Introspection, Text, and Symbolism in Composition with Caterina Schembri

And on micro/Maker, we ask the question: Where is the line between craft and art?

Author

Tyler Kline
August 08, 2025

🍃 Loose Leaf Transmissions – Weekly Dispatch

Happy Friday, everyone!

It’s starting to feel like summer is just about over… I can see – and almost feel – the shifting light each evening as the days get a little bit shorter. It’s one of my favorite times of year for exactly that reason.

If I seem a little extra introspective in this newsletter, well, that might have something to do with my guest on this week’s music/Maker. Caterina Schembri is a composer and producer whose work looks inward – and the result is some truly gorgeous music. We talk about her journey from Bogotá, Colombia to Dublin, Ireland; how she weaves text into her compositions; and the many hats she wears outside of composing.

Like I said – a fabulous conversation. And don’t miss the latest on micro/Maker, featuring two composers who moved to Los Angeles and whose paths took totally opposite turns.

🎧 New on the Feed

🎙 music/Maker with Tyler Kline

Now streaming: Introspection, Text, and Symbolism in Composition with Caterina Schembri

Photo credit: Néstor Romero Clemente

On the latest episode of music/Maker with Tyler Kline, Tyler is joined by Italian-Colombian composer and producer Caterina Schembri.

In this conversation, Caterina reflects on her path into composing, beginning music later in life and navigating both academic and commercial pressures to find her personal voice. She and Tyler discuss how literature and text-writing have become central to her practice, how symbolism informs her musical decisions, and how introspection, identity, and creative discipline fuel her artistic life.

New episodes every other Thursday. Subscribe now!

🎙 micro/Maker

micro/Maker 023: The Line Between Craft and Art (featuring Austin Hammonds)

Austin Hammonds shares how working at Bleeding Fingers reshaped his view of craft vs. artistry — and why he wants to fully inhabit every part of the music that carries his name.

micro/Maker 024: Choosing Concert Music Over Hollywood (featuring Roger Zare)

Roger Zare reflects on how his early passion for film scoring led him to USC, and eventually toward a more personally fulfilling path in concert music.

Episodes are released every Tuesday and Friday. Subscribe now!

🔜 Coming Up Soon

In next week’s micro/Maker episodes, we hear from two composers and how things old and new can fuel the creative process: from Mahdis Golzar Kashani’s cross-cultural work preserving Persian musical traditions, to Phong Tran’s reflections on internet nostalgia and the emotional memory of digital spaces past.

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Thanks, as always, for being part of this little creative corner of the internet.

And hey – I’d love to invite you to something personal: the YouTube premiere of liveoak, a short film I made around my solo clarinet piece of the same name.

I’m trying some new things in my creative work and this is a first effort at integrating a more multimedia approach. I hope you’ll tune in at the following link – Monday, August 11 at 8 PM Eastern Time. And if you have to miss it, you can watch it any time after it premieres at the same link.

Until next time, take care!