Maggi Payne, photographing crystals, composing for Moog modular III, more

Texas-born composer Maggi Payne has just quietly been busy being a legend over decade after decade. Well known to Mills College (as its Center for Contemporary Music co-director until 2018), if you don’t know her, you should. And this is just the kind of Sunday to gaze at some crystals and listen to her ethereal textures on the then already-vintage Moog modular Series III, in a tip straight from The Bob Moog Foundation.

Disquiet’s Junto is community music making — now in its 750th edition

It’s been running continuously, without a break, since 2012. Every Thursday morning, Disquiet’s Marc Weidenbaum posts a call to a community for a new compositional assignment. And this week, the project reaches the 750th (!) week. That means a call for something epic.

Peter Kirn - May 15, 2026

In the sound of Wukir Suryadi’s kentongan, a world warning

From Indonesia to the planet, Wukir Suryadi sends a distress call in insistent strikes against his hand-built kentongan instrument. If you want an answer to what music we should be making in this moment, perhaps what you need is Titir — a warning.

Peter Kirn - March 25, 2026