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Amanda Cook

Amanda Cook (she/her) is a music critic and digital editor based in the Twin Cities. She is the Editor of I CARE IF YOU LISTEN.
Ali Balighi -- Photo by Venus Bayat

5 Questions to Ali Balighi (composer)

Composer, electroacoustic musician, and educator Ali Balighi seems most comfortable in the unstable...
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Ali Balighi, Post Orientalism Music
Mari Esabel Valverde -- Photo by Veronique Kherian

ListN Up Playlist: Mari Esabel Valverde (June 18, 2026)

Mari Esabel Valverde is an award-winning transgender Mexican-American composer in steady demand in t...
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21V, Amir Rabiyah, Andrew Yee, California All-State Choir, Katherine FitzGibbon, Mari Esabel Valverde, Melissa Attebury, Melissa Dunphy, Resonance Ensemble, SACRA/PROFANA, Saunder Choi, Seattle Pro Musica, Tove Ditlevsen, Trinity Choir
Ekmeles -- Photo by Bill Wadman

Microtonality and Virtuosity Collide on Ekmeles’ “Nonsongs”

It isn’t often that performers approach microtonal music armed only with a set of tuning forks and t...
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Charlotte Mundy, Ekmeles, Elisa Sutherland, George Lewis, Iwo Jedynecki, Jeffrey Gavett, Katherine Balch, New Focus Recordings, Plainsound, Steven Hrycelak, Timothy Parsons, Tomás Cruz, Wolfgang von Schweinitz
Danielle Jagelski and JL Marlor -- Courtesy of artists

Danielle Jagelski and JL Marlor Compose America

In the 250th anniversary of the United States, we might expect programming that focuses on the Found...
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Amy Beach, Danielle Jagelski, Erin Schwab, Florence Price, JL Marlor, Joan Tower, Michelle Rofrano, Nadia Boulanger, PROTESTRA, Valerie Coleman
Nnux (Ana E. López) -- Photo by Martha Maya

On “Metamorfosis,” Nnux Mines Transformative Feminine Power

Metamorfosis opens with a yell. In “Tormentas,” a deity loosely based on the Aztec goddess of earth...
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Ana E. López, AVAJI, Matt Marks Impact Fund, Nnux, Paulina Parga
Vicki Ray in Wild Up,

Music, Mysticism, and Quiet Radicalism in Wild Up’s “The Interior Castle”

In a world of constant connectivity, what do we gain from looking within? Wild Up’s Jun. 6 program,...
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Christopher Rountree, Eliza Bagg, Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru, Hildegard von Bingen, Isabella Leonarda, M.A. Tiesenga, REDCAT, Wild Up
Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe -- Courtesy of artist

Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe Crafts Sonic Cinema on “Manifestations in the Shadow of an Uncertain Land”

Sound artist, composer, and visual creator Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe has developed a singular artistic...
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Charmaine Lee, Damon Locks, Kou Records, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe
Lia Kohl -- Photo by Leah Wendzinski

ListN Up Playlist: Lia Kohl (June 4, 2026)

Lia Kohl is a composer and sound artist based in Chicago. Her wide-ranging practice includes composi...
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Alain Peters, Egil Kalmen, Floating Points, FRANKIE & Battle-ax, James Holden, Lia Kohl, Maalem Mahmoud Guinia, Macie Stewart, Whitney Johnson
Glenn Branca and Reg Bloor -- Photo by Richard McCaffrey

Reg Bloor Steps Up to the Podium for the NYC Return of Glenn Branca’s Symphony No. 13

When Glenn Branca’s Symphony No. 13 (“Hallucination City”) for 100 Guitars was first performed at th...
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Glenn Branca, Glenn Branca Ensemble, Lincoln Center, Reg Bloor
Char Jeré at Roulette Intermedium -- Photo by Aiden Li

Char Jeré and Guests Mold Time and Space in “Planet/Tear”

“A shifting environment of unstable systems … Signals emerge, overlap, and dissolve, forming a tempo...
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Braxton, C. Spencer Yeh, Char Jeré, Maggie Boyd, Michael Candy, pap souleye fall, Rena Anakwe, Roulette, Roulette Intermedium
Photo by Tosan Dudun, courtesy of Unsplash

Colgate Is Not Toothpaste: On Classical Music, Art Music, and the Theft of a Category

I grew up in Bogotá in the late ‘80s. Toothpaste was no longer called “toothpaste” — it was Colgate.
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art music, Bad Bunny, classical music, Nirvana
TellTale Opera Theatre Team (L-R: Ben Ross, Meg Huskin, Elisheva Pront, and Michael Mills -- Courtesy of TellTale Opera Theatre

5 Questions to TellTale Opera Theatre

In the landscape of modern opera performance, everyone seems to be fighting an uphill battle. Compos...
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Ben Ross, Elisheva Pront, Magdelena Ensemble, Meg Huskin, Michael Mills, Mira Fu-en Huang, TellTale Opera Theatre
Lazyhorse -- Courtesy of artist

For Lazyhorse, Fragments of Ideas are Opportunities for Transformation

There’s often a moment in a group improvisation where musicians let go of trying to make sense of ea...
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Andy Meyerson, Mali Obomsawin, Miriam Elhajli, Raven Chacon, Steve Hammond, The Living Earth Show, Travis Andrews
Sanaya Ardeshir -- Photo by Sumaiya Sayed

ListN Up Playlist: Sanaya Ardeshir (May 21, 2026)

Sanaya Ardeshir (she/her) is an Indian producer and composer, with a parallel practice in electronic...
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BBC Symphony Orchestra, Charles Mingus, Dimlite, Gustav Holst, Mount Kimbie, Nala Sinephro, Nils Frahm, Sanaya Ardeshir, Sandunes, Susanna Mälkki, Suzanne Ciani
TAK Ensemble -- Photo by Titilayo Ayangade

The Substance of Silence on TAK Ensemble’s “Between the Air”

Though air hangs all around us, it’s usually imperceptible. But when it moves, we hear it. A gale ru...
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Bethany Younge, Eric Wubbels, Golnaz Shariatzadeh, Lewis Nielson, TAK Ensemble, Tyshawn Sorey
Standard Issue at Dig That Treasure! Festival 2026 -- Photo by Carl Northcote

The Ecstatic Experience of Dig That Treasure! Festival 2026

I don’t think I have ever seen the audience at Cafe Oto so animated and so joyful as they were on th...
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Abul Mogard, Ailís Ní Ríain, Cafe OTO, Canab Marwo, Dig That Treasure! Festival, DNA? AND?, Eric Chenaux, Fievel Is Glauque, Harry Górski-Brown, IKLECTIK Art Lab, Jennifer Walshe, Lawrence Casserley, Michelle Hromin, Mohammad Syfkhan, Rafael Anton Irisarri, standard issue, Tilly Coulton
Malachi Brown -- Courtesy of artist

Malachi Brown and the Sounds of U.S.

For more than a century, the New York City neighborhood of Harlem has been a synchedoche for Black a...
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Alexander Davis, Malachi Brown, Recomposing America, Sugar Hill Salon
SydeBoob -- Courtesy of artist

SydeBoob Duo’s “Au Naturel” is a Bold and Athletic Debut

As SydeBoob Duo, soprano Anna Elder and flutist Sarah Steranka perform bold and athletic repertoire...
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Anna Elder, Anthony Braxton, Beat Furrer, Eric Moe, Max Johnson, Ramin Akhavijou, Rebecca Saunders, Sarah Steranka, SydeBoob Duo
Goal Weight (Marguerite Cox and Jennifer Gersten) -- Photo by Vivian Wang

Chance Meeting Leads to Fruitful Collaboration on Goal Weight’s “Keep Telling Yourself That”

What does it mean to bring a project to life with a collaborator you met by chance — say, at a celeb...
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Goal Weight, Jennifer Gersten, Marguerite Cox, Relative Pitch Records
CHAINES and Laura van der Heijden perform at Manchester Collective's

Music Flies Free in “Papillons” from Manchester Collective

The tagline for the Southbank Centre’s Multitudes festival is ‘a multi-arts festival powered by orch...
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Anssi Karttunen, Camberwell Incredibles, Cee Haines, CHAINES, Daniel Hay-Gordon, El Perry, Imogen Holst, Kaija Saariaho, Laura van der Heijden, Manchester Collective, Thick & Tight
Kavyesh Kaviraj -- Photo by Benny Moreno

Kavyesh Kaviraj Wears His Influences on His Sleeve – And Reminds Us of Our Common Humanity

“One might describe [my style] as a patchwork: you can really find the seams when you’re browsing th...
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American Composers Forum, Ernest Bisong, Grant West, Kavyesh Kaviraj, Khamara Pettus, Recomposing America, Reverend Carl Walker, Walker|West Music Academy
International Contemporary Ensemble at Hannah Kendall Composer Portrait -- Photo by Stephanie Berger for Miller Theatre at Columbia University

Disorienting Dread in the Works of Hannah Kendall

Hannah Kendall expresses her fascination with a multi-dimensional rainbow of timbre through her rete...
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Carrie Frey, Columbia University, Damian Norfleet, Hannah Kendall, International Contemporary Ensemble, Isabel Lepanto Gleicher, Jonathan Finlayson, Josh Modney, Levy Lorenzo, Miller Theatre, Nuiko Wadden, Timothy James Robinson, Vimbayi Kaziboni, Yu-Ting Cheng
Dorian Wood -- Photo by Laura Pardo

Transgression is Freedom in the Artistry of Dorian Wood

A self-described anti-disciplinary artist, Dorian Wood seeks to “infect” spaces and ideologies in or...
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Adrián Cortés, April Guthrie, Carmina Escobar, Christopher Votek, Dorian Wood, Emily Elkin, Michael Corwin, New Amsterdam Records, Violetta Parra
Hamed Erfani and Yasaman Seif -- Photo by Cruz Pulido

5 Questions to Hamed Erfani (composer) and Yasaman Seif (cellist)

Hamed Erfani and Yasaman Seif are a formidable couple: as a composer and a cellist, respectively, th...
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Hamed Erfani, Oklahoma Chamber Symphony, Yasaman Seif
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