129 - Gaining Distance to See What You're Actually Doing

129 - Gaining Distance to See What You're Actually Doing

For Christopher Stark, what makes a residency valuable has little to do with geography. Across stints in Italy, Norway, and upstate New York, location left almost no mark on the work itself — the people did, offering a rare baseline of cross-disciplinary curiosity and genuine attention that felt validating in a way daily life rarely does. Residencies also provide distance: a chance to step outside routine and assess whether it's actually serving his goals. A year in Rome clarified this from the opposite direction — Stark found himself missing the chaotic, diverse American art scene he could move through in a single week, despite conditions he describes as inhospitable to art-making. That contrast extends to artistic community itself: away from home, everyone starts from a baseline of mutual unfamiliarity, but in St. Louis, identity, history, and local politics attach to everything, including a string quartet, in a city with little of the ironic distance found in scenes elsewhere. Listen to music/Maker with Tyler Kline wherever you get podcasts, or at musicmakerpodcast.com. Support Loose Leaf Transmissions on Patreon at patreon.com/LooseLeafTransmissions. Follow us on Instagram: @loose.leaf.transmissions micro/Maker is a production of Loose Leaf Transmissions: Made for All Ears. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

128 - Trusting Your Musical Subconscious

Baljinder Sekhon talks about intuition, timbre, and the gap between the music we love and the music we create. He reflects on early experiences with sound, the influence of Mario Davidovsky, and why loving many kinds of music can actually make it harder to define a singular voice as a composer. micro/Maker episodes release every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday! Listen to music/Maker with Tyler Kline wherever you get podcasts, or at musicmakerpodcast.com [musicmakerpodcast.com]. Support Loose Leaf Transmissions on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/LooseLeafTransmissions [https://www.patreon.com/LooseLeafTransmissions]. Follow us on social media @LooseLeafTransmissions. micro/Maker is a production of Loose Leaf Transmissions: Made for All Ears. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

127 - Letting Go of the System

C. Jacqueline Wood reflects on art-making through the lens of loss, disillusionment, and resilience. Once embedded in the world of festivals and nonprofits, she has shifted toward creating on her own terms—outside the systems of grants, gatekeepers, and institutions. In this conversation, she speaks about why she no longer measures success by accolades, how her microcinema became a space for nurturing potential, and why sometimes the most important work emerges when artists stop waiting for permission. micro/Maker episodes release every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday! Listen to music/Maker with Tyler Kline wherever you get podcasts, or at musicmakerpodcast.com [musicmakerpodcast.com]. Support Loose Leaf Transmissions on Patreon at patreon.com/LooseLeafTransmissions [patreon.com/LooseLeafTransmissions]. Follow us on Instagram: @loose.leaf.transmissions micro/Maker is a production of Loose Leaf Transmissions: Made for All Ears. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

126 - Rebuilding Autonomy in Music-Making

Phong Tran reflects on how disillusionment with the classical commissioning system led him to create a more autonomous performance practice. He shares candid thoughts on the institutional structures that shape musical labor, and how writing an essay for I Care If You Listen helped clarify his position. micro/Maker episodes release every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday! Listen to music/Maker with Tyler Kline wherever you get podcasts, or at musicmakerpodcast.com [musicmakerpodcast.com]. Support Loose Leaf Transmissions on Patreon at patreon.com/LooseLeafTransmissions [patreon.com/LooseLeafTransmissions]. Follow us on social media @LooseLeafTransmissions. micro/Maker is a production of Loose Leaf Transmissions: Made for All Ears. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

125 - Turning Music into Art

Satisfaction is slippery. Tyler Kline and Marc Mellits trade notes on finishing a piece, cringing at what they’d change, and carrying those fixes into the next work. Mellits lays out his “three thirds” view—composer, performer, audience—arguing that interpretation by great players (and the listeners who complete the circuit) transforms notes on a page into art. Along the way they celebrate how performers can uncover things in a score the composer didn’t know were there. micro/Maker episodes release every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday! Listen to music/Maker with Tyler Kline wherever you get podcasts, or at musicmakerpodcast.com [musicmakerpodcast.com]. Support Loose Leaf Transmissions on Patreon at patreon.com/LooseLeafTransmissions [patreon.com/LooseLeafTransmissions]. Follow us on Instagram: @loose.leaf.transmissions micro/Maker is a production of Loose Leaf Transmissions: Made for All Ears. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.