Looking for unique chamber music instrumentation combinations? Check out the music of Boston-based composer Melika M. Fitzhugh!

Drop everything you’re doing and listen to Errollyn Wallen’s piece titled Daedalus arranged for Mezzo-Soprano and String Quartet, commissioned by The Brodsky Quartet.

This week, I’ve been listening to Hannah Kendall’s Vera for clarinet, violin, viola, and cello. Clarinet and strings is such a great combination (I may be biased!), and I love how Kendall uses the instruments in this piece.

Loggins-Hull’s composition Flock for four flutes and one alto flute takes its inspiration from the polyphonic layering processes of Steve Reich’s flute ensemble work Vermont Counterpoint to create an aural representation of the intricate flight patterns of a flock of birds.

I have been listening to the works of Carlos Simon these past few weeks. “Portrait of a Queen,” is written for string orchestra, percussion, and female narrator, with text by Courtney D. Ware. The piece navigates the experience of a black woman, starting in a place of power in Africa, through slavery, Jim Crow, and finally towards a “strong matriarch.”

This week, I have been listening to two pieces by Daijana Wallace: “Shades” for solo cello and “Upstairs Neighbors” for cello and vibraphone. Daijana Wallace is a composer, cellist, and someone I ate a lot of gelato with at the Cortona Sessions for New Music in Cortona, Italy in 2018.

Evan Williams is an accomplished Memphis-based composer and conductor whose music draws from a wide range of classical styles, from Baroque to Minimalism and everything in between.

This week I have been checking out music by Brian Raphael Nabors. I love his piece, “We Wear the Mask,” using the poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar.

If you have enjoyed our Sputter (SHRINKS THE) Box project, you MUST check out Castle of our Skins’s Black Composer Miniature Challenge. Every Friday at 12PM EST, they premiere a short piece for solo piano, solo viola, or viola-piano duo on Facebook and Instagram Live.

If you’re not already familiar, check out the music of Brooklyn-based composer Shelley Washington, specifically her 2018 work for choir and chamber ensemble, The Farthest.

If you haven’t heard the music of of Alicia Hall Moran, I suggest you head on over to her website and read all about her RIGHT NOW! Moran is extremely multi-talented, performing and composing, as she says it, “between” disciplines.

“Go inside of you and express yourself. Don’t try to mimic or be cute.”

After going through the Flutronix discography last week, the next logical step was to listen to Nathalie Joachim’s newest album, Fanm d’Ayiti with Spektral Quartet. While I had heard some of the tracks when it was released in 2019 and nominated for a Grammy, this week I took the time to sit down and listen to the album in its entirety.

Recently I was going through Marcos Balter’s catalog and his work Bladed Stance really caught my ear. Enjoy this gem that I missed back in 2013!

Sweet Honey in the Rock is a performance ensemble rooted in African American history and culture. The content on their album #LoveInEvolution, is just as relevant now as it was in 2016. Give it a listen!

This week I’m listening through Flutronix’s entire discography. Fluxtronix is made up of Nathalie Joachim and Allison Loggins-Hull, both flutists, composers, and producers. I highly suggest sending a link to your friends who “just aren’t into that new music thing.”

Hey, it’s Alina! You MUST go check out the music of Ysaÿe Barnwell. Her song “Wanting Memories,” is on constant repeat in my brain.

This week I have been listening to a percussion duo by Yaz Lancaster.

Hi - Kat here! This week I’ve been listening to Jessie Montgomery’s “Records from a Vanishing City” for orchestra.