Music Crush with FNMC

Kari Cruver Medina was born a composer and storyteller! She prefers to live a life which dwells in possibilities (thank you, Emily Dickinson), and chooses to “tend and befriend” whenever she can. Today she chats with Nicole and Elizabeth about not doing it all in favor of a life led with intentionality and exploration. We also learn more about her wildly varied duet for flutes, Cabinet of Curiosities, an FNMC competition winner in ...

Are you regularly cooking up new, complicated projects in need of funding? This episode’s for you. Elizabeth reveals her super-secret project, South Dakota Chamber Winds, which came to fruition this past summer. What follows is a pretty specific discussion about how to strategize for grant writing, how to survive running The Thing, and for dessert, a delightful lil’ name drop of some perhaps new-to-you composers you should know....

An eclectic and versatile performer, NYC-based clarinetist Chris Grymes has made a name for himself in the new music scene, as a performer, show producer, and the founder of Open G Records, which he started in 2012. Today he talks about his decades-long friendship with Joan Tower, the surprisingly inherent music of Jiu-Jitsu, and the guiding principle that drives his choice of projects: making nice stuff with his friends. He cons...

 Up-and-coming composer, Dianna Link, won FNMC’s Composition Competition in 2023 with her flute-piano piece, “Old As Time”. It’s a feminist reimagining of the tale of Beauty and the Beast, and she spoke with us about her interest in exploring themes of resilience and self-determination in her reworking of this classic fairy tale. She also discusses the existential crisis of having to fit neatly into one box in school, her inspiri...

Composer Reena Esmail sat down with us today to fill in some background for the beautiful new solo flute piece that FNMC recently commissioned, Pathways of Desire. She also shared some surprising insights on the differences (musical and pedagogical) between Western and Hindustani classical musics, discussed the value of carving your own path, and revealed the secret to pleasing her with your performance! A teacher at heart, she’s c...

Flutist Christine Erlander Beard enjoys an active international career as a soloist, chamber artist and teacher. You may know her from her current commissioning project, #theflutistactivist initiative. Today she joins Elizabeth and Nicole to discuss her social advocacy work, both on and off stage, her lifelong love affair with the piccolo, and the importance of teaching the whole person, with your whole self. 

https://www.christi...

Expat flutist Chelsea Czuchra is puzzling over the divide between “classical” and popular music in Western culture and how to build an authentic bridge to art music in our communities that doesn’t involve academia. We don’t exactly figure out the answer in this delightful chat, but we’re confident you will be as charmed and fascinated by her Switzerland-based work as we were! 

Making Music in Looking Glass Land: https://archive.org...

Polish flutist Alicia Molitorys speaks with us today about how she got interested in new music despite the lack of early support, the amazing and unique perspective of growing up in Poland and then studying in the West as a young adult, and fills us in a little bit on one of her latest projects, “Dark Sky” with composer Allison Ogden. We got interested in Alicja’s work after she applied to perform at FNMC’s New Music Festival,...

In the lead-up to FNMC’s New Music Festival, we caught up with composer Brandon Nelson, whose music for Triage Woodwinds will be featured in a concert there. He discusses the wealth of opportunities that can result from growing up in a small town, the adventure of learning how to play recorder as an adult, and the very modern experience of meeting collaborators on Twitter. Living in an isolated place (the beautiful UP of Michigan...

Elizabeth and Nicole are getting ready for FNMC’s New Music Festival! Today they talk about how proposals were selected for this festival, and perhaps it’ll provide a new perspective for people who propose in the future, and to other conferences/festivals as well. So if you’ve ever been rejected from a festival, we’ve been there too, and we’ve got some tips! Elizabeth’s hair looks great, by the way. 

Here are the deets on our upc...

 Self-proclaimed “all-purpose nerd” Linda Antas is a composer, arts technologist, flutist, and educator on the faculty at Montana State University. Her current research involves audiovisual works, real-time signal processing, sonification, and physical computing. Today, she shares her thoughts on walking in the woods, meditation, and keeping your hands on your instrument whether or not you’re performing regularly. Listen on for s...

This one’s not about new music, folks. Nicole is processing the hard truths on Katherine Needleman’s Facebook and confronting her own accidental complicity in the past, while Elizabeth reminds us of some various cultural phenomena proving that the 90s wasn’t as great for women as we thought back then. And yes, a certain flutist fellow does come up. What do you do, as the grown-up in the room, when younger people need your supp...

Composer and author Dale Trumbore discusses her book, Staying Composed: Overcoming Anxiety and Self-Doubt Within a Creative Life and shares some of her philosophies, including seeing the music she writes as a memoir, embracing the suckitude in the creative process, vaccinating yourself against meanness, and applying the Girl Scout motto to her work. We adored our time with her and know you will too! 

https://www.daletrumbore.com/

Picking up from our previous conversation, Elizabeth opens with a story about her feminist radicalization (just kidding–there is no such thing) and small world, Alex was there too! Alex explains how she left the rat race of SoCal for a tiny island off Washington state, describes composition as improvising in slow motion and reminds us that it’s always worth being kind. Enter some shared wise words about appreciating your own musi...

Celebrated composer and author Alex Shapiro and Nicole trip down memory lane recalling Alex’s residency at University of Wyoming, and Nicole asks “what do you get out of it?” Alex describes being an extroverted introvert, the “warm fuzzies” she gets from her composer community. Nicole mentions the weirdness of being a woman. Elizabeth, Alex, and Nicole also deconstruct bro culture and conclude that the key is education through...

Jacob Thiede is a composer and saxophonist from Murray, Kentucky, where the smell of tobacco barns and honeysuckle fill the air. He holds a PhD in Music Composition from the University of North Texas and currently finds himself as a financial advisor for TIAA. Today, Jake chats about his compositional experiments with white noise, the relationship between music and light, and his application of ride rhythms from heavy metal to me...

College freshman Christian Yom, winner of FNMC’s 2023 Composition Competition for his chamber piece Sansori, was kind enough to talk to these two middle-aged ladies today about his love for Korean food and traditional music, Ravel, and lifelong learning. He encouraged us to dream big, take risks, and appreciate rejection as a part of the learning process. 

https://www.christianyom.com/

Sansori: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEU...