Hey there folks, hope you’ve had a good week!

I've got a brand new music/Maker conversation for you this week with composer Nicky Sohn. We talk about her artistic journey (including how astoundingly early she started playing music), what fuels her work, and how she's focusing on the importance of work-life balance these days. If you follow Nicky on Instagram (@berliozsgirlfriend), you know to expect a mega-fun conversation—and it is! I hope you'll check it out.

New episodes of Living Classical and micro/Maker are also out this week, plus a special micro announcement for next week. More details below.

Now streaming: Episode 9 for February 22-28, 2026

On this week's Living Classical with Tyler Kline, music shaped by resilience and memory. Leila Adu-Gilmore's For Edna honors quieter endurance – perseverance, openness, and the ability to remain connected in the face of strain – while Daniel Bernard Roumain's It Feels Like a Mountain, Chasing Me weaves spoken recollection with music, tracing how family history, loss, and care shape who we become.

Also featured: music by Tomeka Reid, Patrice Rushen, Brittany J. Green, Jace Clayton, Lauren McCall, Derrick Skye, Yaz Lancaster, Matana Roberts, Ayanna Woods, Tyshawn Sorey, and Julius Eastman.

View the playlist & listen: https://www.looseleaftransmissions.com/post/living-classical-with-tyler-kline-for-february-22-28-2026

Follow & stream anytime on Mixcloud.

Now streaming: Building Community and Finding Balance in Music with Nicky Sohn

On the latest episode of music/Maker with Tyler Kline, Tyler is joined by composer Nicky Sohn.

In this conversation, Nicky traces her path from an early piano start to a pivotal turn toward composition, through burnout, a reset in Berlin, and a supportive chapter at Rice/Houston. She and Tyler talk about community as the engine of her practice, storytelling drawn from Korean folktales, and writing with broader listenability in mind. Nicky also shares how a love of jazz shapes her sense of motion and harmony, and how a weekday “9–5” routine, boundaries, and life outside music have brought balance – and new brightness – to her work.

Learn more about Nicky and hear her music at https://www.nickysohn.com/.

New episodes every other Thursday. Subscribe now!

Listen & subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music/Audible | YouTube | Acast

Episode 080: Three Lenses for a Creative Life (featuring Shruthi Rajasekar)

Shruthi Rajasekar reflects on the three touchstones that shape her work – identity, community, and joy – exploring how understanding identity helps her claim space, how real community includes disagreement and multiplicity, and how joy serves as a commitment to imagining possibility even within serious or painful stories.

Episode 081: Shaping Each Piece Without Boundaries (featuring Daijana Wallace)

Daijana Wallace walks through the evolving pillars of her creative process – intentionality, working without boundaries, and daily repetition – exploring how she begins each piece with a character sketch, avoids locking herself into a fixed compositional voice, and treats every project as its own distinct world.

Episodes are released every Tuesday and Friday. Subscribe now!

Listen & subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music/Audible | YouTube | Acast

A quick micro announcement, if you will, before previewing what else I’m cooking up in the next few weeks.

Starting Tuesday, March 3, 2026, the micro/Maker podcast is expanding to three days a week! Wednesdays will be another day you can tune in and listen to bite-size conversations, perfect to put on when you’re starting your day, headed to work, doing dishes, or whenever you need a quick bit of inspiration.

If you haven’t yet subscribe to micro/Maker, it’s the perfect time to do so! Get notified each day it’s released by following on your favorite podcast platform or YouTube (links are directly above).

Onto what’s coming up on Living Classical (streaming Sunday, March 1): it’s music shaped by majesty and meditation. Jennifer Higdon's Low Brass Concerto was written as a portrait of the Chicago Symphony's legendary low brass section—their grace, power, and the challenge of the moving line—while Ellen Lindquist's Mantra stretches a solo gong melody across 25 minutes, built from spectral analysis of gamelan overtones and retuned to aid concentration like the Sanskrit word itself.

Plus pieces by Aileen Sweeney, Nkeiru Okoye, Cassie Wieland, Mary Halvorson, Mette Nielsen, Kaitlyn Raitz, Nirmali Fenn, and Chelsea Loew.

This work keeps growing – more listeners, more conversations, more reach – and that's because of people like you.

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Share it. Send an episode to someone in your circle who'd connect with it. Word of mouth is still the best way this work finds new listeners.

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Every bit of support – whether it's a share, a review, or a few dollars – helps this work reach further and go deeper. Thanks for being part of it.

Thanks for spending time with these conversations and this music!