The composer Julius Eastman died in 1990, but his music is experiencing a renaissance. The Los Angeles-based group Wild Up's jubilant recording of his 1974 work Femenine is one of the most remarkable classical albums of the year. Ron Hammond hide caption
Composer Christopher Rouse, photographed in New York City in 2005. Jeffrey Herman/Boosey & Hawkes hide caption
Part of the cover art for Planetarium, the concept album by Nico Muhly, Sufjan Stevens, James McAlister and Bryce Dessner. Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Nico Muhly, Sufjan Stevens and Bryce Dessner talking with NPR Music's Bob Boilen Annabel Edwards/NPR hide caption
Clockwise from upper left: Frankie Cosmos, Feist, Rostam, Beth Ditto Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Sleater-Kinney (from left, Janet Weiss, Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker) will release new music as part of a series to benefit Planned Parenthood. Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for The New Yorker hide caption
Sufjan Stevens in the "Saturn" video. YouTube hide caption
As a teenager, composer Nico Muhly listened to Philip Glass' Music in 12 Parts as his New York soundtrack. Ana Cuba/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Nico Muhly's new holiday song is based on Longfellow's poem Snow-flakes. Matthew Murphy/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
In 27 Pieces: The Hilary Hahn Encores comes out Nov. 11. Michael Patrick O'Leary/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Nico Muhly. Samantha West/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Nico Muhly's new album, Seeing Is Believing, comes out June 21. Samantha West/Bedroom Community Records hide caption
Edwin Outwater leads the Kitchener Waterloo Symphony in fresh music from the 40 and under crowd. Kitchener Waterloo Symphony hide caption
Some of the folks we follow on Twitter. Anastasia Tsioulcas hide caption
One of our favorite albums so far this year is by violinist and composer Todd Reynolds. Mark Kingsley/Innova records hide caption
Composer Nico Muhly: "I'm positive I understand how augmented chords change an emotional texture because of Nintendo music." Samantha West/courtesy of the artist hide caption
Official White House portrait of Andrew Jackson. Wikimedia Commons hide caption
As a boy chorister, Nico Muhly was inspired by the melding of words and music by William Byrd. Samantha West hide caption