A Curious Ear explores the unlikely connections between experimental, contemporary classical, ambient, noise, and other musics. The show airs at 11 pm, on the second Saturday of every month on WCNY-FM, as part of WCNY’s Tomorrow’s Choices Today. Archived episodes are hosted on MixCloud.
Stream the show at WCNY-FM.org
On this episode of A Curious Ear, we will blur the boundaries between so-called ‘high’ and ‘low’ art as we reimagine the popular song. We will famed harmonica player Gregoire Maret, with Bill Frissell and Romain Collin perform music by Bon Iver & Dire Straits, a playful reinterpretation of The Beatles’s Here Comes the Sun for trumpet and soprano, and two works that sample 1950s and 60s pop recordings, albeit to very different ends.
On this episode of A Curious Ear, we will hear music that challenges our understanding of place, that asks us to be the keepers of memories and holders of dreams. We will hear work by the 2022 and 2024 Pulitzer Prize winners, Raven Chacon, and Tyshawn Sorey, respectively, 2024 Pulitzer Prize finalist, Mary Kouyoumdjian, Iranian-British turntablist and composer, Shiva Feshareki’s Aetherworld, a work that reimagines music of Josquin. All that coming up, on this episode of A Curious Ear.
Born just before the start of the 12th century, Hildegard von Bingen was a mystic, visionary, philosopher, writer, and most important for our purposes, a composer. At the age of 43, she had a vision where she was told “O fragile human, ashes of ashes, and filth of filth! Say and write what you see and hear.”
We are grateful she did.
900 years later, composers and musicians from around the world are still being inspired by the words, sounds, and visions of Hildegard von Bingen. On this episode of A Curious Ear, we will hear music from soprano Barbara Hannigan, Larum, a chamber group featuring guitarist Bill Orcutt, and music from violinist Clara Levy, who combines Hildegard’s music with 20th century composer, Pauline Oliveros’s score 13 Changes. All that and more, on this episode of A Curious Ear.
In his Composition 1960 #10, La Monte Young asks us to “Draw a straight line and follow it”, Georgia O’Keeffe asks us ‘fill a space in a beautiful way’. On this episode of A Curious Ear, we will Draw an Imaginary Shape with the eponymous work by Michael Baum, alongside music and sound art by Judith Hamann, Felicia Atkinson, flautist Claire Chase, and Tom Soloveitzik & Microcanonical ensemble. I’m your host Chris Cresswell and you’re listening to A Curious Ear.
Night music. Nachtmuzik as the Germans might say. The Nocturne. If you’re a fan of the sitcom How I Met Your Mother, you’re probably familiar with the phrase “nothing good happens after 2 am”. While that may be true for New York City nightlife, but that’s not true for composers. In this episode we’ll hear a range of music that captures the "evening twilight of the heart, when its wild passion-waves are lulled to rest”.
Our April 2025 episode featured four large scale works by Amulets, Colin Andrew Sheffield, Boston Modern Orchestra Project & Lukas Foss, and Alan Lamb's Night Passage.
On this episode of A Curious Ear we’ll hear music from Germany, the Netherlands, Mexico, Australia, Ukraine and more, thats calls on us to, as Parker himself did, sustain our joy, sustain our life, even in the darkest of times, as we sail together all the way though this dark evening.
The season 1, episode 8 episode of A Curious Ear features music from the late Neva Pilgrim's vinyl collection. Neva Pilgrim was the founder of Society for New Music and is considered by many, myself included, to be the matriarch of contemporary classical music in Central New York.
I was gifted a large portion of her vinyl collection and I digitized some of it for our February 2025 episode. This episode features rarely heard music by Nancy Laird Chance, Samuel Pellman, Ann Siblee, Daniel S Godfrey, and Richard Wernick.
On this month’s episode of A Curious Ear, we explore the sounds of winter’s stillness, “the whispering air” as Walt Whitman puts it. We’ll hear field recordings from frozen tennis courts and Northern Icelandic towns, as well as purely instrumental works that explore the depths of winter. Music by Kory Reeder, Carol Robinson, Lia Kohl, and Kate Carr.
On this month's episode of A Curious Ear, we explore the ability of synthesized sound to imitate, emulate, and interrupt the world of contemporary classical music. From a work written for “Cyborg Pianist” Zubin Kanga, inspired by a 16th century treatise on microtonal tuning to a pair of works for flute and electronics inspired by nature and a work created specifically for the midi sounds in notation software, we will explore it all A Curious Ear.
On this month’s episode of A Curious Ear, we visit Ohio University, which held their inaugural CLICKFEST on Sept. 20th and 21st. We'll experience a sampling of the wide range of music presented at the festival and hear from the composers themselves as they talk about their work.
On this month’s episode of A Curious Ear, we explore very different sounding works for strings. ranging from the lush world of Alex Burtzos’s a moment of transition and Georgia Denham’s to gwen, with love to the sometimes harsh, sometimes intimate world of Scott Wollschleger’s Violain, and more.
On this episode of A Curious Ear, we’re going to listen to a mixtape of sorts, music by Anna Clyne, Devin Shaffer, Steve Reich with Susanna Mälkki & the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and rarely heard works by William Duckworth and Paul Lansky. Some tracks taken from CDs, others from vinyl records.