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Modern Notebook for June 22, 2025

By Tyler Kline

June 19, 2025 at 7:52 AM EDT

On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: A tender farewell, a storm of emotion, and a swirl of nostalgia — Isidora Žebeljan’s final work, Three Curious Loves, is a violin concerto that moves from gentle lyricism to wild, virtuosic energy. It’s a deeply intimate piece that feels like memory set to music.

Then: Hayden Carruth’s Emergency Haying is a poem about labor — about the hard, physical work of tending land. But composer Libby Larsen saw something deeper: a quiet meditation on injustice, on lives shaped by weather, by price, by need. Her setting of the poem is raw and grounded, like the earth it comes from.

Featuring music by Sufjan Stevens, Chen Yi, Isidora Žebeljan, Paul Moravec, Richard Festinger, Bianca Gismonti, Salomao Soares, Hildegard von Bingen (arr. Olivia Marckx), Ryuichi Sakamoto, Libby Larsen, Fumihiro Ono, and Jens Ibsen. Including performances by pianists Timo Andres and Conor Hanick, Coalescent Quartet, violinist Daniel Rowland with Zebeljan Orchestra, cellist Matt Haimovitz, Calefax Reed Quintet, violinist Francesca Anderegg with pianist Erika Ribeiro, violinist Simone Porter, pianist Ryuichi Sakamoto, bass-baritone Alan Dunbar with Winona Symphony Orchestra, Duo AYA, and violinist Teagan Faran.

Hear it all Sunday night from 8 to 10 ET on Classical WSMR 89.1 and 103.9. Streaming the next day on-demand at ModernNotebook.org.




Hour 1

Revanche by Sufjan Stevens

Chen Yi’s Distance Can't Keep Us Two Apart

Three Curious Loves by Isidora Žebeljan

Paul Moravec’s Your Own Shadow

Invocation by Richard Festinger

Bianca Gismonti and Salomao Soares’s Navegador de Silencios (1080x1080, AR: 1.0)

Hour 2

Improvisation on "O Virtus Sapientiae" by Hildegard von Bingen/Olivia Marckx

Ryuichi Sakamoto’s 20211201

Emergency Haying by Libby Larsen

Fumihiro Ono’s Water Planet

Temptress by Jens Ibsen (1080x1080, AR: 1.0)
Each week, Tyler Kline journeys into new territory and demystifies the music of living composers on Modern Notebook. Listen for a wide variety of exciting music that engages and inspires, along with the stories behind each piece and the latest releases from today’s contemporary classical artists. Discover what’s in store on Modern Notebook.