On today’s episode of music/Maker with Tyler Kline, Tyler is joined by composer–pianist–choreographer Sugar Vendil, an interdisciplinary artist based in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn).

Beginning as a classical pianist, Sugar spent nearly a decade honing her voice; today her kinesthetic, improvisatory practice integrates sound, movement, and theater. She writes and performs solo works for piano and electronics and co-leads Vanity Project with Trevor Gureckis. A proud second-generation Filipinx American, she’s developing Antonym: the opposite of nostalgia (supported by NPN Creation Fund and MAPFund; co-commissioned by Living Arts Tulsa, High Concept Labs, and National Sawdust, premiering 2026 with her ensemble sugar vendil/isogram). Her commissions include work for Jennifer Koh’s Alone Together, The Nouveau Classical Project, ETHEL’s Homebaked, and ACF | Create; her album May We Know Our Own Strength is out on Gold Bolus.

In this conversation, Sugar and Tyler trace how movement, breath, and physical instinct shape her compositions; the shift from championing new music to composing her own; and how identity and agency inform an interdisciplinary practice across acoustic and electronic work. They dig into the seeds of Antonym, the body-forward “new virtuosity” she’s cultivating at the piano, collaborative processes that keep the work alive, and why she prefers the deeper connection of a newsletter over social platforms.

Sugar and her work can be found online at https://sugarvendil.com/, and you can subscribe to Sugar's newsletter at https://sugarvendil.com/eletter

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music/Maker episodes release every other Thursday!

Listen and subscribe wherever you get podcasts, or at musicmakerpodcast.com

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music/Maker is a production of Loose Leaf Transmissions: Made for All Ears.

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On today’s episode of music/Maker with Tyler Kline, Tyler is joined by composer and avant-folk vocalist Annika Socolofsky.

Annika’s music erupts from the embodied power of the human voice, moving between orchestral works, folk ballads, and unabashed Dolly Parton covers. Her “feminist rager-lullabies” reclaim lullaby texts for a new queer era, and she’s written for ensembles including Eighth Blackbird, Third Coast Percussion, and the Albany Symphony. She is Associate Professor of Composition at the University of Colorado Boulder.

In this conversation, Annika traces the experiences that shaped her creative life—from discovering composition in high school and witnessing the Silk Road Ensemble’s genre-defying energy, to finding her voice as both composer and singer.

She and Tyler talk about collaboration as resistance to the myth of the “lone genius,” what it means to make “lower-case-c” music with joy and play, and how writing and performing her own work became a space for identity, activism, and emotional honesty. They also discuss her Hardanger d’amore fiddle, her piece Turadh, and the power of vulnerability at the heart of her art.

Annika is online at www.aksocolofsky.com

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music/Maker episodes release every other Thursday!

Listen and subscribe wherever you get podcasts, or at musicmakerpodcast.com

Subscribe to the Loose Leaf Transmissions newsletter for new episodes, behind-the-scenes updates, and ways to support the work:

looseleaftransmissions.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Support us on Patreon at patreon.com/LooseLeafTransmissions

Follow along on Instagram @loose.leaf.transmissions

music/Maker is a production of Loose Leaf Transmissions: Made for All Ears.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On today’s episode of music/Maker with Tyler Kline, Tyler is joined by composer Michael Frazier.

Michael is a Black and Latino composer whose work blends jazz, birdsong, hip-hop, and improvisation into a musical language rich in harmony, gesture, and emotional depth. His music has been performed by ensembles including Strings & Hammers, OSSIA New Music, Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings, and Birds on a Wire.

In this conversation, Michael shares how embracing his cultural identity became a central part of his artistic voice. He and Tyler discuss how jazz phrasing informs his sense of musical time, how he approaches emotional connection in his work, and how his creative confidence has grown through writing music that feels fully personal and grounded in who he is.

Michael is online at https://www.michaelfraziermusic.com/.

music/Maker episodes release every other Thursday!

Listen and subscribe wherever you get podcasts, or at musicmakerpodcast.com.

Subscribe to the Loose Leaf Transmissions newsletter for new episodes, behind-the-scenes updates, and ways to support the work:

looseleaftransmissions.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/LooseLeafTransmissions.

Follow along on Instagram @loose.leaf.transmissions.

music/Maker is a production of Loose Leaf Transmissions: Made for All Ears.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.