NPR Music staffers Marissa Lorusso and Tom Huizenga give out superlatives for the best moments in music this past year, including a single breath of operatic singing and an epic guitar solo.Read More
A new book explores the relation between a few key figures in American classical music and U.S. foreign policy in the 20th century.Read More
For nearly 200 years, Beethoven's epic Ninth Symphony, with its powerful "Ode to Joy," has inspired millions. Now conductor Marin Alsop takes it on a world tour.Read More
One of classical music's most beloved and widely heard conductors died Saturday. Born in secret in Nazi-occupied Latvia, he went on to a stunning international career.Read More
They were a classical music hosts who helped make the genre approachable. Bob and Bill started at Northwest Public Radio delighting audiences with their humor and knowledge. Recently, Bob Christenson passed away. Bill Morelock remembers him. Read More
The classicly trained duo — whose real names are Kevin Sylvester and Wilner Baptist — formed Black Violin and found their unique sound mashing together Bach with Biggie Smalls.Read More
The insightful pianist offers a Beethoven bonanza, ranging from the mesmerizing pulse of the popular "Moonlight" Sonata to flashes of wry humor and tender beauty.Read More
Before any opera purists start wringing their hands, let's remember that the 400-year-old art form has proven itself terrifically adaptable and resilient.Read More
One of Mexico's most renowned classical composers, Ortiz's latest work was commissioned by Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic and inspired by Mexico's first liberator of slaves.Read More
What do Gertrude Stein, Billy Joel and Robert Burns have in common? Their words all show up in a new song by Pulitzer-winning composer Caroline Shaw. Read More
The British conductor, harpsichordist and scholar helped reignite interest in works by composers like Monteverdi — but he also championed new works and wrote notable film scores of his own.Read More
The past 10 years in classical music, which this episode of All Songs Considered explores, has been a roller coaster ride of high points and derailments. Hence the dramatic title, "A Decade of Reckoning."Read More
Ten years ago, Costanzo had surgery that threatened to destroy his singing voice. Now the countertenor is starring as a gender-fluid Egyptian pharaoh in a new production by the Metropolitan Opera.Read More
For more than twenty years, Imani Winds has inspired audiences and young musicians of all backgrounds with their energetic performances, outreach endeavors and adventurous programming. Anjuli Dodhia caught up with horn player/composer Jeff Scott and bassoonist Monica Ellis at an Imani Winds rehearsal. Read More
Norman was one of the leading African American opera figures in a time when there were fewer than now. The soprano won four Grammys and the National Medal of Arts.Read More
Conductor Marin Alsop and composer Nico Muhly recall their friend and colleague who wrote deeply expressive music.Read More
The creators of a new musical work called “Nuclear Dreams” highlight the dreams and nightmares of people who work and live near Hanford in Washington’s Tri-Cities. Read More
The battle between management and musicians, which reached a low point with a June lockout by management, ended Monday with the ratification of a new one-year contract.Read More
Early American composers could have shaken off their European sound and mined the rich trove of African American music. They didn't. And one historian believes we're worse off because of it.Read More
Watch a young cellist on the rise, offering music of virtuosity, sweet lyricism and a little fire from his Persian roots.Read More
The Black contralto put European art music and African-American spirituals in parity — and in her art, paved the way for generations of singers after her, both inside and outside classical music.Read More
John Williams is an honored film composer, but he began as an arranger. Williams is now arranging again, this time with the acclaimed violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter on the album Across the Stars.Read More
A trio of critics discuss the mercurial pianist's personal take on Beethoven and Rachmaninoff and what it means to color outside the lines in classical music.Read More
Augustin Hadelich dazzles in an album of odd bedfellows, which pairs Johannes Brahms' romantic war horse with György Ligeti's modernist stunner. Read More
Isata Kanneh-Mason, one of seven siblings in a British family bursting with promising music careers, showcases the long-overlooked music of Clara Schumann on her debut.Read More
The Metropolitan Opera suspended, and then fired, Levine after several men came forward with accusations that the conductor had sexually abused them.Read More
Don and Marianna Matteson visited the NWPB studios to dedicate the Don and Marianna Matteson Digital Music Library on July 2. You may have heard it announced on air, or […]Read More
Contract and salary negotiations between musicians and management have stalled, leaving BSO players picketing outside their concert hall.Read More
The financially embattled organization surprised its musicians, and its audience, by shortening its season and cutting the players pay and vacation, it announced Thursday.Read More
BBC music broadcaster Stephen Johnson's remarkably diverse aesthetic and personal sensitivity are on full display in his new book on the Russian composer's music — and his own personal struggles.Read More
Steve Inskeep speaks with superstar pianist Lang Lang about his new album, Piano Book, a reexamination of the classical music repertory he learned as child.Read More
The acclaimed Concertgebouw Orchestra issued a warmly worded statement Tuesday saying its disagreements with the conductor have been resolved by both parties.Read More
The young composer's opera, which debuted at the Los Angeles Opera, was inspired by her own experience as a survivor of sexual assault.Read More
Nézet-Séguin uses every part of his body when he conducts — including his eyes, eyebrows, shoulders and feet. He's the music director at New York's Metropolitan Opera and the Philadelphia Orchestra.Read More
On his new album titled c.1300-c.2000, the pianist begins with a medieval song by Machaut and ends with an étude by Philip Glass. Read More
Regretfully, the Brown-Bag Lunch with Suzanne Bona, host of Sunday Baroque, as scheduled for March 21 at the LCSC Center for Arts and History has been cancelled due to a […]Read More
Composer Austin Schlichting was raised in Bellingham and currently works as a music educator in Lacey. Last year, he partnered with the Olympia Symphony to write and premier a new piece celebrating the Orchestra's 65th Anniversary. His new work for the Olympia Symphony is Nisqually River Run: A Fanfare to the Pacific Northwest. Read More
To mark the sesquicentennial of the composer's death — and a new box set of recordings — Berlioz biographer David Cairns celebrates the one-time musical misfit from France. Read More
André Previn died Thursday morning in Manhattan. He was a composer of Oscar-winning film music, conductor, pianist and music director of major orchestras.Read More
How did Samuel Barber's stirring, lush work for strings — music that has become America's semi-official music of mourning — morph into a beloved and endlessly remixed dance floor anthem?Read More
The warm-voiced, and much admired, singer eschewed the glitzy life of an opera star to concentrate on the art of vocal communication. Read More
Yo-Yo Ma, the world's most famous living cellist, performed formally and informally in Mumbai this week, part of a long-term project to play Bach's six suites for cello in 36 places around the world.Read More
Founded by composer Giuseppe Verdi and funded by royalties from his popular operas, Casa Verdi in Milan opened a century ago as a home for opera musicians in their golden years.Read More
Baltimore Symphony music director Marin Alsop traces her discovery of the rollicking 75-minute symphony and the man behind the music.Read More
Composers of color have long had to compete with dead white men for space on the concert stage. A new project, spearheaded by Rachel Barton Pine, seeks to correct that for the next generation.Read More
‘Tis the season for all manner of festivities, from celebrations of the holidays at home to premieres of new works for the theatre. In fact, many productions enjoyed their first performances at this special time of year. Read More
Even in a studio, backed by a symphony orchestra as they survey their long career in pop music, these guys know how to work a room.Read More
Turn on your radio, pour a cup of tea, cozy up to a warm fire, and enjoy uplifting music, heartwarming stories and inspiring performances to celebrate the season. Here’s a list of special programs coming your way throughout the month of December.Read More
The celebrated young pianist Daniil Trifonov steals aboard a steam locomotive, chugging through the Rockies to the strains of Rachmaninov's Fourth Concerto.Read More
Sometimes it takes an outsider to see a culture clearly. Czech composer Antonin Dvorak's Ninth Symphony was an ode to what American music could become.Read More