale, and currently teaches at the Bard College Conservatory of Music. She is one of the two first woman composers to have been commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera. She has been commissioned by orchestras across the world such as the New York Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, and BBC Symphony Orchestra. Mazzoli has been nominated three times for the Grammys. She is a recipient of the Marie-Josée Kravis Prize for New Music at the New York Philharmonic, and the Music Critics Association of America Award for Best Opera. Along with Ellen Reid, she is the co-founder of Luna Composition Lab, a non profit organization dedicated to female, non binary, and gender nonconforming composers aged 13 through 18. One characteristic of Mazzoli’s music is the stylistic breadth of it. From opera and ballet to film to instrumental music to the all-female band she founded called Victoire, her compositions are manifold, spanning various genres.
#31
August 12 · 18 min
Episode 31: Interview with Kevin Puts
Welcome to Clexical, the podcast dedicated to contemporary classical music! I’m your host, Kweku Poku. Here, you will hear conversations with living contemporary composers about their work, their journeys as musicians, and their thoughts on today’s new music scene. Join us as we explore and influence the vibrant world of contemporary classical music. To learn more about our work, please visit www.clexical.org. You can find videos of all the interviews we have conducted so far, information about our outreach programs with schools and libraries, and our weekly blog posts discussing the current new music scene. Today’s interview was conducted by Jean Park. In this interview, composer Kevin Puts discusses his creative process and his views on contemporary classical music. He explains that inspiration comes differently with every project. When writing an opera, he begins with the story and becomes emotionally invested in its characters. For instrumental music, inspiration may come from a personal experience or an event in the world. He often develops his first musical ideas by improvising at the piano and believes that the opening of a piece must draw the audience into the music. Puts discusses his Concerto for Orchestra, written for the St. Louis Symphony. The work explores the lyrical and virtuosic possibilities of the orchestra. Its initial inspiration came from Amanda Gorman’s poem Hymn for the Hurting, written in response to the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. After reading the poem, Puts imagined chorale-like music. This opening theme returns throughout the concerto, helping listeners recognize the musical material and follow the structure of the piece. He has become increasingly interested in writing distinctive melodies that listeners can remember and will want to hear again. Inspired by composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, and Gershwin, he tries to create melodies with clear and memorable identities. At the same time, he believes that composers should remain open to many musical possibilities, including classical music, pop, film music, folk music, and music from different cultures. According to Puts, one of the greatest challenges for contemporary composers is that their works are often performed alongside masterpieces by composers such as Beethoven and Mozart. Modern composers must therefore develop excellent technique, understand how to write effectively for every instrument, and create music that performers genuinely want to play. They must also overcome the audience’s assumption that new music will automatically be dissonant, difficult, or unpleasant. Puts argues that accessible music does not have to be tonal or harmonically pleasing. What matters is the composer’s ability to communicate clearly, shape the musical journey, and guide a first-time listener through the piece. Contemporary music can express emotion not only through melody but also through harmony, texture, and different densities of sound. His advice to young musicians is to listen with an open mind and draw honestly from the musical ideas and influences they truly care about.
#30
August 11 · 55 min
Ep. 30: Interview with Oliver Dubon
Welcome to Clexical, the podcast dedicated to contemporary classical music! I'm your host, Kweku Poku. Here you will listen to conversations with living contemporary composers about their work, their journey as musicians and their thoughts on the current new music scene. Join us as we explore and influence the vibrant world of contemporary classical music. To learn about our work, please visit www.clexical.org/ You can find the videos of all the interviews we've done so far, all the outreach programs we've done with the schools and libraries, and our well;y blog posts discussing the current new music scene. Today's podcast will be conducted by Jean Park. Today, we spoke with composer Oliver Dubon, a PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Oliver did not grow up in a traditional classical music environment. He played tuba in his high school band, listened to genres such as hip-hop and indie rock, and originally entered college intending to study computer science. His interest in composition developed later, especially after meeting a composition teacher at Pomona College to shape the way he thinks about music today. Oliver described a creative process that often begins with pencil and paper. Rather than immediately writing notes into notation software, he sketches structural ideas, maps and visual shapes that show how a piece might unfold over time. He is interested in taking a small musical idea and transforming it in many different ways. In his piece Tomorrow, for example, a single C gradually expands into increasingly dense and saturated chords before returning to the original note. Through this process, Oliver explores ideas of resonance, density, tension and catharsis. Another major focus in Oliver’s work is improvisation and the relationship between composers and performers. He is interested in giving musicians more freedom to make creative choices during a performance, describing this approach as a form of “organized disorganization" or spontaneous composition. He is also increasingly interested in theatricality and physical space, including how performers move through a stage or audience and how those movements can become part of the composition itself. Oliver also shared his thoughts on the current contemporary classical music scene. He believes that some new music can become overly academic, while other music can become too simplified in an effort to be accessible. Instead, he argues that composers should create work that is both complex and deeply human while still taking the audience seriously. He emphasized that listeners should not be underestimated and that composers should trust audiences to engage with nuanced and challenging ideas. For young musicians and composers, Oliver offered two especially important pieces of advice: build community and know your history. He encouraged students to listen to music with friends, make music together, and keep the experience enjoyable. At the same time, he stressed the importance of studying earlier composers and understanding the tradition that contemporary musicians are building on. For Oliver, strong craft, historical awareness, and an individual artistic voice are all essential parts of creating meaningful music today.
#29
August 11 · 14 min
Ep. 29: Interview with Erika Dohi
Welcome to Clexical, the podcast dedicated to contemporary classical music! I’m your host, Kweku Poku. Here you will listen to conversations with living contemporary composers about their work, their journey as musicians and their thoughts on the current new music scene. Join us as we explore and influence the vibrant world of contemporary classical music. To learn more about our work, please visit www.clexical.org. You can find the videos of all the interviews we’ve done so far, all the outreach programs we’ve done with schools and libraries, and our weekly blog posts discussing the current new music scene. Today’s podcast will be conducted by Jean Park . Erika Dohi is an Osaka-born pianist, composer, and improviser in Harlem, New York. She began her composition by pulling a variety of elements from different pieces of music she listens. Erika was originally a classical pianist. Since she moved to New York, she earned her undergraduate degree and master's from the Manhattan School of Music. Erika received her doctoral degree at Stony Brook. While in college, she attended numerous concerts in New York City. Erika watched dance, movies, various collaborations, and observed different types of music outside of classical music. Those elements have influenced her to look for what she wanted to create. Erika’s compositions come from improvisation. She would often play the piano without rules, just playing what she hears. Mostly, that leads to a song or a composition. Sometimes she begins to come up with ideas, and that becomes a composition. For example, one of her pieces is called “Polaroid”, her first album. Erika had an idea of using the piano as a guitar. She learned this technique from George Crumb, an American composer. The steps are simple. First, you hold the piano keys, and then strum inside the piano, ringing certain chords. She wanted to use the technique to resemble the sound of a guitar to make it into a pop song, becoming a musical piece basically. Even though it was less of an improvisation. For Replicant, one of those pieces from her first album, by playing the piano, she put the bolts in the piano. She was improvising those pitches that she prepared. Erika started the composition on the piano from what she had said earlier. It had developed from the song, which is the Polaroid. In her second album, she explored more into writing songs; it felt like a different process. She felt that it needed to have a form more than piano improvisation. She wanted to write a few songs. For the lyrics of Replicant, the lyrics had to be Japanese. Everything felt like a new process. She usually improvised her voice and heard the melody that became the main part of the melody. Erika started to dig into beats. She started going through pop songs and more electronic pieces. Erika is interested in beat songs and synthesizers. Also, she keeps exploring compositions on the piano because it is her instrument, and she gets inspiration from classical repertoires, composers she is able to perform from their work. All of these elements are inspirations, and writing pieces on a strict acoustic piano is challenging what she has been. She wants to dive in. Erika also plays in an international ensemble.
#28
April 1 · 29 min
Ep. 28: Interview with William Cooper
William Cooper has had a very diverse career as not just a composer, but as a pianist and conductor as well. His music has been acclaimed by Augustin Hadelich, the Julliard Orchestra, Trio 180, the JACK Quartet, and the Lysander Trio, and has been performed at the Radio France Festival and the Wellesley Composer Conference. Along with holding positions on the faculty at Purdue University, Vincennes University and Interlochen Arts Camps since summer of 2010, he founded the choral department at Ben Davis University. Cooper received ASCAP awards in 2004 and 2007, and the 2012 Leo Kaplan Award, the highest prize awarded in the ASCAP Morton Gould awards. As a passionate devotee of early music, he was the recipient of the 2012 David S. Saxon award from the UC Davis music department for excellence in performance of early music. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D in music composition at UC Davis, studying composition with Pablo Ortiz, and conducting research on English Renaissance music with Jessie Ann Owens.
#27
April 1 · 28 min
Ep. 27: Interview with Amy Williams
Welcome to Clexical, the podcast dedicated to contemporary classical music! I’m your host, [Kweku Adusei-Poku]. Here you will listen to conversations with living contemporary composers about their work, their journey as musicians and their thoughts on the current new music scene. Join us as we explore and influence the vibrant world of contemporary classical music. To learn more about our work, please visit www.clexical.org. You can find videos of all the interviews we’ve done so far, the outreach programs we’ve done with schools and libraries, and our weekly blog posts discussing the current new music scene. Today’s interview will be conducted by Laurentia Woo. Amy Williams' music has been defined as “simultaneously demanding, rewarding, and fascinating,” “fresh, daring, and incisive,” and “curious and playful” Born in Buffalo New York in 1969, Williams went to Bennington College where she decided to devote her life to performing and composing contemporary works. After a fellowship in Denmark, she returned to Buffalo to complete her Master’s degree in piano performance at the University at Buffalo with pianist and composer Yvar Mikhashoff, and her Ph.D. in composition, working with David Felder, Charles Wuorinen, and Nils Vigeland. She began teaching at her alma mater, Bennington College, in 1998 as a member of the music faculty and then moved to another faculty position at Northwestern University in 2000. Since 2005, Williams has been teaching composition at the University of Pittsburgh, where she is a full professor. Amy Williams’ compositions have been presented at renowned contemporary music venues throughout the U.S., Asia, Australia, and Europe. These include the Lucerne Festival, Lincoln Center, Whitney Museum of American Art, Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, Gaudeamus Festival, Dresden Contemporary Music Days, Ars Musica, Aspekte Festival, Festival Musica Nova, and the Thailand International Composition Festival. Her works have also been performed by acclaimed ensembles such as the Pittsburgh Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Orpheus, JACK Quartet,, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Ensemble Surplus, Dal Niente, and many others.
#26
April 1 · 35 min
Ep. 26: Interview with Diana M. Rodriguez
Welcome to Clexical, the podcast dedicated to contemporary classical music! I’m your host, [Kweku Adusei-Poku]. Here you will listen to conversations with living contemporary composers about their work, their journey as musicians and their thoughts on the current new music scene. Join us as we explore and influence the vibrant world of contemporary classical music. To learn more about our work, please visit www.clexical.org. You can find videos of all the interviews we’ve done so far, the outreach programs we’ve done with schools and libraries, and our weekly blog posts discussing the current new music scene. Today’s interview will be conducted by Edward Lee. Diana M. Rodriguez is a composer, artist, and educator based in New York City. Her music is most known as a blend between Colombian folk traditions such as Joropo and Cumbia, Rock en Espanol, and Ambient soundscapes. She crafts immersive electroacoustic compositions that explore themes of identity, belonging, and the landscape of internet culture. DM R was born and raised in Bogota Colombia and attended a community college in Miami at the age of 17 which led her to pursue a PhD at Columbia University in NYC. Her work experiments in electronic music and noise, pushing the boundaries of sound art in both solo projects and collaborations. Her music has been acknowledged in multiple major ensembles and festivals, including the International Contemporary Ensemble and the MATA Festival. She has had works commissioned by Fromm Music Foundation and National Sawdusts’ Hildegard Commission Initiative.
#25
March 9 · 22 min
Ep. 25: Interview with Jeeyoung Kim
Welcome to Clexical, the podcast dedicated to contemporary classical music! I’m your host, [Kweku Adusei-Poku]. Here you will listen to conversations with living contemporary composers about their work, their journey as musicians and their thoughts on the current new music scene. Join us as we explore and influence the vibrant world of contemporary classical music. To learn more about our work, please visit www.clexical.org. You can find videos of all the interviews we’ve done so far, the outreach programs we’ve done with schools and libraries, and our weekly blog posts discussing the current new music scene. Today’s interview will be conducted by Edward Lee. Jeeyoung Kim is an acclaimed Korean-born composer. She defines her work as a harmonization of the unique cultural aspects of Eastern and Western traditions; Deconstructing and rebuilding cultural heritage through music. She is committed to the power music has to heal, connect, and be a medium for creative expression. With an extensive educational background, Kim studied music composition at Yonsei University in Seoul South Korea for her bachelor’s, Indiana University for her Masters in music, and she earned her Doctorate of Musical Arts from Yale University. Kim received the Bunting Fellowship at Harvard University where she composed and researched Asian music and philosophy. In addition to her astounding level of education, Kim has received a multitude of awards and fellowships including recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts, International Alliance for Women in Music, National Association of Composers, Meet the Composer, the Dale Warland Singers New Music Competition, Jerome Foundation, Aspen Music Festival, and many others. Her compositions have been performed by renowned orchestras and ensembles such as the Korean Broadcasting System Orchestra, Chanticleer, Czech National Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, KBS Korean Traditional Music Orchestra, Contemporary Gugak Orchestra, Suwon Philharmonic, Daejeon Philharmonic, and Empire State Youth Orchestra.
#24
February 21 · 25 min
Ep. 24: Interview with Richard Wilson
Richard Wilson is an incredibly prolific composer, having over a hundred works for a wide variety of instruments and ensembles. His compositions have been performed by a number of celebrated groups and artists including Dawn Upshaw, the Chicago Quartet, the San Francisco Symphony, and the London Philharmonic. Wilson has received many accolades for his works including an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Creative Arts Award in Music from the City of Cleveland, the Stoeger Award from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Also a renowned pedagogue, Wilson taught at Vassar College for fifty years, where he served as the Mary Conover Mellon Professor of Music. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, he started out learning piano and cello, with his teachers being Leonard Shure and Ernst Silberstein respectively. In his early musical studies, he studied at the Cleveland Music School Settlement. In 1963, Wilson graduated from Harvard University where he was a recipient of the Frank Huntington Beebe Award. He has been a composer-in-residence with the American Symphony Orchestra since 1992.
#23
February 14 · 28 min
Ep. 23: Interview with Chris Arrell
Chris Arrell is a celebrated composer and teacher. His incredible works have led to commissions from many prestigious organizations including Spivey Hall, Cornell University, and the Fromm Foundation at Harvard University. He has received worldwide recognition for his works including Bent Frequency Underscore Prize, the Ettelson Composer Award, the Ossia Music Prize, and awards from the League of Composers/ISCM, the Salvatore Martirano Competition, the MacDowell and ACA colonies, and the Fulbright Hays Foundation. Additionally, he has had many incredible ensembles perform his works including Bent Frequency, Brave New Works, and the Boston New Music Initiative. Originally from Oregon, Arrell received his doctorate in musical arts from Cornell University before going on to work as Director of Theory and Composition at Clayton State University. Currently, he teaches at the College of the Holy Cross, where he leads courses in music theory and computer music. With a distinct sound that has been praised for its “unconventional beauty,” Arrell’s works continue to amaze audiences around the globe.
#22
February 7 · 36 min
Ep. 22: Interview with Jeff Scott
Welcome to Clexical, the podcast dedicated to contemporary classical music! I’m your host, [Kweku Adusei-Poku]. Here you will listen to conversations with living contemporary composers about their work, their journey as musicians and their thoughts on the current new music scene. Join us as we explore and influence the vibrant world of contemporary classical music. To learn more about our work, please visit www.clexical.org. You can find videos of all the interviews we’ve done so far, the outreach programs we’ve done with schools and libraries, and our weekly blog posts discussing the current new music scene. Today’s interview will be conducted by Laurentia Woo. Jeff Scott is a Grammy Award winning composer and educator. He defines his work as an intersection between European classical tradition and African American cultural expression, what he calls Urban Classical Music. Rather than a hybrid or compromise, his music is a reclamation that draws from the harmonic rigor of Western art music and the rhythmic vitality, emotional depth, and communal spirit of Black American life. It’s shaped by his urban upbringing and the stories that surround him. Born in Queens, NY, Scott began playing the french horn at age 14, when he received a scholarship to attend the Brooklyn College Preparatory Division. His further education includes a bachelor’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music where he studied with David Jolley, and a master’s from SUNY at Stony Brook where he studied with Willian Purvis. He later continued his horn studies with Scott Brubaker and the late Jerome Ashby. For more than 20 years following, Scott served as the French hornist of the Imani Winds. This position allowed him to perform at Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Kennedy Center, and countless other prominent stages. His most recent commissions and performances include collaborations with the Detroit Symphony, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Music Detroit, and other notable ensembles and soloists across the country. As an educator, Scott believes in inviting his students and performers to hear themselves in the classical music canon. His goal is to allow them to see their stories, their neighborhoods, and their ancestry reflected in concert halls. He wants his audience to feel the urgency and beauty of music from the lived experience.
#21
February 7 · 27 min
Ep. 21: Interview with Daniel Asia
Daniel Asia is a prolific composer and educator. His works for orchestra have been commissioned and performed by numerous major orchestras across the U.S. and the world. His work has earned him numerous prestigious awards and fellowships including a Fulbright Arts Award Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Aaron Copland Fund for Music Grant, and numerous prizes in composition from ASCAP and BMI. His achievements also allowed him to be inducted into the American Academy of Sciences and Letters in 2024. He worked as an Assistant Professor of Contemporary Music and Wind Ensemble at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music from 1981-1986, and from 1998-2024, served as a professor of music at the University of Arizona. Mr. Asia is also a respected author, with his book, Observations on Music, Culture and Politics, being published in 2021. He is currently the president of Polyhymnia, a platform dedicated to discussions about fine arts, economics, politics, philosophy, and culture. Originally from Seattle, Washington, Mr. Asia graduated with a Masters in Music from the Yale School of Music, with his major composition teachers including Jacob Druckman, Stephen Albert, Gunther Schuller, and Isang Yun. He has a large portfolio of published works for a wide range of instruments including 6 symphonies for orchestra.
#20
January 24 · 32 min
Ep. 20: Interview with Chaya Czernowin
Chaya Czernowin (χaja t͡ʃɛʁˈnobin) is an acclaimed composer and educator. Her work is characterized by attempts to find alternative temporalities, changing perspectives and scale, and fragmentation, all coupled with a high emotional intensity. She makes direct reference to the use of metaphors as a means of reaching an unfamiliar sound space and the use of noise and physical parameters such as weight and textural surface, and an inquiry of the handling of time. These ways of thinking fuse her work with multi-sensory content and work to reach a sonic expression into the subconscious that goes beyond style, conventions, and rationality. Although born and raised in Israel, Czernowin continued her studies in Germany through the DAAD grant, the US, Tokyo, through the Asahi Shimbun Fellowship and American NEA grant, and finally back in Germany through a fellowship at the Akademie Scholl Solitude. Czernowin considers teaching to be an important aspect of her continued compositional development. She held professorship at UCSD and was the first woman to be appointed as a composition professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna from 2006-2009, and at Harvard University where she has been the Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music. Along with Steven Kazuo Takasugi and Jean-Baptiste Jolly, she has founded the summer Academy at Schloss Solitude, a bi-annual course for composers. Czernowin’s works have been performed in most of the significant new music festivals in Europe and also in Japan, Korea, Australia, US, and Canada. Her works have been commissioned by Vlaamse Opera Belgium, IRCAM Paris, Mannheim Stadtheater, and the Deutsche Opere Berlin. Her opera Infinite Now, commissioned in 2017, combines materials of the first world war with the short story “Homecoming" by Can Xue. This opera was chosen as the premier of the year in the international critics survey of Opernwelt.
#19
January 23 · 34 min
Ep. 19: Interview with Sam Nichols
Dr. Sam Nichols is a renowned composer, musician, and educator. He has written works for a variety of ensembles and organizations including the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University, the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Earplay, the Empyrean Ensemble, and the Composers Conference at Wellesley College. Dr. Nichols has also won numerous awards for his compositions including the 2011 Lee Ettelson Composer’s Award for his string quartet, Refuge, as well as 3rd prize in the 2010 Salvatore Martirano Memorial Composition. Born in rural Maine, Dr. Nichols studied at Vassar College and Brandeis University, where he received his PhD in 2006. He has studied with many renowned teachers including Ross Bauer, Eric Chasalow, Annea Lockwood, David Rakowski, Richard Wilson, and Yehudi Wyner, Marty Boykan, and Terry Champlin. Since 2002, Dr. Nichols has taught at the University of California Davis, where he currently serves as the chair of the music department. He works as a professor of teaching, and also teaches music theory, electronic music, and composition.
#18
Jun 3, 2024 · 37 min
Ep. 18: Interview with Osnat Netzer
Osnat Netzer /osˈnat ˈnɛtsɛʁ/ is a composer, performer and educator. Osnat creates her compositions collaboratively, tailoring her work to the performer’s sensibilities, physicality and improvisational inclinations. She takes inspiration from cognitive linguistics, and in dialogue with the embodied experience of physical forces, such as potential and kinetic energy, resulting in compositions that are rich in musical languages and connected to the fulsome pursuit for tension and relaxation. Born in Haifa, Israel, Netzer studied composition and piano at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, where her primary composition teacher was Menachem Zur. She came to the United States in 2003 for graduate studies in composition with Robert Cuckson at Mannes school of Music and continued her studies with Lee Hyla at New England Conservatory, where she earned her doctorate in 2011. In 2019, she joined the faculty of DePaul University, where she is now Associate Professor of Composition and Musicianship. Netzer’s works have been commissioned and performed by Ensemble Dal Niente, ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble), Patchwork, mezzo-soprano Lucy Dhegrae, bass David Salsbery Fry, saxophonists Kenneth Radnofsky, Doug O’Connor and Geoffrey Landman, Spektral Quartet, and Winsor Music, among many others, published by Edition Peters and earthsongs, and recorded on Bridge Records and New Focus Recordings. Her opera, The Wondrous Woman Within, was described as “riotously funny” in The New York Times when its first scene was performed at New York City Opera’s VOX festival in 2012 and “challenging and fascinating” by critic Amir Kidron when it received its World Premiere in a sold out run at Tel Aviv’s Cameri Theatre in 2015. As a pianist and performer, she regularly plays and conducts new music by fellow composers, as well as her own songs and compositions. Also a committed and passionate educator, Netzer teaches at The Walden School and has served on the faculties of New England Conservatory, Longy School of Music of Bard College and Harvard University.

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