Locally produced radio show spotlights contemporary classical music

If you think classical music belongs only in concert halls or museums, composer Tyler Kline has a two-hour radio show that intends to prove otherwise.

On Dec. 7, Cincinnati-based broadcaster Tyler Kline launches “Living Classical with Tyler Kline,” a national program that gives listeners a front-row seat to the composers, singers, instrumentalists, conductors and music directors shaping classical music today. The two-hour show airs weekly online and on select public radio stations, spotlighting artists who are injecting fresh energy into the classical tradition.

“Living Classical” begins with a series of winter-themed specials before expanding into a full weekly schedule in early 2026.

“‘Living Classical’ is about showcasing the freshness of music being created today for the concert stage – music that continues the Western classical tradition while expanding what that boundary means,” said Kline, who began his radio career at the age of 18.

“By centering the stories of living composers, we remind people that this isn’t music as a museum,” he continued. “It’s music that’s alive with the same thoughts, feelings and experiences we all share.”

Built in Cincinnati, broadcast everywhere

While Kline wouldn’t call “Living Classical” a Cincinnati program, the city’s fingerprints are all over it. Kline produces and records the show in his home studio – a setup he said wouldn’t exist without the local creative environment.

“Cincinnati is very much the place where the work happens,” said Kline, who grew up about 110 miles south in Mount Sterling, Kentucky. “The city has given me the space and stability to build an independent creative practice. It’s the anchor point for the next phase of my career.”

Kline, 34, moved to Cincinnati five and a half years ago with his wife, composer Susanna Hancock. What he found, he said, was a small but unusually fluid music scene – a place where orchestras, indie bands and experimental artists share audiences and swap influence.

One night might mean the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra at Music Hall; the next, an experimental set in a bar. That range, he said, shaped both his ear and his outlook.

“There’s a real openness in that scene,” he added. “Being rooted in a city where people actively show up for creative work absolutely supports the kind of thinking and listening that shape what I do.”

A bigger stage – and a broader mission

Kline’s passion for music began as a performer and later a composer. His compositions, performed across the United States and abroad, lean into what he described as the “impermanence and sonic experimentation” – influences drawn partly from the Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi. Recent works include a Tokyo-commissioned string quartet and a solo piano meditation on nostalgia.

His love of music runs alongside an equally deep passion for broadcasting – a “parallel track,” he said, that has shaped his adult life.

Kline believes radio, or more recently podcasting, are going to be vital to long-term health and growth of the classical music genre. He described the medium as one of the few platforms where new classical music can reach broad audiences without gatekeeping.

“Through careful curation and thoughtful storytelling, we can highlight the overlooked composers who bring new depth, perspective and diversity to the field,” Kline said.

With “Living Classical,” Kline hopes to build on his previous national program, “Modern Notebook,” which ran from 2019 to 2025 and featured more than 1,000 living composers. More than half of those were women, nonbinary artists or composers of color – a deliberate push, he said, to expand whose voices the field centers.

He continues that work through his multimedia company, Loose Leaf Transmissions, and his long-form interview podcast, “music/Maker,” which has spotlighted various local and national artists, ranging from Grammy winners to Cincinnati artists, such as ceramicist Sinclaire Marie and filmmaker C. Jacqueline Wood.

“Living Classical” doesn’t focus on geography, but the show features Cincinnati creators when their work fits its mission, Kline said. A recent segment featured “The Force for Good” by Michael Fiday, a local composer and faculty member at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

Kline stressed that “Living Classical” will exist as an ongoing weekly program rather than a seasonal series, so there isn’t a defined “season” in the traditional sense. While not every program will feature someone from Cincinnati, each episode will reflect the energy in the city, Kline said.

Program details are available at livingclassicalradio.com.

“Being surrounded by such an active arts community has shaped my sense of creative possibility,” Kline said. “Even though the show isn’t Cincinnati-centered, the city is the environment that makes the work possible.”