Mahdis Golzar Kashani opens up about the profound challenges women face in Iran—and how those obstacles have shaped her life and work as a composer. In this excerpt, she reflects on restrictions placed on women performers, the societal pressures she’s navigated, and the courage of a new generation rising to create change. Through it all, Kashani’s music carries both anger and hope, serving as a powerful outlet for self-expression in a system that often seeks to silence women’s voices.

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

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What if high schoolers were given permission to make noise—messy, weird, beautiful noise—and call it music? After finishing his PhD in 2019, Nathan Hudson launched a virtual project teaching families to perform non-traditional notation. That experiment grew into the Forage and Flourish Contemporary Music Festival, a weeklong celebration of graphic scores, unconventional sounds, and creative ownership. From libraries and breweries to arts centers, Hudson and his faculty invited Atlanta-area students to discover the joy of making choices, not just following directions. The result: a ripple effect of schools programming non-traditional works and student composers taking the leap.

micro/Maker episodes release every Tuesday and Friday!

Listen to music/Maker with Tyler Kline wherever you get podcasts, or at musicmakerpodcast.com.

Support Loose Leaf Transmissions on Patreon at patreon.com/LooseLeafTransmissions.

Follow us on Instagram: @loose.leaf.transmissions

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

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

Beyza Yazgan describes how the idea of Anatolia—rather than Türkiye as a modern nation—quietly surfaces in her music through instinct rather than intention. Layered histories, blended cultures, and inherited musical language emerge only after the music is written, often revealing themselves as something familiar yet untraceable, like a half-remembered dream. Her process begins with improvisation as an emotional, almost therapeutic act, followed by careful listening, notation, and refinement. Meaning, geography, and identity arrive later—never planned, never imposed. What results is music shaped less by concept than by trust: allowing sound to lead, and understanding to follow.

micro/Maker episodes release every Tuesday and Friday!

Listen to music/Maker with Tyler Kline wherever you get podcasts.

Support Loose Leaf Transmissions on Patreon.

Follow us on Instagram: @loose.leaf.transmissions

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

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