“I don’t think radio has a new music problem. It’s just lacking the right kind of context, the right kind of stories. I have a firm belief that any music can be accessible if you frame it the right way.”
Tyler Kline, Loose Leaf Transmissions
This month, we’re delighted to be collaborating with Loose Leaf Transmissions: an independent radio organisation based in the US, and their flagship programme, Living Classical. Alongside this feature with Living Classical & Loose Leaf Transmissions director Tyler Kline, we’ll be collaborating on a crossover episode of Living Classical, promoting some of the incredibly exciting artists we’ve had the privilege to cover on PRXLUDES.
Living Classical is built on the belief that today’s classical music is expansive, varied, and created by people from every background and lived experience.
Spearheaded by US-based radio organisation Loose Leaf Transmissions and its director, Tyler Kline, Living Classical is dedicated to promoting the music of today — the composers, performers, and creative communities shaping today’s classical landscape. Since its founding at the end of 2025, Living Classical has highlighted classical music as a living, evolving art form: one defined not by a single tradition, but by ongoing imagination, experimentation, and human expression. Through careful curation and narrative context, Living Classical offers a window into the richness and vitality of contemporary classical music today.
Tyler Kline is a composer, producer, and broadcaster based in Cincinnati, whose work spans concert music, audio storytelling, and contemporary classical curation. Tyler’s approach to broadcasting and composition emphasises clarity, curiosity, and close listening; he has spent more than a decade working in public radio, most recently as creator and host of Living Classical. He is the founder and director of Loose Leaf Transmissions, home to Living Classical and podcast music/Maker. Originally from rural Kentucky, Tyler studied at Morehead State University and the University of South Florida, where he studied composition with Baljinder Sekhon.
Zygmund de Somogyi sat down with Tyler Kline over Zoom to discuss accessibility, discovering artists, exchanges of ideas, and shifting perspectives in contemporary music…
Zyggy/PRXLUDES: Thanks so much for joining me, Tyler! You have a practice both as a composer and as a broadcaster, directing Loose Leaf Transmissions and its flagship shows, Living Classical and music/Maker. Can you tell me about how you first got into composition, and how that led into radio — were the two interlinked for you?
Tyler Kline: My start in composition was a little more autodidactic. I started playing trumpet in the wind band in school, and switched to euphonium a couple years later. At least in the United States, it became clear very early on that the pathway for a career as a euphonium player is either teaching [in] college, or being in a military band; and neither of those things were something I wanted to do.
Initially, I was interested in arranging — I was doing some transcriptions in high school. I’d found some free notation software, and then a questionably obtained copy of Finale… -laughs- At any rate, doing transcription and arranging was a natural pathway for composing for me. My undergraduate school did not have a composition programme — there wasn’t even a composition professor — so my primary studies were in euphonium. It was only in grad school when I formally started studying composition with a professor.
I had some successes as a composer. You meet a lot of composers who are full of themselves — especially when they are twenty years old… -laughs- I wasn’t like that, but I thought I knew my music [was] good, people were playing my music. But then I got to grad school and it was like “oh, I really don’t know anything”. It was a very intense semester. For example, I very much composed in Finale… My first assignment in grad school was to compose a short piece — one to three players — but do it all by hand. That alone changed my life.
There’s so many composers, kinds of music, sounds that instruments can make, that I did not have any awareness of until grad school. I’m thankful that I’m innately a curious person: instead of thinking “this sucks, I don’t know anything, I’m gonna quit”, I just voraciously began trying to discover as much as I could — learn as much as I could. Try as many things as I could. Sometimes in very unsuccessful ways. -laughs- By the time I got out of grad school two years later, I felt like I had synthesised all of this new stuff (to me), and started making a kind of music that felt like music I’d always been making — but implementing these idea that I learned about. I feel like I can trace that to what I’m doing today.
I really love what you said about being an innately curious person. I’m so sure that’s the reason I’ve ended up coming into composition from a non-classical background, as well as doing all the things I’m doing now. Do you feel like that’s an approach that lended itself well to radio, as well?
How that relates to radio… For a long time, I felt like the radio stuff was very separate. You asked how composition relates to the work in radio — I think it’s that sense of curiosity and discovery. Having a desire to learn about as many composers as I can, as many pieces as I can, as many styles and aesthetics. That’s the central tenet, now, to my curation of radio. I’m very driven to programme music by composers I’ve never heard of — and usually, those are the best pieces anyway. -laughs-
How did radio, and broadcast work, first come into your creative practice? You mentioned that they were initially separate…
I’m about to turn 35 years old, and I’ve been doing radio for about half my life. So many people I meet in radio are so deep into their careers already; and I feel like I’ve had a longer career in radio than some other people I meet who are much older than me.
I grew up in rural Kentucky — and the way you hear me talking now is not the way I spoke growing up. If you get me angry enough, drunk enough, or around enough family, I sound like where I’m from… -laughs- I was very introverted and shy — I hated public speaking — [but] I had a couple teachers say “you have a great public speaking voice, have you ever thought about doing radio?”, and I was like “absolutely not”. But they planted these seeds.
I’m thankful that I, literally, walked into radio and broadcasting when I did. The first day of college came around — conveniently, the on-campus radio station was right next to the music building — and I walked in and said “I’m interested in this, what do I need to do to work here?”. And they were like: if you volunteer for a semester and train up, we will put you on the payroll… -laughs- I never had a job before, so radio was the first job I ever did that I got paid for. The guy who trained me had a music degree — he was twenty years older than me — and everything he described was in these musical terms I already knew. “Think about the cadence of your voice”…
It was a parallel track for about ten years. I went off to grad school, and someone had sent me a job posting for the classical station where I was moving. I didn’t get that job, but they saw my resume and were like “how would you like to work as a student?” — I graduated, I needed a job, and I was just like “can I keep working here?”. [I] stayed on that parallel track: I was composing on one side — usually in the evenings and weekends — and I was working in radio, hosting “regular classical music”. -laughs-
While you were first working in radio, you started the contemporary music programme Modern Notebook — what was the impetus for starting that station, and dedicating a radio show to contemporary music?
I’d always questioned “why don’t we play more new music?”. At least in the US, thanks to the very academic, ivory tower-kind of composers in the mid-twentieth century — whose music I love — that publicly made a certain stigma around contemporary music. I can tell you three things that I gleaned that [you shouldn’t] do on radio: one was new music; two was harpsichord music; and three was vocal music…
Wait, vocal music — really?
Studies had shown that in the US, everyone hates turning on the radio and hearing this. And I thought: I just don’t think the right people are framing contemporary music in the right way. You know, I’m a composer, I’ve been learning about all these composers whose music I love… I don’t think radio has a new music problem. It’s just lacking the right kind of context, the right kind of stories. I have a firm belief that any music can be accessible if you frame it the right way. So I pitched, like, “can I do this?” — there was a little resistance, but I had one boss who put her whole trust in me. That’s how Modern Notebook formed, and that’s when these parallel tracks intersected for the first time.
You’ve now started your own independent radio organisation, Loose Leaf Transmissions, working with radio stations across the US. Your flagship shows are Living Classical and your podcast, music/Maker; can you tell me a bit about how Loose Leaf Transmissions developed from your initial radio work, and how you refined your ideas?
I tend to have pretty robust visions for the work that I do — goals, where I see things going, all that kind of stuff. With Modern Notebook, I had a very long-term vision early on of what I wanted this radio programme to be. It wasn’t just a two-hour weekly programme devoted to contemporary music: I wanted it to become something a bit more than that. It was clear that with my employer, I was not going to receive the support to bring that vision to life.
I knew that one day, I would have to do things independently. I couldn’t get another job at another radio station with my existing thing — I might end up in the same position. When I created Loose Leaf Transmissions — the media platform, the brand, that anything I make in the future will fall under — I had that in mind.
What did launching Loose Leaf Transmissions allow you to do that you couldn’t do with your previous employer?
I launched Loose Leaf Transmissions and music/Maker together, as an independent venture. I’ve only ever met one person who’s figured out that the “loose leaf” part has to do with the notebook in Modern Notebook — tearing out the page for myself. -laughs-
When you’re working for a radio station, or any organisation for that matter — in different industries, situations — a lot of decision-making is influenced by studies. The direction they think things need to be. Around the time I was doing all this, short-form content was becoming king… I hate short-form content. -laughs- If I were to make a podcast with a radio station, it would have been 30 minutes, surface level — that’s not who I am. Having launched this independently, I get to decide what it’s like. It might be contrary to what I’m “supposed” to do, but it’s something I feel passionate about, and something I feel good about putting out into the world.
As you know — they’re longform conversations [on music/Maker]. The standard conversation is between two and two and a half hours. I don’t think I ever would have gotten away with a two and a half hour podcast if I had a boss telling me what to do. That’s what I’m able to do in my own framework. Now, being newly independent, I don’t have to worry about anyone interfering with my artistic direction.
I understand that — there are so many more hoops to jump through. Whereas being independent means you can explore any avenues you want to, at your own pace, without those outside pressures.
There’s something to be said about legacy media… I was working for a public radio station — an NPR member station, which I guess would be [equivalent to] a BBC station. You know, ten or fifteen years ago, it would be unthinkable for me to be like “I can do a radio show” and not even be part of a radio station. And then you realise, the tools exist to do this [now].
There’s a weatherman I love, his name’s Ryan Hall — he’s also from Kentucky, which is part of why I love him so much. His story is kind of similar to mine. He trained to be a meteorologist, he worked for TV stations doing the weather-map thing, and it sucked the life out of him. And then he started doing weather on YouTube. The dude has a million followers, he does these livestreams anytime severe weather happens… And I look at that, and I think: this is an example of an expert doing really important work, that’s reaching a lot of people — but he’s not beholden to legacy media. I see that as an example for myself. It’s really inspiring, and it gets me thinking: we don’t need to rely anymore on legacy media beholden by capitalism. There’s a lot of freedom in going independent: using the tools that we have at our disposal.
Living Classical still airs on a lot of radio stations, and I want to grow that number — but it also exists online. I want to build a community around it. I don’t think that’s something that would be as possible if I stuck with the status quo of working for an NPR station.
Let’s talk a bit about your curational practice. What approaches do you take to curating Living Classical and music/Maker — and how you approach discovering and presenting composers in this way?
I gave a talk about this at university a couple months ago. I’m starting to really believe that composers are the best curators of contemporary music… That’s completely [based on] my own life experience. -laughs- We know, more than anyone else, what it’s like to have our music presented, or not presented, or overlooked. How many things do we apply for and get said “no” to? 90% of the things I apply to [don’t] work out, if not more.
I really think part of my curation approach stems from the curiosity aspect that I was talking about, but also the frustration that I experience as a composer — and wanting to do something about it. I’ve gone through phases in my early career as a composer where I would feel jealous of people: like, I’m working hard, I feel like I’m making good stuff, why do they get to be elevated? I think we all feel like that sometimes. But once I started doing Modern Notebook I started asking myself, how can I affect things positively? Be the change you want to see — all of that hippie stuff, I guess.
I have several layers to my curation philosophy and approach. At the top of the list is: I want to present as many different composers as possible. I track things meticulously. Since Modern Notebook started in 2019, I’ve shared music by nearly 1200 different people — music by 1200 different composers. I’m very deliberate about that. I see the orchestra programmes that programme all the same people. There are other contemporary classical radio programmes out there in the US — in some cases, they’re my friends, and in most cases I love the music — but it’s the same thought when I see [the same] people programmed at concerts. Do they need this? Does it matter to them — when I can give someone their first broadcast on the radio? That’s the number one thing I’m thinking about.
The second layer [is] to do with people: representation, and equity, without going into tokenism. That’s baked into the DNA of the show. White guys don’t need performances anymore… -laughs- I feel so strongly about it that I get frustrated when a CD comes across my desk, or an album comes through my email, and it’s like: guys, we don’t need an album with all white guys anymore, I don’t care how good their music is. -laughs- When there’s so many composers out there of all backgrounds making phenomenal music! I try very hard to make sure there’s a bigger pie, and more pieces of the pie.
As you’ve mentioned that radio does require certain contexts for accessibility — in what ways are aesthetics considered when you’re programming?
I talked with a mentor composer — I don’t remember the context, but I’ve taken it and applied it to radio. And he said: rather than thinking about dumbing down the music, how do we smart it up? He was talking about compositional choices, but I think about that with my curation too. I don’t want to meet people at some assumed level. We don’t give enough audiences enough credit, anyway — I think they’re game for whatever — but the caveat with that is this is radio. I have to be careful with electronics, or too much percussion. There’s a “submission” page on the Living Classical website that goes into more depth about that.
And then, the good radio programming mindset — variety is the spice of life! Nobody wants to turn on the radio and hear an hour of piano music, or string quartet music. I was putting together some episodes last night, and I put a solo cello piece next to a string quartet, and I was like, “I don’t know about that”… And then it ends up being a puzzle. How do I fit all of these things into one hour, [or] two hours, of music at a time?
Even just one episode of Living Classical requires knowledge of so many different composers. How do you go about discovering new artists and composers?
I’m on the press list for a lot of labels, artist managers, publicists — I’m constantly getting commercial releases in my inbox. For example, NMC Recordings is a big one for you guys… I was just looking at press kits for some new releases coming up from NMC. New Focus Recordings is another label I love, based in the US. So that’s direct from labels.
But I have to say, I like to think the big thing that sets what I do apart from some of these other contemporary classical shows elsewhere in the US, is that I am always keeping an ear to the ground. I’ll be on the lookout. Like, today’s Friday [ed. at time of interview], and a lot of people are like “my new album’s out today”. If it’s on Bandcamp, I’ll either wishlist it or just buy it; it’s a tax expense now. -laughs-
Like, PRXLUDES, for example: when I see [your] monthly profiles — that kind of thing. These are composers I’ve never heard of. And often, I’ll follow the composer on Instagram. I follow, like, 10,000 accounts on Instagram, [and] most of them are composers — or restaurants. I’m always following ensembles, composers, labels… So much of the music I have discovered has just been because I am paying attention to what people are saying on social media. I think that sets me apart from these legacy media shows, or with radio stations. I don’t think they’re looking in those spaces. And a lot of the best music I’ve come across [has] been from composers I’ve never heard of before.
I think there’s a lot of US-centric programming [here], and I try to avoid that. I feel so strongly about global unity, first of all… -laughs- But second of all, if I want to present the full spectrum of contemporary music, different things are happening in different places. I can’t just look at the US.
That’s so important. It’s one of the reasons why PRXLUDES makes an active effort to platform emerging artists outside of the UK (and hopefully, outside of the West), as well — in today’s political landscape, we just can’t stay isolated.
This is where I’ll get on my soapbox a little bit. -laughs- For me, at least, for recorded music being disseminated through the radio — I think performers, people putting these albums together, can go a long way on this front. Being deliberate about the music they’re commissioning, programming, recording.
It all comes down to what is being recorded — I am so reliant on what’s being recorded. If I can advocate for anything, it’s that people who put out albums try to think more like I do. -laughs- I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but I think we should all be thinking about these things. I see what I do as a privilege. Putting out an album is a privilege, being able to programme and present a concert is a privilege; and so, what do we do with that privilege? I’m trying to answer that question in the ways that I can.
I guess there’s also the question of how we discover music nowadays. I think there’s a subsection of younger generations (my generation, at least) that rely on streaming services, YouTube, etc., to discover music; and see media stations like the BBC — traditionally a huge bastion for contemporary music in this country — to be somewhat outdated. What strengths do you feel radio still has in the streaming era?
It’d be so much easier to do my show and put it on Mixcloud — take radio out of the equation. There’s so much in what I do that caters to the radio: maintaining relationships with eleven different stations, making sure they have what they need in a timely fashion. It’s important to stay on top of.
For the past five to ten years — especially working for a radio station — there’s [been] the creeping spectre of “streaming is going to kill radio”… I see them as apples and oranges. They’re two different things. Like, I stream music all the time; but I’m deliberately seeking out specific things when I stream. Whereas what I’m providing is something a bit different — it’s very different turning on an episode of a radio show and not necessarily knowing what you’re gonna get. I hope that people see it’s possible. I’ve always loved making playlists — people love doing that — but we can go beyond making a playlist on a streaming platform, and we can put together an experience for people.
Do you feel like there might be some kind of shift happening — perhaps away from universal streaming services, and back to a more curated format such as radio?
This goes back to breaking away from legacy media. I think YouTube and Spotify, these streaming platforms we all use, was at one point an antidote to the “legacy media” question. People were going to those things because it was a different experience to turning on the TV, or turning on the radio, and being stuck with whatever you’re stuck with. I don’t want to wade into the discussion of capitalism — but then you realise these companies are doing all kinds of horrible things. It leaves us hanging a little bit, as consumers: I don’t want to support that, I don’t want to participate in that.
To answer your question, I feel a little bit like I am ahead of the curve. I think what you’re doing too is a little ahead of the curve… A former coworker of mine described what I’m doing as curating a shop for people to come to. Sometimes it feels like it’s not getting to the critical mass I wish it would; but it feels like I’m minding a shop, and filling the shop with things I love, for the eventuality that people are gonna come shopping at my store.
I think with everything happening in the world, people are looking for that antidote again. I think it’s too early to say if people are actually coming to me for that reason. But the more that people find out what I’m doing — or what whoever is doing that’s similar to what I’m doing… I don’t know if they’ll abandon whatever they use to listen to music, but they’ll see it as something a little bit different. Like, a place to visit.
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You know, classical music has always been music of its time. I think that’s why the best classical music has survived until today — it’s simultaneously both very timely (of its time) and very timeless. If we’re making this kind of music today, I think we have a responsibility to make, and platform, music that reflects the world we live in today… Is that an approach that resonates with you?
Talking as a composer now… My music is not overtly “political” — or, commentary on the sociopolitical landscape, the environmental landscape. But there’s something about my music that feels oddly rebellious. My music is pretty reserved, it’s quiet, it’s drawn out and slow. I feel like everyone wants to make angry music. -laughs- Should I be writing this kind of stuff? I feel so strongly about what’s happening, but my music isn’t reflecting that… And then I realise in a way, it is. Some of us need to be writing music that’s not angry, but rather the opposite of what’s happening. I don’t want anything I do to be an escape from reality, but rather a different angle — how can we find beauty in all this [ugliness]? I think composers have been doing that for a long time.
But putting my radio hat back on… -laughs- You go to a concert, and you experience it in the moment; there could be pieces that comment on this or that (or not) — and people walk away, and that’s it. You can go back and watch it on YouTube, but it’s still the same programme that you can consume however many times, in however many different ways.
One advantage I see with radio is [that] I’m not limited to the endurance of putting performers on a stage. I can put a piece on the radio that has a commentary on climate change; another theme that I see a lot of composers grappling with is writing music in response to [the] murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in 2020. I feel strongly that with the right context, someone might hear that on the radio — and might initially be like “oh, I don’t agree with this” — I’m not totally naïve, but presenting this music in the right contexts might plant some seeds, at the very least, with people who might disagree.
It has to do with introducing perspectives, and hopefully shifting perspectives. In my heart, I’m a cynic — I don’t think it’s possible for us, as composers, to affect change in that way. As a curator, I think a little bit differently… -laughs-
Of course, you’re still composing — alongside working with Loose Leaf Transmissions. Are there any particular insights you feel like your work in radio has given you, that you’re taking into your practice as a composer moving forward?
It’s funny that everything is tied back to my world breaking open, going to grad school. I look back and I don’t regret anything, first of all. I feel like I was way behind, but I feel I’ve done a good job catching up in a lot of ways.
I went to grad school in 2013-2015; I’m sure other might disagree, but that felt like the time [that] so many problems in academia, in the US, were starting to surface. I feel very lucky that I got rejected from doctoral programmes. -laughs- I’m saying that because in grad school, that was the path that was presented to me: you get your PhD, you teach in academia, you have financial support. That has, since then, fallen apart — for us in the US. I know so many people who have followed that path and still have to work part-time jobs; or they go teach, but then a state legislature will fuck things up and kill the programme.
I had pretty much one path presented to me. But what I’ve realised speaking to so many different composers is that there are countless paths. I really think that being a composer is a way of living. So that’s all to say, I hope for Living Classical and music/Maker to be resources. It’s a resource I wish I had fifteen years ago, to say: this is what it means to be a composer — which is to say, it can mean a lot of different things — and this is all the music happening today. I think that encountering so many different ideas now — as a grown-up… -laughs- — I’ve been out of school for over a decade now, but I feel like I’m cobbling together all my favourite parts I loved about being in school. This exchange of ideas.
It feels like a masterclass, in a lot of ways, when I sit down to talk with a composer. My most recent episode, with Lillian Yee… She has degrees in composition, she writes music, but she uses her toolbox as a composer [as] a therapeutic musician — not a music therapist, something different. She will go into a hospital setting, and she will play music. I had a guest, Rob Funkhouser, who builds instruments. This is something I’ve started recently thinking about: these composers I’ve been inviting have something extra going on. It’s not like, “here’s a composer that did the thing you’re supposed to do” — whatever that is — “and now they’re teaching, writing for orchestra”. It’s quite the opposite.
So naturally, that exchange of ideas will stir something up in me. Same with the radio show; I’m listening to so much music. To know what people are doing, what ideas people have… It gets me thinking about my work in a different way — thinking about the world in a different way.
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Check out Tyler’s shows, Living Classical and music/Maker, at the following links:
- https://www.looseleaftransmissions.com/livingclassicalradio
- https://www.looseleaftransmissions.com/musicmaker
Learn more about Loose Leaf Transmissions:
Learn more about Tyler Kline and his practice:
