Modern Notebook for February 21, 2021

Photo: Composer/producer Devonté Hynes (Photo Credit: Katie McCurdy/GQ)

On this week’s Modern Notebook: Tyler Kline shares music from baritone Will Liverman’s newest album of art songs by black composers with a work by Shawn Okpebholo. Also, a piece for mallet percussion quartet by Devonté Hynes titled Perfectly Voiceless, which begins with a wall of old school minimalist textures and eventually gives way to reveal a catchy pop melody.


Plus: works by Nina Simone, Eleanor Alberga, Joscelyn Hagen, Viet Cuong, and others; and performances by cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton, Third Coast Percussion, pianist Ann DuHamel, violinist Ilmar Gavilan with cellist Paul Wiancko and pianist Awadagin Pratt, PRISM Quartet, and more.



That’s on the next Modern Notebook, Sunday night from 8 to 10 EST on Classical WSMR 89.1 and 103.9. Streaming at wsmr.org and on the WUSF Public Media App.


Hour 1

  • Images by Nina Simone.
  • Eleanor Alberga’s String Quartet No.1.
  • Perfectly Voiceless by Devonté Hynes.
  • Ballad of Birmingham from Shawn Okpebholo’s Two Black Churches.
  • Joscelyn Hagen’s Variations on a Theme by Brahms.

Hour 2

  • Panorama by Jessie Montgomery & Eleanore Oppenheim.
  • II. Warm from ZONES by Judith Lang Zaimont.
  • Daniel Bjarnason’s Violin Concerto.
  • Prized Possessions by Viet Cuong.
  • Hilary Kleinig’s Great White Bird.

Recent Shows

By Tyler Kline September 11, 2025
Photo: composer Kay Rhie (courtesy of the composer's site).
By Tyler Kline September 4, 2025
Photo: composer Shuying Li. (Photo credit: Lauren “Elle Jaye” Jenkins).
By Tyler Kline August 28, 2025
Photo: composer Nicky Sohn. (Photo credit: Natalie Gaynor).
By Tyler Kline August 21, 2025
Photo: composer Michael Abels (photo credit: Eric Schwabel).
By Tyler Kline August 14, 2025
Photo: composer and pianist Conrad Tao (Photo credit: Kevin Condon).
By Tyler Kline August 8, 2025
Photo: composer Marie A. Douglas (photo courtesy of the composer's site).
More Posts