For decades, rising composers, young composers working in aesthetics not yet embraced by the mainstream institutions of classical music—concert halls, symphony orchestras, universities—have had to find audiences by building and leading their own, brand new institutions. Paola Prestini has helped to build and lead VisionIntoArt, a multimedia performing arts collective, building bridges between the worlds of music, film, dance, theater, and poetry.

On Saturday, February 4 at 7:30 pm, Q2 Music and New Sounds Live present a live Webcast of the Ecstatic Music Festival’s kick-off concert, featuring Jherek Bischoff in collaboration with David Byrne, Deerhoof’s Greg Saunier, and Wordless Music Orchestra, among many others.

On Friday at 7:30 pm, enjoy a live Webcast of composer Michael Gordon's live scores to the silent films of acclaimed American filmmaker Bill Morrison.

Few composers personify New York's young new-music scene in quite the same way as Judd Greenstein. As a composer, he has been commissioned by the ETHEL string quartet and by the Minnesota Orchestra. New Amsterdam, the label he co-founded with composers Sarah Kirkland Snider and William Brittelle, serves as an umbrella for many of the city's most celebrated young composers and ensembles, including his own NOW Ensemble of new-music virtuosos. In 2011, he inaugurated the Ecstatic Music Festival, bringing together indie rock, jazz and classical music for a series of cross-genre concerts and collaborations.

Join us Thursday at 7 pm to hear host Nadia Sirota and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen trace the overlaps of Hungarian culture in works by Haydn, Bartók and Ligeti during last year's Magyar Magic, recorded live in The Greene Space.

With the attention Paul Moravec received after his Tempest Fantasy won the Pulitzer Prize for music, one might have hoped that this would have put to rest the tired dialectics suggesting that tonality and complexity.

On Wednesday, Feb. 1 at 7 pm in The Greene Space, Q2 Music presents a live concert and videocast with a star-studded lineup of composer-performers from this season's hotly-anticipated Ecstatic Music Festival 2012. Hosted by WQXR's Terrance McKnight, the show includes performances by composer-percussionist Jason Treuting, multi-instrumentalist Angélica Negron, and musical polymath Jherek Bischoff.

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On January 31, 2012 at 4 pm, Q2 Music celebrates the 75th birthday of iconic downtown composer Philip Glass with a premiere Webcast of his Symphony No. 9 with conductor Dennis Russell Davies and the Bruckner Orchestra Linz.

Tonight at 7:30 pm, Q2 Music and New Sounds Live present a live Webcast of Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson's visceral score to filmmaker Bill Morrison's silent film, "The Miners' Hymns."

Best to carve out an uninterrupted 70 minutes to listen to the complete Fred Lerdahl string quartets sequentially. Read on for why with Q2 Music's Album of the Week, and to snag a free selection this week only from Lerdahl's String Quartet No. 3.

Tonight at 7 pm in The Greene Space, composer Huang Ruo joins host David Garland for an evening of conversation and premiere performances from New York and China-based composers.

Born in Nanjing, composer, singer, and pipa player Min Xiao-fen has become a fixture on the new-music, jazz and Chinese traditional musical scenes. Collaborations with such artists as John Zorn, Christian Marclay, Randy Weston, DJ Spooky, and Derek Bailey attest to her relentlessly exploratory spirit and open-minded approach to improvisation and music-making.

It would difficult to overstate the importance of Chou Wen-chung when it comes to contemporary music. Not only has he developed over the course of his almost 90 years a shimmering, pointillistic yet lyrical style, but he edited and completed many of his teacher Edgard Varèse's works.

This Thursday, January 26 at 8:30 pm, ET, Q2 Music streams an eclectic set of chamber and vocal works from award-winning Chinese composer Huang Ruo, as recorded live on January 10 at Greenwich Village's (Le) Poisson Rouge.

Tianjin-born and California-native composer Lei Liang joins us from a studio in Rome to discuss his creative process, the importance of putting the weight of one's life into every sounding note, and the manner in which cultural identity manifests itself in his music.

As an active presence on the New York new-music scene, the young Shanghai-born composer Du Yun cuts a striking figure. From prestigious work with New York City Opera and The New Juilliard Ensemble to downtown, electronic experimentation with the International Contemporary Ensemble and schizoid balladry at Cornelia Street Cafe, Du Yun is a distinctive voice that will stretch well into the 21st century.