Best Contemporary Composition Podcasts (2025)

1
Bernd Roeck, "The World at First Light: A New History of the Renaissance" (Princeton UP, 2025) 54:00

14h ago54:00

54:00

Today I’m speaking with Bernd Roeck about his book, The World at First Light: A New History of the Renaissance (Princeton University Press, 2025). Bernd is professor of modern history at the University of Zurich and director of the German Centre for Venetian Studies in Venice. Translated by Patrick Baker, The World at First Light is a truly magiste…

1
Christoph Hartmann: Oboist of the Berliner Philharmoniker and Instructor at the Freiburg Musikhochschule - "Live Your Dreams" 51:44

1d ago51:44

51:44

For those looking for an example of a life lived with both artistic excellence and personal richness, oboist Christoph Hartmann is an inspiring model. A member of the Berlin Philharmonic since 1992, Christoph is not only a world-class orchestral musician but also a sought-after soloist and chamber player. He teaches at the Freiburg Musikhochschule,…

1
David Crystal, "Bookish Words and Their Surprising Stories" (Bodleian Library, 2025) 48:35

3d ago48:35

48:35

In Bookish Words & their Surprising Stories (Bodleian, 2025) by Dr. David Crystal, explore how books have played a pivotal role in the history of English vocabulary. The noun itself is one of the oldest words in the language, originating from boc in Old English, and appears in many commonly used expressions today – by the book, bring to book and bo…

1
Noise - Episode June 19, 2025

3d ago

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Special Interview with Jani Parsons & Chris Sies ahead of the 2025 Sound Atlas: Sonic Playground festival! Playlist: Dial Up - Like a Bug On A Windshield Unknown Mortal Orchestra - DEATH COMES FROM THE SKY Uzeb - Not Even the Shadow of the Tail of a Lizard Mary Halvorson - Absinthian Mary Lattimore - Wawa by the Ocean Hermitess - Three Bells Juri S…

1
Emmanuel Akyeampong, "Independent Africa: The First Generation of Nation Builders" (Indiana UP, 2023) 1:25:27

4d ago1:25:27

1:25:27

Independent Africa: The First Generation of Nation Builders (Indiana UP, 2023)explores Africa's political economy in the first two full decades of independence through the joint projects of nation-building, economic development, and international relations. Drawing on the political careers of four heads of states: Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Ahmed Séko…

1
Mark Somos, Matthew Cleary, Pablo Dufour, Edward Jones Corredera, and Emanuele Salerno, "The Unseen History of International Law" (Oxford UP, 2025) 1:05:37

6d ago1:05:37

1:05:37

The Unseen History of International Law (Oxford University Press, 2025) locates and describes almost one thousand surviving copies of the first nine editions of Hugo Grotius' De iure belli ac pacis (IBP) published between 1625 and 1650. Meticulously reconstructing the publishing history of these first nine editions and cataloguing copies across hun…

1
Frederick Reece, "Forgery in Musical Composition: Aesthetics, History, and the Canon" (Oxford University Press, 2025) 1:04:07

6d ago1:04:07

1:04:07

We all know about art forgeries, but why write fake classical music? In Forgery in Musical Composition: Aesthetics, History, and the Canon (Oxford University Press, 2025), Dr. Frederick Reece investigates the methods and motives of mysterious musicians who sign famous historical names like Haydn, Mozart, and Schubert to their own original works. An…

1
Ep. 123 - Improving Ensemble Intonation and Listening Skills - Albert Pinsonneault 50:22

6d ago50:22

50:22

“We ended up forming a new string orchestra at the high school, and I led every rehearsal and conducted every concert. I remember the very first day. I looked at my teacher and said, ‘how do you start them? Do I breathe?’ I tried something, and it didn’t work. Then I did the sniff, and everyone came in. Now I teach conducting, and what I want to gi…

1
Introducing The Critical Edition of the Works of C. G. Jung 15:33

7d ago15:33

15:33

"Princeton University Press is thrilled to share news of a major new initiative: the publication of The Critical Edition of the Works of C. G. Jung. As the longtime publisher of the Collected Works of C. G. Jung in North America, PUP is honored to be global publisher of the Critical Edition, having recently secured world language rights and the sup…

1
Brook Ziporyn, "Experiments in Mystical Atheism: Godless Epiphanies from Daoism to Spinoza and Beyond" (U Chicago Press, 2024) 2:07:54

7d ago2:07:54

2:07:54

A new approach to the theism-scientism divide rooted in a deeper form of atheism. Western philosophy is stuck in an irresolvable conflict between two approaches to the spiritual malaise of our times: either we need more God (the “turn to religion”) or less religion (the New Atheism). In Experiments in Mystical Atheism: Godless Epiphanies from Daois…

1
J. McKenzie Alexander, "The Open Society as an Enemy: A Critique of how Free Societies Turned Against Themselves" (LSE Press, 2024) 1:11:26

9d ago1:11:26

1:11:26

The Open Society as an Enemy: A critique of how free societies turned against themselves by J. McKenzie Alexander Nearly 80 years ago, Karl Popper gave a spirited philosophical defence of the Open Society in his two-volume work, The Open Society and Its Enemies. In this book, J. McKenzie Alexander argues that a new defence is urgently needed becaus…

1
Noise - Episode June 12, 2025

10d ago

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Acclaimed musician and artist Sandra Sutter stops by NOISE ahead of her new album Shadow Stories (Out on June 13th!), and her album launch concert on June 14th at Arts Commons Engineered Air Theatre! Playlist: Sandra Sutter - Sunshine Child Sandra Sutter - Rebound Jolie Laide - Small Things Lung - Everlasting Nothingness PJ Harvey - A Noiseless Noi…

1
Elizabeth Suzanne Kassab, "Contemporary Arab Thought: Cultural Critique in Comparative Perspective" (Columbia UP, 2025) 29:16

12d ago29:16

29:16

In the last third of the twentieth century, the Arab intellectual and political scene polarized between totalizing doctrines—nationalist, Marxist, and religious—and radical critique. Arab thinkers were reacting to the disenchanting experience of postindependence and a widespread sense of malaise, as well as to authoritarianism, intolerance, injusti…

1
Ep. 122 - Music and Mission in LGBTQ+ and Senescent Choruses - Tim Seelig 55:11

12d ago55:11

55:11

“Everything changed for the gay choral movement because they had twins: music and mission. They weren’t just there for the music, and they weren’t just there for the mission. I’ve been feeding my twins every day, and I feed them equally. Audiences that are interested in just music for music making are dying out. There are a lot more reasons to get …

1
Deborah Rutter, Part 1: Insights from the arts executive of the LA Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Chicago Symphony, and Kennedy Center 59:12

15d ago59:12

59:12

In the world of arts administration, few careers can rival the breadth and impact of Deborah Rutter’s. Her journey began with an early role working under the legendary Ernest Fleischmann at the Los Angeles Philharmonic and evolved into a series of leadership positions at some of the most prominent institutions in the United States. She has served a…

1
Noise - Episode June 5, 2025

17d ago

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Playlist: Underground Wires - Searching for Evidence (The Chase Is On) Eye of Newt - Origin Two-Story Amanda Mur - Vapah Mythmaking - Death Is an Exhale John Maus - Quantum Leap wihtikow - ᒥᔪᑮᑭᓭᐹᔮᐤ Lahar - Control Paxillus Succubus - One day in prison Landerim - Little Boy Crystal Landerim - Shallow Draw Pet Retina - Previously on Family Guy... Unk…

1
Brando Simeo Starkey, "Their Accomplices Wore Robes: How the Supreme Court Chained Black America to the Bottom of a Racial Caste System" (Doubleday, 2025) 1:02:39

17d ago1:02:39

1:02:39

Their Accomplices Wore Robes: How the Supreme Court Chained Black America to the Bottom of a Racial Caste System (Doubleday, 2025) takes readers from the Civil War era to the present and describes how the Supreme Court, even more than the presidency or Congress, aligned with the enemies of Black progress to undermine the promise of the Constitution…

1
Questions: A Discussion with Leslie Butler and Holly Case 1:36:39

17d ago1:36:39

1:36:39

BOOKS UNDER DISCUSSION: Leslie Butler, Consistent Democracy: The "Woman Question" and Self-Government in Nineteenth-Century America (Oxford University Press, 2023). Holly Case, The Age of Questions: Or, A First Attempt at an Aggregate History of the Eastern, Social, Woman, American, Jewish, Polish, Bullion, Tuberculosis, and Many Other Questions ov…

1
Christoph Schuringa, "Karl Marx and the Actualization of Philosophy" (Cambridge UP, 2025) 51:29

19d ago51:29

51:29

It is indisputable that Marx began his intellectual trajectory as a philosopher, but it is often thought that he subsequently turned away from philosophy. In Karl Marx and the Actualization of Philosophy (Cambridge University Press, 2025), Christoph Schuringa proposes a radically different reading of Marx's intellectual project and demonstrates tha…

1
Ep. 121 - Choral Collaboration with the Choir Guys: Daniel Gutierrez and Blake Richter 50:36

20d ago50:36

50:36

"I start every morning at the junior high, and we co-teach together. It's great for alignment in the program, for familiarity with the students and getting to know them and hopefully continuing in choir. Our students see that we collaborate. I like that they can see that because it shows them how to go about relationships. People need be modeled ho…

1
Jack Ashby, "Nature's Memory: Behind the Scenes at the World’s Natural History Museums" (Penguin, 2025) 59:12

22d ago59:12

59:12

In Nature's Memory: Behind the Scenes at the World’s Natural History Museums (Penguin, 2025), zoologist Jack Ashby shares hidden stories behind the world’s iconic natural history museums, from enormous mounted whale skeletons to cabinets of impossibly tiny insects. Look closely and all is not as it seems: these museums are not as natural, Ashby sho…

1
Catriona M.M. MacDonald, "The Caledoniad: The Making of Scottish History" (John Donald, 2024) 44:50

23d ago44:50

44:50

Why did Scots in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries know so little about their past and even less about those who controlled their history? Is the historical narrative the only legitimate medium through which the past can be made known? Are novelists and historians as far apart as convention has it? In an age when history grounds any claims to …

1
Derek J. Penslar, "Zionism: An Emotional State" (Rutgers UP, 2023) 1:02:12

24d ago1:02:12

1:02:12

Emotion lies at the heart of all national movements, and Zionism is no exception. For those who identify as Zionist, the word connotes liberation and redemption, uniqueness and vulnerability. Yet for many, Zionism is a source of distaste if not disgust, and those who reject it are no less passionate than those who embrace it. The power of such emot…

1
Yitzhak Conforti, "Zionism and Jewish Culture: A Study in the Origins of a National Movement" (Academic Studies Press, 2024) 55:50

25d ago55:50

55:50

What many people don’t realize is that Zionism is not a monolithic term. From its inception there were rigorous debates about the nature and direction of the movement? Thinkers had argued about some of the fundamental questions around Israel. Where would a future Jewish state be located? What language would they speak? Should Israel come about thro…

1
Dan Sperrin, "State of Ridicule: A History of Satire in English Literature" (Princeton UP, 2025) 53:06

26d ago53:06

53:06

Satire is a funny, aggressive, and largely oppositional literature which is typically created by people who refuse to participate in a given regime’s perception of itself. Although satire has always been a primary literature of state affairs, and although it has always been used to intervene in ongoing discussions about political theory and practic…

1
Kirsten Macfarlane, "Lay Learning and the Bible in the Seventeenth-Century Atlantic World" (Oxford UP, 2024) 45:49

27d ago45:49

45:49

Early modernity has long been seen as a crucial period in the history of biblical scholarship, witnessing rapid advances in studies of Hebrew, Greek, and the ancient Jewish and Christian past. Historians have devoted much attention to how these developments were received by the academic and clerical elite, and yet there is little research on their …

1
Nour Monday Monologue [MM[: Curating Your Life & Finding Your Unique Voice in a Copy-Paste World 17:18

27d ago17:18

17:18

Authentic curation stands as a revolutionary act in a world drowning in sameness. What began as an intentional practice of selecting and editing life's experiences has morphed into a misunderstood buzzword—thrown around by brands without truly grasping its essence. But true curation runs deeper than aesthetic choices; it's about discernment, indivi…

1
Anne C. Klein on Becoming a Buddha & Being Human too 1:28:47

28d ago1:28:47

1:28:47

You’re human, but are you also a Buddha? If so, which one comes first? What does it mean to be human? What is a Buddha exactly? Is our humanity lost or superseded if we become a Buddha? Such questions might interest our more philosophical listeners. Being Human and a Buddha Too (Wisdom Publications, 2023) by today’s guest Anne Klein explores the 7-…

1
Book Talk 66: Political Hope, with Loren Goldman 1:29:13

30d ago1:29:13

1:29:13

How to find hope in these times? I spoke with political scientist Loren Goldman about the principle of political hope: why we should have hope, how to have hope in dark times, and how political hope differs from naïve optimism, faith in progress, or passive reliance on a hidden logic that will save us in the end. Goldman, who is Associate Professor…

1
Jennifer T. Roberts, "Out of One, Many: Ancient Greek Ways of Thought and Culture" (Princeton UP, 2024) 1:38:33

30d ago1:38:33

1:38:33

Covering the whole of the ancient Greek experience from its beginnings late in the third millennium BCE to the Roman conquest in 30 BCE, Out of One, Many: Ancient Greek Ways of Thought and Culture (Princeton UP, 2024) is an accessible and lively introduction to the Greeks and their ways of living and thinking. In this fresh and witty exploration of…

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